Panning for Lead ie Berm Mining

[Jon]

I went to the range yesterday in the hopes of getting some lead from the berm. Unfortunately the soil was very soupy since it had been raining. I skimmed off the top of the soil where the lead seemed the most plentiful and took a bucket full home to mess with.

After trying to wash away the sand for an hour or so with a garden hose, it didn't seem like a good method. I think someone mentioned putting a screen at the bottom of a bucket. I think I'll try that next. It looks like there is plenty of lead there, it's just a little hard to seperate from the rocks, sand, and plywood pieces.

[Gunslinger]

I don't know how you dug it out, but I did it by hand, ONCE! I later build a screen. At our pistol beam it takes me about 3 hours to dig out 150lbs. At first it also hosed it down, but that is rather time-consuming, and pretty messy. I started a thread in here asking whether it really is neccessary to clean off all the rocks, sand etc. It seems it isn't neccessary, since everthing non-lead will just float to the surface and skim off easily.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=40700

[Shiloh]

Mining the berm is a lot less messy and time consuming when dry for several days or a week.
That is when it is most productive. When damp, you can still get metal but will also get dirt clods that stick together rather than breaking up and passing through the screen. When damp or wet, each shovelful is that much heavier and fatigue set in even more fast.

It is a good source of lead but a heck of a lot of work.

Shiloh :castmine:

[targetshootr]

I pick up by hand a few more than I shoot on each trip so my net loss is zero.

[Freightman]

If it hasn't rained for two months (which it hasn't) takes about 30 min to fill a five gallon bucket and dress down the front of the berm. When wet (which is rarely) takes a lot longer. I use a two gal bucket to fill the five as I just barely can lift the two, then have to slide down a ramp when I get it home. I put them in a weather proof shed for a year or so and then smelt. that way no danger of water.

[Russel Nash]

I have read a few of these berm mining threads before and replied in them as well.

So I have gathered a tip or two here and there.

I think my next trip out to the range will be after a dry spell, and hopefully this time of year the ground wont be frozen.

I will probably buy a very cheap "transfer" shovel, cut a big hole in it and then cover that with 1/4 inch hardware cloth.

I will probably keep bringing a garden rake or a hoe along to break up the bigger dirt clods.

Then my screen box, I think I will make that longer, at least 4 feet long and put some legs on one end of it, so it is sloped.

Kinda dig into the berm with the new combo sifter shovel, dump the contents onto the top of the new sloped screen, and let gravity further sift out the miscellaneous from the lead pro-jo's.

I still like my idea of taking a partially filled with lead and dirt 5 gallon bucket to the car wash and hosing and swirling the bullets and dirt around with the high pressure wand.

Then I dump them on the screen one more time just to get most of the water out of there.

when it comes to smelt them, I just stick them in my cool cast iron dutch oven, put the lid on, fire up the turkey fryer and then walk away.

whatever water is left on the recovered bullets basically gets turned into steam (at 212 degrees fahrenheit) and baked off well before the lead even begins to melt (oh, say about 650 degrees).

after about 10 minutes, I take the lid off and skim off all the crap and then throw in a piece of wax from a candle, stand back, POOF! and then stir, then skim off some more.

then I will pour ingots.

when the dutch oven is about empty, then I just let it cool, and then start over by dumping damp/wet recovered bullets back in once it looks safe.

[jonk]

Unfortunately our range was made out of a mix of clay, dirt, and shale, so there is a lot of loss to stones and such. I usually will just take a bucket of dirt home, dump in an old salvaged washing machine drum with a few more holes added with a hammer, and blast it with the pressure washer. That forces all the clay and dirt out. I then dump what's left in a smelting pot (COLD) and turn the weed burner on it. Wet stuff is not a problem so long as it is heated from cold.

I usually get about 15 pounds of lead from a 5 gallon bucket of dirt/lead/stones. I return with a bucket of dirt from my back yard to replace what I took.

