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Thread: Casting with indoor range lead

  1. #21
    Boolit Master murf205's Avatar
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    OR...you could just check the Swapping and Selling section and buy it from the Captain. Everybody says her lead is first rate and the price is very reasonable. Lots of other reputable sellers there too. It's ready to use as soon as you get it without all the hassle of separating the jacket material and THEN wondering what you have in the pot.
    IT AINT what ya shoot--its how ya shoot it. NONE of us are as smart as ALL of us!

  2. #22
    Boolit Master
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    To each his own or in my case I try a little of everything. Indoor range lead, outdoor range lead, expensive commercial lead, free or cheap wheel weights, scrap sheet and pipe, lino, tin solder, babbitt, Isotope core or vials, weighs and sinkers, stained glass coping. I don't have a big smelting setup so I just do small batches and test them.

    Tim
    Words are weapons sharper than knives - INXS

    The pen is mightier than the sword - Edward Bulwer-Lytton

    The tongue is mightier than the blade - Euripides

  3. #23
    Boolit Grand Master
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    I remelted about 200# of indoor range scrap that was given to me a few years ago. A lot of time involved for the small yield. 80「 a pound is pretty high for dirty Pb. If you are VERY lucky you can sell the Cu jackets back, but since they are not clean pure Cu, you will not get near market price....if anything!

    For the money AND (lots of) time you will be investing, I would buy pure and alloy on here, even if it costs a bit more. But you know how to value your personal time. I personally never bother with range scrap anymore.........and I have a good source of it!

    banger

  4. #24
    Boolit Master kmw1954's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bangerjim View Post
    I remelted about 200# of indoor range scrap that was given to me a few years ago. A lot of time involved for the small yield. 80「 a pound is pretty high for dirty Pb.

    For the money AND (lots of) time you will be investing, I would buy pure and alloy on here, even if it costs a bit more. But you know how to value your personal time. I personally never bother with range scrap anymore.........and I have a good source of it!

    banger
    I was given a 58lb bucket of indoor scrap and yes it was dirty. I yielded 32lbs out of that 58lbs.
    Problem is that for some of us finding a reliable source is difficult. Here in Wisconsin scrap/recycled lead cannot be sold to the general public because it has been listed as a Hazardous Material and Illinois outlawed lead wheel weight long ago.

    My philosophy has been $1.50 per lb for ingot is acceptable but once it gets to $2.00 per lb. then I might as well by commercial cast.

    If the cost of shipping wasn't so high I would offer you that $0.80 per lb. all day just as it is. I'm retired and have more time than money.

  5. #25
    Boolit Grand Master


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    The hardness will vary. If it’s important to you, melt in a big pot and don’t add until it is almost empty. Then mark the ingots from that pot, so you can test one for the hardness and know what the rest of the Lot is.

    I lose a lot of weight in the droth. I once reheated it and got ten % more lead for almost the same amount of propane. Still didn’t get close to all of it.

    The powdered lead seems to a lot harder for me to melt and get mixed into to rest of the lead. I think that’s where a lot of the loss in weight comes from.

    You might want to buy a small amount to do a test run, to see if you want to get into buying a lot of it. But as someone said, don’t wait to long or it could be gone.

  6. #26
    Boolit Buddy
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    Back when I had a smash plate range, 99% of the jackets were cracked. I xrf tested it several times and got 1 to 2.5 percent antimony and less than 1/2 a percent of tin. My waste was about 20 percent by weight avg. In Georgia I could not find a recycle center that would pay more than about .02 cents for the dross. Be very careful of live rounds.
    I lost that range and all the new ranges have stopped using smash plates so the recovered bullets are mostly intact. If I were you I would get all that I needed or could afford while it is available because the smash plate systems are being phased out in favor of cleaner recovery methods. At $1/lb give or take you can build it back to a 2/4 alloy pretty easy and cheap.
    Tony

  7. #27
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by bazzer485 View Post
    ...I today used my lee pot to melt my range lead...
    Are you processing scrap in your casting pot, and is it a bottom pour? There's enough trash in the scrap we use as source material and enough dross in the first processing steps to perhaps cause plugging or dripping problems in the spout. For that reason many use a separate pot for processing raw lead.

  8. #28
    Boolit Master Dapaki's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by kevin c View Post
    Are you processing scrap in your casting pot, and is it a bottom pour? There's enough trash in the scrap we use as source material and enough dross in the first processing steps to perhaps cause plugging or dripping problems in the spout. For that reason many use a separate pot for processing raw lead.
    A cast iron pot is cheap and you can run all the steel sprues you want through it without damage. Bottom pour pots are not your friend with wheel weights.

