Range lead question

[milprileb]

I picked up 100 pounds of range lead. My question is does this present some difficulties for use ?

I know I must smelt and flux and skim off impurities. I got saw dust ready for this.

I am concerned that this lead might need some other treatment to make it good to go for casting. I intend to cut it 50 50 with wheel weights and shoot in 45acp.

[lwknight]

Range scrap can have moisture in it and especiallt if its mined outdoors. Just put it in a cold pot with a lid on it and light the fire. Moisture will boil off long before it melts.
Range scrap can be anything but generally pretty much pure lead.

[nascarkent]

Depends whats in the bucket. Is it mostly 22 or jacketed bullets? If it is then that will be soft lead. If it mostly cast boolits it will already be alloyed pretty close to what your looking for.

[mroliver77]

I have some range scrap from an indoor range. It looks to be mostly jacketed. It is plenty hard for .38 special boolits and water dropping does harden it a couple points.
nckent is spot on.
J

[Gtek]

If all lead (NO COPPER JACKETS) I melt, clean and cast ingots. Get molds out and drop ten or so from mold on each pot keeping batches seperated. Does not need to be pretty, but gives you a real one to scratch, smash or run through tester. Also lets you see mold come into temp and how fill is acting. If there are complete jackets split them all really well, the lead popcorn or the Tinsel Fairy as she is known here will visit. Gtek

[eldoradolee]

How do you figure range lead is pure lead?It is every thing from pure to super hard.

[WHITETAIL]

Take the lead any way you can.
Smelt it and mark it.
Then make a few boolits with it.
Take a reading on them then you will
know what you need to do or not do.

[imashooter2]

I've been shooting nothing but range scrap from a couple of different indoor ranges for a long time now. My scrap measures 12 - 14bhn air cooled and 20-24bhn water dropped. This is based on samples pulled from many different buckets collected over a better than 5 year span. The conventional wisdom of range scrap being almost pure soft lead doesn't match my experience at all.

[mac1911]

I try to grab as much range lead as possible it works great on my shotgun slug molds.
I get a somewhat little pieces/powder from my indoor range aprox 80lbs per trip. One thing, It smokes like crazy assume its all the lube from the 22s
I find intact bullets on the out door range and pick them up. My club will let you pick up anything on the range you just cant "mine" it.

[milprileb]

I lay all mined range lead (many many are FMJ 45acp slugs) in hot sun to chase moisture out but I am going to put it in a dutch oven with lid on first and then stoke up the turkey cooker fire unit and drive any hidden water out.

Tinsel Fairy: I take all the precautions mentioned in countless posting on the forum. I consider the clear face shield to be a very wise precaution indeed.

[Jal5]

As stated before, hit the jacketed rounds, melt with a lid on and make your boolits. I have been using range scrap alone for all my loads from 38/357. 9mm mak, 270 Win with good results. JOE

[grullaguy]

I was at the range yesterday and found the spot where the cops were shooting their buckshot into the bank. Lovely, hard stuff. I find there is even a variance in the hardness of the jacketed stuff which makes up 90% of the range lead at my mining site. The FMJ is pretty soft but the copper plated stuff seems a bit harder. I like the big cast bullets that break rather than splatter when they hit rocks. Super hard stuff.

[man.electric]

I mine a lot of shot from the hills on the back side of our trap range and that is great stuff. It between 3-6% Sb and I make two separate alloys one with 3% Sn added and the other with 5% Sn added. Reclaimed shot +5% Sn makes a really good Linotype replacement.

[lwknight]

How do you figure range lead is pure lead?It is every thing from pure to super hard.

A great many ranges only allow factory ammo.
Ranges near cities generally have only jacketed bullets. So the majority of range lead is just plain pure lead swadged into copper wrappers.

Of course it may have a bit of tin or whatever but for all practical purposed its mostly pure.

Country ranges get a lot of whatever and can be anything.

[milprileb]

Well, I don't know what this range lead is actually but if I flux properly and cut it with 50% Wheel Wt metal, it ought to be hard enough for 45acp and 9mm. ... air cooled bullets or water quenched bullets.

[imashooter2]

A great many ranges only allow factory ammo.
Ranges near cities generally have only jacketed bullets. So the majority of range lead is just plain pure lead swadged into copper wrappers.

Of course it may have a bit of tin or whatever but for all practical purposed its mostly pure.

Country ranges get a lot of whatever and can be anything.

What are you basing this opinion on? It sure doesn't match with the numbers I get testing.

[nighthunter]

To cast for a .45 the range salvaged lead will more often than not be plenty hard enough by itself. For a .45 or 9mm a good lube is probably more important than bullet hardness unless you have feed ramp issues in the firearm. I salvage a lot of range lead and cast a lot of bullets with it includeing rifle calibers and I have no problems as long as I use gas checks and size the bullet properly to the barrel. I don't even know what the bhn or rockwell measurements are on my bullets and I don't care what they measure in hardness. If they shoot well enough for my intended purposses they are good to go. I don't shoot competion benchrest with cast. However I am not satisfied with 4 inch groups either. Cast'em and shoot'em. Hardness is over rated.

Nighthunter

[zomby woof]

I've been shooting nothing but range scrap from a couple of different indoor ranges for a long time now. My scrap measures 12 - 14bhn air cooled and 20-24bhn water dropped. This is based on samples pulled from many different buckets collected over a better than 5 year span. The conventional wisdom of range scrap being almost pure soft lead doesn't match my experience at all.

I have the same results, not close to pure. My indoor scrap is about 8-10 BHN. I mix 50/50 with WW. It cast real nice.

[lwknight]

What are you basing this opinion on? It sure doesn't match with the numbers I get testing.

Its a big world out there doncha know.
1000s of pounds of range lead that goes to my local scrapyard is 100% jacketed bullets with very soft near pure lead.

I actuallyu bought buckets of bullets and melted the lead out then sold the left over copper/brass mix back for about what I paid for the bullets. Near free lead that way.

I find quite a few cast bullets in the bern at the sportsmans club range. It still averaged out fairly soft.

Like most anyone that mined ranges will tell you , " it can be anything".

[imashooter2]

If you say so, but I just don't see jacketed bullets shot in Pennsylvania being a whole lot different than jacketed bullets shot in Texas...