Lead from range bullets?

[BoolitBullet]

Looking for sources of cheap lead, I contacted my local firing range and asked if they would give/sell the fired bullets to me. They said the would at a cost of $.50 a pound. Is that a good price? What percent yield have you experienced from lead gained in this way? What BHN on average can I expect? Thanks.

[runfiveslittlegirl]

.50 isn't bad considering your alternatives.
you'll have dirt, jackets, and a few other things to consider in the yield but 80% wouldn't be too far off.
your bhn will probably be in the 8-10 area [depending on what's really in the mix] and you'll probably want to add a bit of tin.

[guncheese]

since im shooting 300 rounds or more a week now
my range mining has been increasingly my boolits
so ive been able to back off the WW in the alloy
but now they brought in some fresh sand on the berm and mining is all done for the year :(
if it wasnt for range lead i wouldnt be shooting near as much!

[btroj]

50 cents a pound isn't great but it isn't bad either.

Expect 12 to 14 BHn. I get 75 to 80 percent yield, mine is from an outdoor range.

Sometimes ya gotta do whatcha gotta do.

[uaskme]

It is a PIA to mine. 50 cents is not a bad deal at all. You can buy ingots for $1 so it is according to what your time is worth.

[frkelly74]

Do you have to dig it yourself? If they dig it for you It doesn't sound too terrible. Don't throw away the jacket material after you clean the lead (AKA smelting), sort it with a magnet to remove the steel and re-cycle the copper jackets. scrap yards will pay you for it in a lot of places. Members here might buy it if you can't sell to scrappers. Sometimes they are unduly picky about what they will take, they ARE scrappers for goodness sake.

[375RUGER]

It is a PIA to mine. 50 cents is not a bad deal at all. You can buy ingots for $1 so it is according to what your time is worth.

Maybe. I can gather enough in about 1hr to give me a final yield of 120#

I use range lead straight for pistol mostly, and I cut it with pure for some apps in rifle and some pistol.

[BoolitBullet]

Do you have to dig it yourself?
My source is an indoor range. I just tell then how much I want and when they clean out the traps, they set that amount aside for me. Unfortunately, the closest outdoor range to me is about an hours drive away. :(

[deltaenterprizes]

Watch out for live rounds!
Always start with a cold pot and a cover!
Been there done that!

[RugerFan]

From picking up range lead at several different outdoor ranges when I lived in GA, I found I got a fairly consistent 8-9 BHN. It cast and shot very well in low velocity pistol loads.

[cheetah]

Do an ebay sort of 'buy it now' and 'lowest price ' and you should be able to get clean ingots on your doorstep for $1.50 a pound. I assume that to be soft and add mined cast to up the hardness and do pretty good to 1300.

[millerwb]

If I had no other source for casting material, 50 cents a pound is good. You can make quite a few bullets from a pound. Figure 124 grains for a 9mm bullet. 7000 grains in a pound. About 56 bullets per pound if it is all lead. 80% yield would leave you at 45 bullets. Barely a penny a bullet. Good deal. Only thing better would be free.

[Garyshome]

Seems like a decent price to me.

[BoolitBullet]

Thanks you all for the great feedback. Since the ATM spits out money in $20 increments, I went ahead and ordered 40 lbs :) Also, since I have never casted a bullet in my life, I went ahead and ordered an ingot of Lyman #2 from Rotometals. That way when I am getting poor results, I know it is me and not a poor batch of lead. My plan is once I am good at pouring bullets for my 7mm rem mag using the Lyman #2, I will move on to recycling the range bullets to feed my 38 special.

[Old Scribe]

I have mined range bullets from an outdoor range at various times for casting RB's. A few years back I came across a LARGE quantity of soft lead and don't use range bullets anymore.
Now that I'm starting to cast for my centerfire pistols I maygo back and mine some more.

[Fordprefect]

I have only smelted range scrap once but as runfiveslittlegirl and btroj stated the yeild was about 75 percent. So out of my 30 pounds 22-23 pounds lead and 7-8 pounds copper.

One thing to keep in mind is the cost you can recover in the copper. The scrap metal recycler in my area offered a dollar a pound for the copper jackets. So find out what you can get for copper jackets in your area and factor that into the per pound price of lead.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

indoor range lead should be a deal at 50¢
should be Lead, copper, and steel.
use a magnet for the steel after it's smelted,
get the copper as clean as possible, a scrapper will usually pay #2 price.
I've sold copper jackets for 90¢ per lb after smelting some range lead.
good Luck,
Jon

[wb_carpenter]

I can regularly find lead in the classified sections for around $1 per pound already smelted and in ingot form. I wouldn't pay 50c a pound for scrap that I have to deal with(until I get desperate).

[inspector_17]

look up jetsfan-24. He sells range lead $1 lb shipped.

[armexman]

If you are mining from an outdoor range; pick-up only cast boolits! This way you can end up with 12-14 BHN lead. I mined my clubs pistol berm and got over 20 pounds of 14BHN which I changed into 17-18 with antimony rich ingots from RTOMTLS and some little tin. try doing this after a rain storm.

[Eric H]

My boys and I usaly pick up a small bucketfull every time we go to the range. Takes about 30 minuts and we get about 35 pounds. When I get two or three five gallon bucket fulls. I start rendering to aloy. Free lead and the number to copper price I got from the scrap yard was 2.70 a LB. I had 40 LB. s I know it might seem like alot of hassle to some. But my wife ,boys, and I enjoy all aspects of it and we always come out on top with the money spent to.

[milprileb]

Moisture in such range scrap is a issue. Be sure to have all precautions
when you smelt that stuff and salvage the lead. For those that might not
know the reason this is a issue: explosions and lead / molten metal flying
360 degrees.

[Shiloh]

I mine the berm and use it all the time