Range lead recovery

[Conditor22]

dickgally83 welcome to CB. I appreciate your concerns and do put a cover over my smelting pot, not for rocks or live rounds (live rounds are extremely hard to miss) but in case I missed cutting a fully jacketed bullet.

In the berms I'm used to, one would be hard-pressed to pick up much lead without doing some digging. I think we'd all love to find berm like you mention. How many buckets did you fill getting that 300 pounds?

Why would one shake or pour their smelting pot? we either use dippers or have a bottom pour feature. Also when dealing with molten lead, most wear at least eye and hand protection if not long sleeves or leathers.

[country gent]

How about a sifter set up similar to the brass separators sold by Dillon and some others. A piece of heavier grate rolled into a 2-3 foot dia 12"-18" long split in half with hinges on one side and a latch on the other. A t frame and small gas motor to turn it slowly. Dirt's would sift out bottom be removed and a tote slid under and baskets contents dumped in it. Could be ran right at the berm easily. Or electric motor and generator for out door use.. 4-6 paddles bolted in would speed it up a lot also. For dumping the contents a nut or square on the drums shaft for and handle would make the 1/2 turn or so quick and easy

[richhodg66]

I've gathered salvage from quite a few ranges over the years and can't remember ever finding a live round in a berm and II have to wonder why someone would throw a live round on a berm? Most ranges have a misfire receptacle of some sort.

What kind of people do you guys who are finding these have shooting at your ranges? Do they just give up on the guns and throw the rounds instead?

[kevin c]

My range is mainly used for action shooting sports: pistol, rifle and shotgun, sometimes combined arms. The bays are also rented out to police agencies and for private instructors for tactical training and quals.

All this means that the shooting happens not behind a fixed, permanent shooting line uprange, but all over the range surface, including belly up to the impact berms for the close in work. Ejected and dud rounds end up all over the crushed rock surface, getting buried or kicked all over the place, including into the berms.

So, yeah, I definitely had to pick out live rounds back when I was berm mining.

[mjwcaster]

A fellow shooter is an archeologist, and commented that my screen looks like what she uses on her digs, minus handles and two support legs on one end that make it easy to rock/shake the screen. Mine is homemade (and cheaper).

https://www.forestry-suppliers.com/p...=53677&redir=Y

Wow, archeologists much have much more money than I do.
$135 for a few pieces of lumber and a screen, I am in the wrong business.

The design looked neat until I tried to figure out how to use it, at least with one person.
How do you load it up to shake it if you have to hold the handles to keep it level?

I am looking for an improved design, but I am not sure this is it.
And if it doesn’t stop raining before it freezes here it doesn’t matter anyway.

Plus the town has messed things up for me.
I process range scrap behind the garage so the smoke and fumes don’t bother anyone.
They just put in a bike path that runs beside the garage so now I have lots of pedestrian traffic back there.

Not sure how long before some passerby complains about the funny green smoke.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[fatelk]

The range where I shoot has numerous bays and good berms full of lead. As a member I get a key to the gate and am responsible for myself; there are no ROs. If I go on a weekday it's easy to have a bay to myself, but berm mining is not allowed. I can pick lead off the top of the ground though, and especially after a good rain it's easy to pick up at least a pound per minute.

I can't imagine trying to sift it, since it's mostly gravel. Here's a photo. Half of those lumps are deformed bullets and the other half are similar sized pieces of gravel.

[tomme boy]

Be careful. I built a trommel when I first started this.

I got a bunch of .50 cal. bullets in one area one time. When I went to melt them one exploded. Smoke and sparks went everywhere. It was a APTI round.

[merlin101]

Be careful. I built a trommel when I first started this.

I got a bunch of .50 cal. bullets in one area one time. When I went to melt them one exploded. Smoke and sparks went everywhere. It was a APTI round.

Thanks! I always wondered about that and never got around to asking

[lightman]

I've never sifted for lead at our outdoor range. There was always enough exposed lead to just pick up. Especially after a series of rainy weather. Several 5 gallon buckets and a 2 wheel dolly are a big help.

I have sifted the trap at the indoor range. I used a homemade box with a hardware cloth bottom that would sit over a wheelbarrow. Several 5 gallon buckets, a couple different types of shovels, a 2 wheel cart, a short ladder and a dust mask. Our back stop is a steel plate at about a 45º angle in the back of a box the width of the shooting bench, filled with sand. Its about 60 inches from the ground to the bottom. A little stretch to get a shovel to, thus the short ladder. Most of the lead was in large chunks at the bottom of the steel plate. A long afternoon might net you 500 pounds of lead. Not a bad days work.