  9. #29
    Boolit Grand Master

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    If your going to make a practice of melting scrap lead range lead or recovered, I would recommend making a bigger pot and a heavier burner. Something in the 200 lb+ range. This allows a much bigger batch to be done with a more consistent result. When melting if there are questions to moisture then fill the pot heaping full and then start heating, this will burn off the moisture well before molten metal is present. The bigger pot also makes skimming and fluxing much easier. And you end up with 200+ lbs of ingots all the same. If doing really large batches the ingots can be marked to pot number and blended with a set number from each pot increasing the amount even more. Another plus to the big pot is when blending alloy you can make bigger batches of alloy thats all the same.

    Making this big set up isnt hard a heavy turkey frier stand, a weed burner, and a big steel or cast iron pot. dutch ovens bean pots and cut down 25 Lb propane cylinders are popular. If going the propane cylinder be careful and follow all the safety precautions cutting the cylinder down, purge clean and be safe. A cylinder cut in half or so will hold around 300 lbs full. So you do need a heavy stand and a bunch of ingot moulds LOL

  10. #30
    Boolit Master kmw1954's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by country gent View Post
    I would recommend making a bigger pot and a heavier burner. Something in the 200 lb+ range. This allows a much bigger batch to be done with a more consistent result.

    A cylinder cut in half or so will hold around 300 lbs full. So you do need a heavy stand and a bunch of ingot moulds LOL
    I follow along daily and now have to comment. Every time I see a post like this it completely cracks me up. To me it seems that there are those that believe lead is everywhere and easy to acquire. I have been progressing into this over the past year and I would be ecstatic to come upon a 200/300lb score of lead of any kind. Be it Wheel weights, range scrap or just plain salvaged scrap.

    I don't argue or deny the advantages of processing large quantities it's just that for some of us acquiring that much at one time is near impossible. Those that do have access to those amounts consider yourselves fortunate. And yes I admit I am jealous.

  11. #31
    Boolit Grand Master

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    kmw1954,
    I had a friend with a highly used public indoor range as part of his gun store. When we cleaned the water tanks it would be 40 -60 5 gal buckets full, this was done every 3-4 months. I did have to help clean the tanks and with the upkeep of the range for what I needed or wanted. It was long days and hard work. It was almost a nuisance to him in the amounts produced since it had to be stored indoors. Here hitting the scrap yards ranges ( most of the outdoor ranges dont allow mining though), tire shops, and truck stops can yield a lot of lead. Also include farm implement dealers, roofers and plumbers.

    I no longer smelt, my physical issues preclude the extra handling hauling and effort. I buy from buffalo arms or roto metals 300 lbs at a time. My mobility issues have stopped it

  12. #32
    Boolit Buddy bazzer485's Avatar
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    The indoor range lead ( scrap) available to me at 80 cents a pound is almost endless, well several tons at least. I’m planning to smelt a few hundred pounds. I have a outdoors burner a twelve inch Dutch oven with a wire handle and two antique lead ladles. So I’m pretty well covered.
    Thanks for all the suggestions
    Barry

  13. #33
    Boolit Buddy bazzer485's Avatar
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    The indoor range lead ( scrap) available to me at 80 cents a pound is almost endless, well several tons at least. I知 planning to smelt a few hundred pounds. I have a outdoors burner a twelve inch Dutch oven with a wire handle and two antique lead ladles. So I知 pretty well covered.
    Thanks for all the suggestions
    Barry

  14. #34
    Boolit Master kmw1954's Avatar
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    Country Gent, as time progresses more and more indoor ranges are going to crumbled rubber indoor berms. Which is what I've been getting and only in small quantities. I keep repeating that here in Wisconsin lead is getting very hard too come by because in both Wisconsin and Illinois it has been classified as Hazardous Material and scrappers/recyclers cannot sell it to the general public. Each of the local tire and repair shops I have talked with all have someone already picking up their scrap. I imagine making connections isn't what it once was. Yes I am more than grateful for the donations that friends and acquaintances have made. My personal feeling is that it will only get harder to come by as time passes.

    Also being retired and disabled I can again only wish that I could afford to by it at 300lbs at a time. Last month there was an ad on craigslist for a load that was over 300lbs and they were only asking $250.00. Problem for me was it was also at the other end of the state, about 9hrs away. Also was the fact that it was end of month and I was unprepared to either make that purchase or transport it.