[44man]

I have a lead magnet for sale---it is one meeelion dollars! :bigsmyl2::bigsmyl2:

[Jon]

I have a lead magnet for sale---it is one meeelion dollars! :bigsmyl2::bigsmyl2:

Wouldn't that be nice :-)

[Gunfreak25]

Wow, it never rains here. When i'm done shooting I walk down to the backstop and lead is everywhere in sight. In 10 minutes I picked up atleast 5 pounds of lead.

[GLOCKENNBOOMER]

I used a little military shovel and an old fryer basket as a sifter......scoop..sift...dump in bucket....repeat until I get it about half full...If the bucket was totally full you would have a lot of problems trying to lift it up.

[beagle]

I've often thought about one of the rockers that gold placer miners use. Any comments on anyone who has used one?/beagle

[MT Gianni]

I heard of a man this summer that had his son and a laborer working for skeet ranges removing lead. In some areas this must be done annually as part of their lease. They used a bobcat to remove the top 4" and screened the rest into bins with a angled down separator plate? [this was all 3rd hand info] The club got 40% of the shot and reused it as found, the business owner got the rest and sold it. Word was he may have to charge a fee if lead prices drop, in most cases he sold the shot back to the clubs at 50% new retail. Gianni

[jhalcott]

You guys are lucky! We are NOT allowed to mine the berms at my club. It is considered damaging the property. They spray some thing on the berms that's supposed to keep the lead from leeching into the ground water. Every few years they have a company come in and do the mining for a share of the profits. I THINK the spray is some kind of lime solution, whether it works I can't say.

[44man]

The berms at my club are mostly rock and gravel. Not many boolits to be found. Lead dust! :neutral:

[turbo1889]

Up in my neck of the woods the best lead mining expedition is in the tail end of the spring snow melt -- during winter the berm at the pistol range gets packed in with a whole lot of snow drifts and pretty soon the snow is stopping the bullets and not the berm. Come spring when it melts down to only about six inches of half slush and half lead you take a big old wide grain scoop type shovel and a wheel borrow out there and scoop up all the slush and the hundreds of pounds of bullet lead. You fill up the back of the old pickup truck with that gunky mix and drive it home and park it out back under the run off from the barn roof. Then you forget about it for a couple months and after the spring rains you have the whole back of the pickup truck covered with about a four inch layer of bullets, all nice like washed river bottom pee gravel.

Darndest thing is I cant figure out why the grass don't grow on that side of the barn anymore. :twisted:

[Echo]

I asked about mining our berm, and was told, basically, NO. County land, and safety, &cetera, means breathing apparatus and permits, so no joy.

[GLOCKENNBOOMER]

I don't ask...I just do. I get it at the bottom and when I sift I sift over the shovel marks....Never go into the actual berm unless it's just laying on the surface..I just do it when there is noone around. If you got an indoor range that may be a good source. They may be happy for someone to come along and clean it up/

[cohutt]

Bermining is hell.

I've done a couple of modest digs and when all was said and done I've recovered maybe 350-400 lbs of combo fmj/hardcast lead. Once it was too dry (Georgia clay is like concrete) and once it was too wet- had to set up a sluice box to separate the ore from the clay and rocks.


If we had sandier soil here I would be more eager to try again.

[TAWILDCATT]

the best is indoor range lead.I ran the reloading room at our club and one of the perks was we cleaned the lead out of back stop.we had an old furnace ash sifter
and turned the crank over a 30 gallon steel trash barrel.the last time they cleaned the back stop they got 26,000(13tons) of lead.
the only way you get lead poisoning is by not washing your hands.and lead does not leach into the ground.that has been tested.the lead seals it self.
If you dont smoke and eat and you wash your hand you won't get poisoned.
I ain't and I have cast for 70 yrs,Im' 84.:coffee:[smilie=1:

[GLOCKENNBOOMER]

http://www.glockpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1388

Cohutt is the official "leadwhore" on GlockPost.com. We have red clay here and it is dirty dirty work. The most I have is a five gallon bucket full, but you know what when I look at that bucket I've got I don't think about the work....

[lunicy]

A million dollars for a lead magnet. What if we get a group buy together?

[lunicy]

My range is pretty sandy. That plastic colander thing that comes from dillon works great.

