Lead mining...

[Bucks Owin]

Here's a look at what lengths a dedicated "leadhead" goes to in search of the silver gold....

A 5 gal pail of reclaimed range boolits being sorted out.
"Lead on the left, J-boolit on the right, curios in the coffee can".... :roll:

Good way to "sunbathe" I guess...

Dennis

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a356/BucksOwin/Bulle002.jpg

[357maximum]

I do not know about yall, but I personally love the chair. You make that yourself?

[Dale53]

Over the years I have melted down a good bit of range scrap. We have even used a wood fire (in a fifty gallon barrel with a large iron pot suspended over the top of the barre) with excellent results. We did this outside our indoor range and melted hundreds of pounds and poured them into ingots.

As I suspect you have already discovered, sometimes jacketed bullets retain moisture between the jacket and core. You can successfully melt them down, skimming off the jackets but you need to put a steel cover loosely over the pot to stop the potential steam explosion from spraying the area. I don't necessarily recommend this, but it has worked for me. Of course, you MUST wait a sufficient time for everything to have melted before removing the cover.

Be careful, folks, Murphy is always waiting...

Dale53

[Bucks Owin]

I do not know about yall, but I personally love the chair. You make that yourself?

Thanks amigo. Yeah, that's a "chainsaw chair", takes about 10 minutes to whittle out with a saw. If we're ever in camp together, I'll make ya one! ;)

Dennis

[Bent Ramrod]

Hey, why not? Lead, as they say, is where you find it.

I've found that .45 hardball, sequestered from the rest of the range scrap, is a very consistent alloy. Likewise .22 rimfire bullets.

I sieve or pick out these two elements for revolver bullets and black/powder/low velocity rifle bullets and cast the linotype/commercial cast/commercial jacketed/wheelweight/etc stuff for gas checked higher velocity bullets.

Besides, you're saving the environment from all that toxic lead:neutral: .

[HiWayMan]

At my range 20 minutes work behind the target stands typically yields me 50lbs. of unproccessed scrap. My best find was a clump of .45 Speer Gold Dots the size of a softball. Accurate shooters are your friend when it comes to mining. I visit the backstops after each rain and after each police qualification course. The police provide me with lots of 1oz. slugs about 10" deep.:mrgreen:

[Bucks Owin]

At my range 20 minutes work behind the target stands typically yields me 50lbs. of unproccessed scrap. My best find was a clump of .45 Speer Gold Dots the size of a softball. Accurate shooters are your friend when it comes to mining. I visit the backstops after each rain and after each police qualification course. The police provide me with lots of 1oz. slugs about 10" deep.:mrgreen:

I know what you mean! Someone at the range I got the scrap from shoots a cast boolit in his .45 Auto and shoots 'em pretty accurately. I got a big ol' wad of lead from THAT guy... ;)

Dennis

[imashooter2]

Huh! All the ranges around here specifically ban berm mining.

[RayinNH]

Yeah, we're not allowed to dig either but picking on the surface after a good rain is fair game...Ray

[Bucks Owin]

Does somebody already have "dibs" on them or what? Heck, you're cleaning up the environment from a toxic substance for Pete's sake! :roll:

WHERE ARE THE ENVIROWACKOS ON THIS I WANNA KNOW?!? :mrgreen:

Go figure,

Dennis

[RayinNH]

Dennis, I think the problem is if you allow digging, then the club has to get in equipment to repile the dirt berm back up...Ray

[imashooter2]

Dennis, I think the problem is if you allow digging, then the club has to get in equipment to repile the dirt berm back up...Ray

That's the sentiment around here too.

[Bigjohn]

:mrgreen: I guess I must be one of the luckiest shooters on this forum.:mrgreen: My range doesn't like members digging the lead out of the backstop but when most of eventually ends up on the floor of the range just waiting to be scooped up and sorted; you don't have to dig.:-D Or you just walk along and pick them out of the wall with your fingers just like in the supermarket.[smilie=1:

And every now and again the local Police and Security Agent attend and leave all their lovely once fired brass and shotgun slugs. Don't you just love 'em.

Our backstop is the end wall of a limestone quarry and anything that goes into it eventually works its way back out and is partially sorted by the rain showers. The only thing the club asks is that you pile the rubble up at the base of the wall which is easy to do.[smilie=1:

Most of what I recover is wheelweight hardness or better, mainly due to the fact that most of the shooting is based on high velocity handguns using cast projectiles. When processed in a large enough quanity, it is hard enough for my loads in the .357" or .303" rifle.:Fire:

John.:castmine: