I'm a Miner Now!

[kmw1954]

I am now officially a lead miner!

Last Tuesday I finally made an exploratory excursion out into the berms at the range I'm now working at. The 25yd rifle/pistol range has 22 lanes backed up by a sand berm that is also about 25yds high! From what I have been told is that these berms haven't been cleaned in about 5 years, and no one else has been digging in them.

So last Monday night we had huge storms blow thru dropping about 4" of rain with flash flood warnings. Made everything very wet but I went out anyways. When I arrived there was still standing water in front of the berm and ruts running down the face. There it was, washed out for the taking. Rivers of shot lead.

By 9am which was the soonest I could get in it was already 80* with 70% humidity. All I had with me was a small garden spade, two small shifters and two 2.5gal. buckets. Scooping it up was easy, needed a bigger shovel, the sand was still soaked and packed which made shifting it a real pain. After about 45 minutes I had to stop and get a drink and cool off then only lasted about another 15 minutes and had to quit.

Ended up with about a half a bucket. Don't know what it weighed but today I spent the morning rendering this down into clean ingots and got almost 22lbs. Haven't had a chance to test hardness but I don't think that makes a big deal. Now with a bigger shovel and screen and of course dryer conditions I most likely could have filled both those buckets in the same amount of time. Will make a second attempt next Tuesday.

[Winger Ed.]

Cool.
Even when lead was 25 cents a pound, I scrounged all the free stuff I could get a hold of.

It's a good feeling when ya beat the system.

With all the pure lead swaged bullets, if there is even a good handful of cast ones in there,
you might be able to cast with it as is for under 900 fps hand gun stuff.

[kmw1954]

Well not exactly Free, still have travel and my physical labor. Wife was kind enough to point that out. I replied that , "but I don't have to pay money!"

[kevin c]

No cash outlay is VERY satisfying.

Of course, your back may disagree...

[kmw1954]

In this case it wasn't the back but the chest.

[GregLaROCHE]

Nothing better than free lead.

[Winger Ed.]

Well not exactly Free, still have travel and my physical labor.

Doing that kind of thing also helps keep me out of those crooked BINGO parlors.

[Targa]

Congrats on the find, range scrap is the best! I stumbled into a free supply of wheel weights and I am appreciative of that but it is a lot of work for very little return, I am talking seven hours of processing for 30lbs of lead. I am going to get back into mining as well.

[sureYnot]

Well not exactly Free, still have travel and my physical labor. Wife was kind enough to point that out. I replied that , "but I don't have to pay money!"

And you had fun! Most of what we do, if you break it down into dollars and time, isn't a good deal. I did the math and I "save" $20/hr reloading .223. I'd be better off, financially, to work a bit of overtime and just buy ammo. It would take less hours of effort to get the same amount of pew-pews. But my hours in the garage or reloading room don't suck as much... They're fun hours.

Sent from my XT1710-02 using Tapatalk

[kmw1954]

Just a couple of the prime reasons I came out of retirement and back to work.

1. I get out of the house and do something I enjoy.
2. Every day I meet new people and learn some new things. Actually have made a couple new friends already.
3. Bennies, free range time, huge discounts on purchases, firearms 5% over cost, free firearms transfers and I get to mine the berms!

Folks ask about returning to work and I start singing; "that aint workin, money for nothing, shootin for free". I might have to add that to my signature.

[CLAYPOOL]

Excersizing ( spelling - spell check won't let me correct that) i hate it some times, it's supposed to help you...

[RP]

If you can wait until it is dry take a leaf blower and star at the bottom blowing the sand back up the berm the lead will roll to the bottom nice and free of dirt. You may be able to get your bucket just right and it self fill a little trick I learned over the years

[samari46]

I used to mine the berms on our old pistol range. I made a sifter 2"x2" and used 1/4" hardware cloth. Set one bucket down and put the sifter on top and start mining. Shovel the exposed bullets into the sifter and when the sifter is full transfer into a clean bucket. Could only do this once a month as they closed the pistol range for their high power matches. Ist load of 6 buckets netted well over 400 lbs of range scrap. One extra good thing is that all the 45acp shooters all shot 230 grain round nosed hard cast bullets. So I pulled them out of the buckets and melted them separately. The rest got melted down in 100 pound lots. In fact I still have 3-4 5 gallon buckets still waiting to be melted. The old range is gone and our club bought about 160 acres which is now paid for and they now have a first class range. They do have plans to expand to either a 600 yd or 1000 yd range. Bullet jackets after melting get put aside and eventually get sold for scrap.Frank

[mac1911]

I am now officially a lead miner!