[shooter2]

A number of years ago the Skeet/trap range I shot at had a huge pile they skimmed off. They use a small, portable cement mixed and simply kept it turning while running water and tipping it ocassionally to get the debris out. No, it did not seem to damage the shot. As I recall, a gallon jug was about 25# and they sold it for about 1/4 the cost of new. It worked fine and came out surpisingly clean.

[JIMinPHX]

Wow, it never rains here. When i'm done shooting I walk down to the backstop and lead is everywhere in sight. In 10 minutes I picked up atleast 5 pounds of lead.

Really? Where do you shoot? Ben Avery doesn't want people mining the berms & I only find occasional slugs at the more heavily used BLM shooting areas. I'm lucky if I find a pound in an hour there.

[Leadforbrains]

Ive done some berm mining. It is work, but I find it fun to get out and do it. I have got around 400 lbs or so smelted and put up so far. I am using it to mix with my wheel weight ingots for casting my boolits.

[Jon]

Someone suggested using some 1/4" HW cloth in the bottom of a 5 gal bucket. That seems to work fairly well. I pulled out about 75 lbs in an hour or so at the pistol range berm. Someone beat me to all the good stuff on the top though. I later found out who it was, and he's the gun club scrounge. I think he's semi-retired so it's pretty hard to beat a guy that can get out there when he wants to. :roll:

There's still plenty there, and I'll probably go back and fill up the rest of my buckets as I have time. Now to get a turkey burner and a cast iron pot. The Lee 10lb pot is waaaaaay too slow for my liking in processing lead. It's ok for melting ingots to cast bullets, but for range lead processing, it's painful. :drinks:

[cohutt]

i set up a sluice box on my second attempt. recirculated water over the caked lead nuggets until everything was washed off, then repeated with a new shovelfull over and over until done.

the design was found on a hobby gold mining web site.

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m284/cohutt/bermining%202/misc009.jpg

[MT Gianni]

Has anyone with their private range considered a ton bale of straw as a backstop? They are almost a giveaway item in late spring and early summer. I think almost all of the bullets shot would be stopped inside and when it was time to replace it because it was rotten, cut the ties, and scatter it a bit bullets should all go to the bottom in a week then it could be hauled off and burned or spread.

[targetshootr]

Our range doesn't allow mining the berm but so far they have no problem if we pick them up by hand. I say "so far" because of the large number of busybodies who make the rules which change from month to month. Someone in central NC could make a fortune if they opened an outdoor range and ran it properly.

[BowHunter252]

Our range doesn't allow mining the berm but so far they have no problem if we pick them up by hand. I say "so far" because of the large number of busybodies who make the rules which change from month to month. Someone in central NC could make a fortune if they opened an outdoor range and ran it properly.

I am in central NC. Which range are you talking about?

[Nora]

It won't have any effect with a dirt berm, but if it is a club setting, you may want to suggest they use recycled tire blocks. A conservation club I use to belong to had 2 large walls of them about 6 ft high each for the hand gun back stops. After a couple of years they became so over burdened they fell over. It was like a huge piñata of lead had broke open and lay there in a huge mound ready for collection.

[rondog]

Jeez guys, as if I don't have enough of a problem as a brass *****, now you're gonna get me to diggin in the berms at the club range? Don't temp me like this, I'm FAR too susceptible to suggestions!

[Ancesthntr]

Jeez guys, as if I don't have enough of a problem as a brass *****, now you're gonna get me to diggin in the berms at the club range?

I hear you - but when you think about it, getting lead this way is a lot easier than going to tire stores and junk yards. Usually the bullet lead is already somewhat harder than pure, so there's not much you have to do except clean it.

Oh, and a client of mine runs a range...I think that I'll have to ask about that or, if they already recycle it, if I can buy some of the lead from them (which I know they'll sell to me for a nominal price.

[clintsfolly]

a Buddy and i mined a club indoor smallbore range yesterday and got 9 5gal pails full of lead!! most was good clean globs took 3 1/2 hrs to get and clean up after best part was FREE an we got to get together and have fun clint:castmine: