Seperating range lead???

[Salmon-boy]

I've got a quantity of range lead to be melted down.. Does anyone separate the jacketed from cast before melting??

I did run a test batch.. Culled out the cast boolits that were not deformed (.45s, .38s - larger sizes) and melted them down into ingots. The Lee Hardness kit says they're about 14.3 BH.

The first batch that I just melted unseparated came out to be about 11BH..

Based on that info, I think I'm gonna go ahead and cull out the harder boolits and keep the alloys unmixed until I need them that way!

[btroj]

I just melt them all together. In the end I don't think it matters and it takes way too long to sort thru a 5 gallon bucket of bullets.
I have been using a bunch of range scrap lately, it works quite well for most shooting.

[zomby woof]

Sorting is way too much work. I cook em up and skim the jackets.

[grullaguy]

It is a matter of personal choice.

If you have the time, go ahead and sort them.
I do small batches at a time and sort as best I can. It all adds up.
I only use "free range" scrap as my lead source, so if I don't sort I can't get hard alloys for my rifles and pistols or near pure lead (jacketed) for my black powder guns.

I have yet to pay for lead, maybe someday?
Nah.

My lead is healthier because it is free range...:kidding:

[Kskybroom]

I sort them out

[gbrown]

I have never seperated range lead. I'm not saying it is a bad idea. It's just how you choose to do it. I agree with btroj and zomby woof. After the melt gets hot, carefully skim jackets and junk off and sell it to the scrap yard (if there is enough to merit that).

[handyman25]

I seperate. Not that much work. I do it while the wife and I are watch tv, I can do it mostly by feel now.

[Salmon-boy]

Since I cast for multiple calibers with differing needs of hardness, it behoves me to separate them out. I was just wondering if I was the only one..

I find that there's really no big loss of time when filling up the melter. Jacketed and hard cast are pretty quick to hand sort, and like Handyman mentioned - multitasking works for me..

[Jim]

In my mining operation, I smelt anywhere from 50 to maybe 150 pounds a day. I skim the jackets, run a 250 lb. magnet over them to clean out the steel and then wash the copper jackets in an electric cement mixer turned tumbler/washer. I make more money selling the copper jackets to the recycler than I do selling the ingotized lead here on the forum.

[grullaguy]

In my mining operation, I smelt anywhere from 50 to maybe 150 pounds a day. I skim the jackets, run a 250 lb. magnet over them to clean out the steel and then wash the copper jackets in an electric cement mixer turned tumbler/washer. I make more money selling the copper jackets to the recycler than I do selling the ingotized lead here on the forum.

Great tip on cleaning the jackets!

Cleaning the jackets has been my least favorite job, but they are certainly worth taking to the recycler. Thanks again.

[MikeAlphaBaker]

In my mining operation, I smelt anywhere from 50 to maybe 150 pounds a day. I skim the jackets, run a 250 lb. magnet over them to clean out the steel and then wash the copper jackets in an electric cement mixer turned tumbler/washer. I make more money selling the copper jackets to the recycler than I do selling the ingotized lead here on the forum.


Do you add anything to the water like dish soap or lemi shine?

[WILCO]

In my mining operation.....

Jim,

Are you hiring? :kidding:

[Frank]

Just put them in the pot and cast away. But make sure you water drop. What you have will be indicated by how much your bullets weigh. What you'll probably end up with is the best alloy for hunting with low Sb, and good hardness for accuracy. If you need even more accuracy for target, then you can remelt them and add more Sb. Bullet weight will come down to where the alloy matches the specified mold weight for a given alloy and you can adjust from there.

[Jim]

Do you add anything to the water like dish soap or lemi shine?

The cement mixer has holes in it covered with 1/4" hardware cloth. I set it to turning and wet the jackets. I throw in a shovel full of clean sand and let 'em tumble about ten minutes. I wash 'em down real good with a garden hose and they come out lookin' purdy.

http://floydpics.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/admin-ajax-e1334531731950.jpg

[Pb Burner]

Wow, I thought I was the only one anal enough to do this! I wasn't going to admit it in public.
But since I'm in this meeting.....

