Jackpot!!!

[websterz]

Tonight I secured exclusive permission to mine scrap from a range that has seen heavy use for at least four decades. The landowner wants the berm leveled as it is no longer being used and needs the soil for filing in low spots in an adjacent area. My partners and I can dig with no worries about damaging the berm, unlike the careful picking we have to do at our current range. There are tons of lead there to be had. I can't wait to get started!!!

[fivel_976]

Lots of help here

[Catshooter]

That is a score for sure.

Welcome to the forum the both of you.


Cat

[captaint]

Alrighty then. Range lead for sale - you know - cheap !!! Just kidding..

[websterz]

After we finish moving a couple hundred tons of dirt we will probably be willing to take $20 a pound. That's for raw scrap of course, you'll have to smelt it yourself at that price. LOL

[Wayne Smith]

Do you guys have access to heavy equipment? Or are you planning to do this by hand? At least a tractor and bucket would seem really handy to have.

[dakotashooter2]

Congrats................ I just nailed down a small source yesterday.. I had done a house inspection a few years back after a guy passed away. He was a toy caster. At the time no one really knew what was going to happen to the property. Apparently the estate was finally settled and a guy I know got possession of the property. They are cleaning the place out and already hauled some of the lead out but he said there is still a lot there and it's mine.

[Garyshome]

I need something like that real bad!

[websterz]

We're going to be doing it the old fashioned way, shovels and a homemade sifting rig. We have all the time in the world and no competition. Once we get past the first foot or so the lead will start to play out, then we'll bring in a backhoe to raze the rest of the berm. That's a couple years down the road though.

[Love Life]

I found hardware screen nailed/stapled to 2X4's did an excellent job of sifting dirt and rocks from range scrap. I didn't worry too much about the pebbles because they come out during smelting. After doing a couple hundred lbs of range lead, I decided I hated digging, sifting, and smelting and just started buying smelted ingots. My hands and back are happier about it plus I'm dollars ahead in saved time, fuel, propane, cleaning, etc.

[covert]

I recovered 80 lbs from redoing the plumbing in my house

[Teddo]

A while back my shooting buddy made and installed a X-ray room for a company that he worked for that among other things x rayed aircraft parts. After a year or so the EPA on a inspection found lead shavings in the drain and fined them big bucks and they got scared and had it removed by who else but my buddy. Most of it found its way to my place, about 2000 lbs of 99.9 pure lead. I'm good to go for about a life time. Now if I could only find some cheap tin.....Teddo

[websterz]

Well we started work on the old range berm today. We got about a third of the grass and scrub cleared off with a series of small controlled burns. Not only does it clear the vegetation it also kills off all the creepy crawlies! We did a little test digging and sifting to see where we wanted to start and found out that there is a lot of clay in the soil. That results in a lot of hard clods and not very good sifting. So we are building a sifting ball mill of sorts out of a 55 gallon drum. We'll toss in a collection of scrap iron to pulverize the clods so that the dirt can fall through the screens leaving the lead behind. We found almost no rocks today, just lots and lots of lead! Even on the back side of the berm the surface is dotted with thousands of bullets. It's almost like they used to shoot into the other side of it. Weird. Anyway just cherry picking we came out with about 40 pounds of range scrap. We plan to work a couple Saturdays a month with the equipment and I will cherry pick on my free mornings after I drop my daughter at school. There's a lifetime supply of lead there, we just have to move a lot of dirt to claim it!

[Rafsob]

My club just did our ranges and pulled out maybe about 30 tons of lead. Expect to come away with a lot of lead my friend!!!