Last Tuesday I finally made an exploratory excursion out into the berms at the range I'm now working at. The 25yd rifle/pistol range has 22 lanes backed up by a sand berm that is also about 25yds high! From what I have been told is that these berms haven't been cleaned in about 5 years, and no one else has been digging in them.

So last Monday night we had huge storms blow thru dropping about 4" of rain with flash flood warnings. Made everything very wet but I went out anyways. When I arrived there was still standing water in front of the berm and ruts running down the face. There it was, washed out for the taking. Rivers of shot lead.

By 9am which was the soonest I could get in it was already 80* with 70% humidity. All I had with me was a small garden spade, two small shifters and two 2.5gal. buckets. Scooping it up was easy, needed a bigger shovel, the sand was still soaked and packed which made shifting it a real pain. After about 45 minutes I had to stop and get a drink and cool off then only lasted about another 15 minutes and had to quit.

Ended up with about a half a bucket. Don't know what it weighed but today I spent the morning rendering this down into clean ingots and got almost 22lbs. Haven't had a chance to test hardness but I don't think that makes a big deal. Now with a bigger shovel and screen and of course dryer conditions I most likely could have filled both those buckets in the same amount of time. Will make a second attempt next Tuesday.

We used to hit the berms after every rain storm. We could not actually dig the berms. We where allowed to pick up any bullets. I used a modified clam rake lined with screen. Just skimming the top inch or so you could get a lot of nuggets. We had one bucket with some drain holes and course screen. filled it up with a few pounds and used the puddles and a shovel to "rinse the heavy stuff off and then into a bucket. With out much effort we could leave there with 100lbs of scrap. I melted down the last of the batch I did about 4 years ago this past week. I have been using scrap range lead for my 9mm/38/45acp



The trap range was easier to mine. find that fall out zone and its like a huge vein of ore! shovel and a few sifters and you can get 100lbs in about 15 minutes

[lightman]

It sounds like you are really enjoying your new job! After you mine for a little while you will develop a routine that suits you and the type of berms that are at your range. It just takes a little time and a little extra work until you do.

[kmw1954]

lightman, absolutely lovin it. Past two day were rather brutal though. 88* and about 75% humidity with little wind. Plus the range has been packed solid these past two days. Sure does feel good to get off the feet and sit down.

After talking with my boss starting next week they are going to show me how to lock up the range entrance so I can stick around for a bit after work and work the berms a little.

[mac1911]

Congrats on the find, range scrap is the best! I stumbled into a free supply of wheel weights and I am appreciative of that but it is a lot of work for very little return, I am talking seven hours of processing for 30lbs of lead. I am going to get back into mining as well.

what took 7 hours ?
Heck I did 120lbs in about 1hr 20min that included set up and clean up. I lucked out and the wheel weights where delivered to me so no time lost hunting them down.
Also a bonus is the wheel weights where 90% lead clip ons so sorting time was short

[Targa]

what took 7 hours ?
Heck I did 120lbs in about 1hr 20min that included set up and clean up. I lucked out and the wheel weights where delivered to me so no time lost hunting them down.
Also a bonus is the wheel weights where 90% lead clip ons so sorting time was short

Great question, I am pretty new to this wheel weights scene and it seems like a lot of time to me also. To get that 30lbs it took me processing approx 200+ lbs of wheel weights. So where your wheel weights are producing a good percentage of lead mine are less than 10%. As long as I get them for free I will keep working at it

[kevin c]

I guess free sometimes isn't. But I applaud your determination.

[mac1911]

Great question, I am pretty new to this wheel weights scene and it seems like a lot of time to me also. To get that 30lbs it took me processing approx 200+ lbs of wheel weights. So where your wheel weights are producing a good percentage of lead mine are less than 10%. As long as I get them for free I will keep working at it

oh man if your only finding 10% of lead in your buckets thats aweful. If thats the case I would speed up sorting by just grabbing the 1oz or larger easy to spot lead and move on and scrap the rest.
Unless you getting a lot of zinc. I can get decent money for zinc.
Most of my scrap wheel weights are coming in at 30% lead , 30% Zinc , 30% steel and the rest is plastic resin stuff.
Still only takes me a short order to sort a bucket. Again I dont get to picky. I go for the bigger stuff and pass the rest along. I used to melt my zinc dwon and sell it to cannon ball shooters