First range lead smelt

[osteodoc08]

I’ve never given picking up range lead to much thought off my range in any quantity. But for giggles I spent an hour the other day picking up spent bullets. I wound up with 21.5 pounds of range scrap. I smelted it down today while I had a few minutes and was able to recover a little over 13# or about 60-61% yield vs scrap weight. I was pretty happy with that. I skimmed off all the junk and fluxed twice and was rewarded with beautiful loaf bricks that had a nice ring to them when clanged together. I’ll have to spend a little more time out there next go round

[osteodoc08]

[dikman]

A good start. I dig them out of the berms and it doesn't matter how much I sieve and wash them I get an awful lot of crud when I melt them! Lots of stinky smoke. (Over the last 5 days I've melted 464 kilos - 1020 lbs. - that's clean weight, there would have been at least 30 kilos of dirt and stones that came out of it!!).

[LenH]

I get range lead from my brother. The club he is a member of in the OKC area is in a river bottom and the surrounding soil is a sandy soil. They have to dress the berms
about 3 times a year. After a rain the lead is on top of the berms and all you need is a shovel and a screen to shake out the sand. He usually brings me about 300 pounds
twice a year. That is about all he can get in the trunk of his car, 6 to 8 plastic coffee cans. By the time I skim off the jackets and dirt and other debris I will get about 170#
of what I treat as pure lead, it has a little antimony but very little. It test out about 8 to 9 BNH.

In turn I cast bullets and lube & size them for him. It is a pretty good trade in my book.

[lightman]

Range scrap usually makes good bullets. I'm a little surprised that you lost 40% to junk. I expect range scrap will eventually be the casters best source of lead.

[bajacoop]

What does everyone do with all the leftover jackets?

[lightman]

There have been mixed reports of members selling them as scrap copper. It seems like some places will buy them while others won't. Its worth a try.

[dpoe001]

I clean out my clubs 25 and 50 ft range each twice a year i get about a 20 gal drum of bullets each time. I shovel the dirt up put it thru a screen i made dirt goes into wagon, lead goes into drum.It takes most of the winter to melt it down with the wheel weights my nephew gets me from the scrap yard.After i melt bullets I run a magnet over what floats on top it goes in the scrap steel bin the rest goes in my number 2 scrap bin,to be cashed in for summer projects.

[dikman]

Sounds like you're well organised! I've just gotten permission to dig out the berms on a pistol club next to our range and it sounds like it hasn't been cleaned for a long time . It's apparently going to be turned over with a 'dozer soon, so I'm eagerly waiting for one of the members to arrange a suitable time. In the meantime I'm going to have to scrounge up every bucket I can find!!

[WRideout]

What does everyone do with all the leftover jackets?

At my local scrap yard, a coffee can of jackets goes for anywhere from $5.00 to $7.00 depending on the price per pound at the time. Range scrap pays off twice for me.

Wayne

[Rcmaveric]

I use a lot of range scraps due to it being free. Sadly i was told i couldn't mine the berm due to EPA regs. Plus side is i mined about 400 lbs of processed lead (not counting the 300 lbs i got last year) before i was caught. I pulled "it is better is to ask for forgiveness than permission" kind of thing. I am trying to weasel my way into some of the local indoor ranges to see if i can part them of some of their lead. Makes good bullets. My RS bullets comes out about 8 BHN. When cut 50/50 with COWW comes out to about 10 BHN air cooled. Definitely heat treat able. Got a test bullet now sitting to see what water quenched BHN of RS is. I love the stuff. PLuss scrapping the jackets get me a propane tank refill and some Gatorade for my efforts.