Hello, I'm Burner, and I sort my range lead....

I'm just getting started and am still getting together the eqiupment I need to smelt and cast. So I've got some time and figure it might give me so options regarding hardness later on. I sort cast from jacketed and any boolits thst look like they came from a muzzleloader(or shotgun slugs) gets the fingernail scratch test. Some are very soft and some are very hard.
I'm sure if I had 100's of lbs a day I wouldn't sort it!
Burner

[Jim]

Wow, I thought I was the only one anal enough to do this! I wasn't going to admit it in public.
But since I'm in this meeting.....

Hello, I'm Burner, and I sort my range lead....

I'm just getting started and am still getting together the eqiupment I need to smelt and cast. So I've got some time and figure it might give me so options regarding hardness later on. I sort cast from jacketed and any boolits thst look like they came from a muzzleloader(or shotgun slugs) gets the fingernail scratch test. Some are very soft and some are very hard.

I'm sure if I had 100's of lbs a day I wouldn't sort it! Burner

Yeah, especially if you're two states from home and trying to eek out a living doing this. It takes enough time as it is trying to sort out the pieces of clay pidgeon, shotgun wads and misc. trash in the soil. Once I get the bullets and boolits isolated and washed, they all go in the smelter and get cooked down into one blend.

This is NOT the 'get rich quick' money maker a lot of people think it is. It's danged hard work for somebody that's retired with arthritis in the knees and elbows. But, I have my wife's blessing and support, so I try my best to keep on keepin' on.

[Harter66]

I sort . Depending on my mood and time limits and what I think I have, as many as 5 buckets. Over time. I've massed up 500# of about WW,100# of lino class,150# of pure class,and 500#plus in lead that will A/C to less than 10bhn and W/Q to about 15 bhn .

By class I mean it meets my pencil test and fracture/expantion needs/requirements based on info from this board and what its supposed to do.

I've a 5gallon bucket of jackets now reduced to "mill chips" hopefully the scrapper will take them tis time.

[Salmon-boy]

Burner, Welcome to the group.. :-D

Jim, Wow! You're correct. It IS work. I'm getting back in shape from my desk job!

[cf_coder]

I'll raise my hand and join the "Sorters Anonymous" group. The last batch of cast range scrap that I melted down was definitely harder than the standard jacketed stuff. I don't have a hardness tester, but based on the grain pattern of the ingot, I would say that it was easily harder than straight wheel weights. I really need to get a hardness tester, and I need to find a "friend" that has access to an x-ray diffraction machine so I can figure out what some of my mystery estate alloy is... LOL.

[1845greyhounds]

I would sort, but 95% of my range scrap is jacketed. It's not worth the effort...

[DukeInFlorida]

Salmon Boy, when I was working a similar pile (from the Farmington PD), I didn't sort. I added whatever I needed at the casting pot, to get the hardness where I needed it. Much faster to do it that way, and most of the time I am blending at the casting pot anyways.

How's the mining on that pile going???

[evan price]

If you have the time to sort and enjoy it, knock your socks off.
Mine all goes in a big pot and I pour 75# lots. Winds up being BHN 12 or so when I cast my boolits, perfect for what I need, and consistent lot-to-lot. I'd say I get 20% I consider harder alloy, cast boolits, shotgun slugs, etc. I have to hand pick in my clay soil here so I try to lookout for loob grooves when I'm fingering the berm.

[cavalrymedic]

Jim has a very well thought out operation going. ANd he is dead on about it being hard work. Getting the lead out of the burm is nearly exhausting, but carrying 125 pound buckets back to the truck is almost too much.

After I was the reclaimed on a sifter table (an idea I got from here) I put them all into the smelter, fire it up, cover it to try and avoid tinsel in my face, then wait for them to all melt.

The problem is many, if not most of them are jacketed with an open base. That base gets clogged up with dirt which through the incredible long time that they have been there has turned into a sort of cement that keeps the molten lead trapped inside the jackets. So I stir vigorously, then, and this is WAY DANGEROUS, so use goggles, sleeves, etc, I gently start slapping the jackets that are piled up on top of the melt. Then I stir which brings more up from the bottom. I repeat this until I feel that I have freed all of the entrapped lead. I have never splashed any lead this way; however, a few jackets do go flying and they are still VERY hot.

I'm continuing to try and find ways to speed up the smelting.

Ken

[WVHunter129]

I have gotten 4-5 gallon buckets of indoor range lead and I just put it in a cast iron pot smelt down and pour into 2lb muffin ingots. So far I have a little over 350 lbs of ingots. I used my LEE Hardness Tester on a few ingots and got from a 10 to 13 BHN.

Sent from my SGH-i677 using Board Express

[Salmon-boy]

Duke - The clay is a bear to get clean - takes ALOT of water moving.. I've been working too much, but I've actually dented the pile.. Got about 7 gallons sorted now.

If I didn't have a specific use in mind for the jacketed and soft stuff, there's no way in h e double-hockeysticks I'd think about doing this..

[SlowSmokeN]

On a side note, today I took the jackets to my local scrap yard and they paid me $1.95 a pound for them. I was unsure if they would buy them but thought it was worth the shot. Especially since they still had a little lead on them.

If you are not saving the jackets you may want to give it a try. could be worth it.

[1845greyhounds]

If separating the bullets from their residual dirt, before melting, is important to you, then try this. Run them in a cement mixer full of water for about 10 minutes. You'll have to drain the muddy water and refill once or twice, but your bullets will be considerably cleaner. When it comes time to melt, take the standard precautions to avoid any stray water in your pot. This process works for my clay coated range scrap.

[Jim]

My washer/tumbler

http://floydpics.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/dscn0495-e1332439952546.jpg

Bullets and boolits washing/tumbling.

http://floydpics.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/wash.jpg

Washed 'ore' ready for smelter

http://floydpics.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/dscn0451-e1334790174258.jpg

[jetsfan-24]

i use an old wire milk crate with 1/4 mesh wired to the inside of it and use a high pressure washer on my range lead then let them dry for a few weeks

[evan price]

I put the range lead in a lidded kitty litter bucket, fill about half full. Then fill 3/4 full with hose water and a couple drops of cheap dish detergent. Strap it in the bed of my truck and then proceed to drive truck normally for a few days. Dump it out and let the lead dry before smelting, or, fill the entire pot with wet lead cold, and bring it up to temp with a lid on it for an hour or so to steam out the water.

[bobthenailer]

Yes i seperate the jacketed bullets from the lead bullets , I also wash each 20 lb batch in a loroten QT12 tumbler for about 10 min with water and rinse & dry .
I currently have about 500 lbs of range lead to smelt with 70 lbs of it being jacketed .
I use the range lead as is and harden the recovered pb from the jacketed bullets . as i have alot of lino, foundry type, bearing babbit & body solder lying aroud , probley more than ill ever use aroud 500 lbs of sweetener

[Bigslug]

I recently came into about 300 pounds of backstop scrapings, mostly non-jacketed, but had some inevitable copper. The solution Pop and I arrived at was to cook them all down in a Buffalo Arms cast iron pot over a big propane camp burner. (It's simply AMAZING how much lead you can melt with a five gallon propane tank.)

Anyway, all the sand, bits of crud, and jackets floated to the top. We lost the FMJ bullets that had some kind of metal cap over the back end, which was unfortunate, because they were mostly 230 grain .45ACP slugs (lotta lead going to waste:() The big stuff we skimmed off first with one of those kitchen "spiders" used for taking fried foods out of the cooking oil. The trick to this was to keep jiggling the spider as you lift it out of the molten stuff so that you don't lose too much lead with the cast-offs. A bent spoon was our answer for the little stuff.

We poured the lead out into 4"x1/2" "hockey pucks", courtesy of a used 24 cavity pan from the local industrial kitchen supply store. We figure any remaining impurities will get skimmed off when we melt again for final casting.

[AndyC]

Too much hassle to separate - I melt it all down and skim the copper jackets off the top with a big slotted spoon.

[tomme boy]

Jim, are you throwing the dirt and everything in there, or just the bullets? That looks like it would chew up the hard dirt vert well.

How is it tumbled? Electric motor? Gas engine? How about some more pics?