  15. #35
    Boolit Buddy fn1889m's Avatar
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    My local outdoor range lets me pick up lead. I can collect 30 #s of mixed bullets in about an hour, yielding 25 #s of lead. I smelt it together with a few wheel weights and some mystery old cast bullets people give me, and have about 50 #s stored. I’ll end up using range lead as my primary source if luck holds. It’s not perfect, but it’s free, and I know its composition, so it’s my preferred lead source. It’s just soft lead with some copper. I’m grateful for what I can get, and for the cost. Casting .44, and .45 in 100 round batches, shooting at 800-900 FPS with Unique. Simple pot and ladle, tumble lube with JPW and LLA. Lee push-tru sizer. What I like is the simplicity of the whole set-up. Don’t want to make it more complex right now. I am just a very new caster. But it gives me so much quiet joy to pick it free lead, and make bullets with a simple system. Still have a lot to learn, but there is nothing wrong with free range scrap lead if it lets you shoot.
    Last edited by fn1889m; 02-28-2020 at 03:27 AM.

  16. #36
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by bazzer485 View Post
    The indoor range lead ( scrap) available to me at 80 cents a pound is almost endless, well several tons at least. I’m planning to smelt a few hundred pounds. I have a outdoors burner a twelve inch Dutch oven with a wire handle and two antique lead ladles. So I’m pretty well covered.
    Thanks for all the suggestions
    Barry
    It is good of you to take care of that lead and get it into shape.

    While you were doing that someone here sold 240+ pounds of hard lead, 95% lead 5% antimony for $1.25 a pound delivered in fancy ingots, red neck gold.

    http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...-WTS-Hard-lead

    I was tempted but he only accepted checks or money order.

    There was also this deal

    http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...-containers-FS

    I have snagged some of them before that is 97.5% lead, 2.5% antimony in the form of little jars, not bad kind of like ingots. $1.18 per pound shipped.

    Nice lead, no waste, known alloy.

    Hey, I smelt range scrap too but only what I get for free. I think $0.80 per pound to too much to charge when clean lead is here for just over a dollar a pound shipped you just have to check S&S daily if you need lead, it will show up.

    Tim
    Words are weapons sharper than knives - INXS

    The pen is mightier than the sword - Edward Bulwer-Lytton

    The tongue is mightier than the blade - Euripides

  17. #37
    Boolit Mold CScott's Avatar
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    I bought a couple of tons of indoor range scrap for $50 per 5 gal bucket, about 130 lbs each. I melted it down in a cut off refrigerant tank over a turkey fryer. I got about 85 lbs per bucket and it tested out to be 98% Pb, 1 1/2% Sb, and 1/2 % Sn. I sold the dross to a scrap yard for $.65 per lb as "dirty brass". I now have a lifetime supply of good alloy ingots and I'm very happy with the whole deal.
    C. Scott

  18. #38
    Boolit Buddy bazzer485's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by CScott View Post
    I bought a couple of tons of indoor range scrap for $50 per 5 gal bucket, about 130 lbs each. I melted it down in a cut off refrigerant tank over a turkey fryer. I got about 85 lbs per bucket and it tested out to be 98% Pb, 1 1/2% Sb, and 1/2 % Sn. I sold the dross to a scrap yard for $.65 per lb as "dirty brass". I now have a lifetime supply of good alloy ingots and I'm very happy with the whole deal.
    C. Scott
    Wow, you got the deal of a lifetime the dross should pay for your orginal purchase! Sounds like you have enough lead to last a long long time. I bought some lead today that was from a X-ray room at $1.25 a pound,ouch!

  19. #39
    Boolit Master

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    The only time I have rendered indoor range lead, it was free. I had to wait until the range closed and the owner took me in the back door where there were
    piles of the scrap. I was able to get a half of a 5 gallon bucket. That is what I could carry and it was a good 200 feet from the car. The jackets had hit the steel
    back stop and pealed off the lead core so separating the jackets wasn't a big deal. The lead was pretty much soft lead with very little tin or antimony.

    That was nearly 20 years ago and that range has changed hands. There is a local guy that owns a cast bullet business buys the lead from them now.

  20. #40
    Boolit Man willowbend's Avatar
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    I have used a good bit of indoor range lead over the years. Please be careful wear good FACE protection and sort/clean it good before it gets to the heat. I would occasionally find live ammo that had gotten in the mix. Yes I found out the hard way.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check