Range scrap.... Jacketed material?

[Hal]

After fifty years of casting and using nothing but old style WW, I am entering the world of range scrap. So much of it is just laying in the Range sand berms that you can just pick up. I don't even have to dig. 10 minutes of picking equaled 8 lbs. But it rendered about 5 lb of melted lead... I'll let this allo cure for 2 weeks and test it on my LBT Checker.
Question i have, is about the 45 jackets that are left from the smelting process. They look like they have been copper washed (rough)rather than pure copper as in a Sierra Jacketed hollow Point.

Are the jackets worth an any thing and what is the jacket covering? Lead or some crap not worth melting down?

Thanks Hal

[Delkal]

The guy I get my range scrap from showed me a 55 gal barrel mostly full with the recovered jackets. He said he sells it to a scrap yard. A scrap yard will probably give you a low price since the lead is dirty and contaminated so while selling hundreds of pounds is worth it selling three pounds not so much.

[MUSTANG]

Bullet Jackets are predominantly what is called "Gilding Metal". Sierra for example uses a 95% copper and 5% zinc mixture for their Bullet Jackets.

For creation of "Brass" for pistol and rifle cases; the Gilding Metal ratio could range as low as 65% copper and 35% Zinc and up.

The jackets are generally of interest to some scrap dealers and sold as lower value copper.

[FLINTNFIRE]

Try a magnet on them as there are bi metal and other uses of steel jackets plated , if its not magnetic you may find a scrap yard wanting it depending on cleanliness , here there is no market for the range scrap jackets .

[Winger Ed.]

The jackets are one of those "Make your beast deal" things.

Something that'll make picking up the range scrap that's fairly close to the surface is on of those
scoop/shovel things with all the holes in it like the metal detector folks use to scoop up some dirt
and shake it out pretty quickly.

.22s, might go through the holes, but it should catch everything else.
Also, if there is a row of steel knock down pistol steel plates, there is usually sort f a layer of Lead on the ground
under/in front of them made of the 'splatter' from cast boolits.

[Outpost75]

The scrap dealer I use pours out my 5 gallon buckets of jackets onto 1/4" wire mesh, agitated it to shake the loose dirt through, then runs an electromagnet over the pile to pull out any steel. Price for the remainder is based upon American Metal Market price for No.2. copper about $1.25 a pound last time I had a bucket full.
About $35 for 3/4 of a 5-gallon bucket

[imashooter2]

None of the yards around here will touch jackets. Check around before you put work into them.

[P Flados]

I have been processing at least 15 gallons or so of range scrap per year for a while now.

I do go through a bit of work to make sure I get "as much as possible" of the lead from the scrap. I cut open plated bullets, etc before hand, but this does not produce 100% results. I also go through the left over jackets and find some with enough lead to "re-harvest".

I try to clean 95% of the trash and dirt out of the empty jackets and I use a magnet to get rid of the steel.

The local scrap yard takes the stuff as "mixed brass" no problem.

[WRideout]

I am rather OCD about my smelting of range scrap, but here is what I do. I first melt everything in my big smelting pot, and skim the trash off the top. Then hand pick the jackets from the rocks and dirt. Pull the steel jackets out with a magnet, and return FMJ or partially melted slugs to the fire, after cutting open the whole ones with dikes. My local scrap yard (abbrev. LSY?) buys the recovered jackets at the spot price for brass. A whole coffee can full is over five dollars. I only go there when I have a load of other ferrous scrap, so it is worth it.

Wayne

[Winger Ed.]

The big problem I have with going to our scrap yards is that when I go to cash in stuff,
I end up buying so much other 'treasures', I end up owing them money.

[P Flados]

The big problem I have with going to our scrap yards is that when I go to cash in stuff,
I end up buying so much other 'treasures', I end up owing them money.

Your just looking at it wrong. My trips to the scrap yard have been to buy stuff, and what they give me for the stuff I take is just a "down payment".

[dtknowles]

The big problem I have with going to our scrap yards is that when I go to cash in stuff,
I end up buying so much other 'treasures', I end up owing them money.

I don't see this as a problem, I trade scrap for treasure at the scrap yard all the time.

Tim

[35 Rem]

Yeah, I was at one scrap yard years back and found a 6-foot section of 10 inch I-Beam and 5 or 6 feet of 9 inch square tubing 1/4" thick. Instantly I saw the perfect work bench legs. I cut the I-Beam in half to make the foot and used the 9-inch square tubing as the vertical piece for a two-leg bench that had no pesky corner legs to trip over. Each leg weighs about 150 lbs so there is no issue with the table tipping, and it is rock steady. You never know what treasure you might stumble across. One time just checking without expecting any results since lead WW's had gotten so scarce, they had 1,000 lbs in stock. I couldn't get my truck backed up to the door fast enough and it's a good thing I had $350 cash in my pocket too.

[Winger Ed.]

There's a couple of yards in Dallas that got in a lot of new stuff that was 'left over' from various contracts
or building having been built.

I bought all the new 20' sticks of angle (Alum.) and I think .030 or .040 sheet to build a 12' and a 16'
racing hydro plane. When I was doing a lot of Plumbing and some Electrical work, my local yard had two 5 gallon
buckets of NEW! 1/4", 1/2" and 3/4 copper fittings-- I rescued them for $2.oo a pound along with a few rolls of new tubing.
I'm still working out of those buckets of fittings 25 years later.

[kevin c]

Same here. Years ago I brought in some scrap cartridge brass, asked if they had any lead and was taken back to where that had old lead pipe and sheet. On the way I tripped over a pile of high tin replenishment Linotype pigs and crate of regular content 5# Lino bars, all factory new from Federated Metals. Almost 500#. The yard owner very kindly advised me not to put it all in the trunk of my FWD sedan: I’d have no traction going up hill. Never did make it back to the other lead. I luckily had enough cash to cover the balance due after trading in the other brass.

I’m not handy enough to be able to manufacture much from metal scrap. Sawing, screwing and nailing wood is my practical limit.

Never processed enough lead from berm mining to take in the jackets.

[dtknowles]

The local yard is close so when I get a few bins of stuff, I take it in and check out what they have. Never hundreds of pounds either coming or going.
TEK

[Hal]

I keep hitting the wrong reply button.... 3rd time Thanks All for the info... I've been very lucky to of purchased 1800 # of old WW years ago and had it last this long. At 23 cents a pound... i complained then about transporting it 110 miles .. Wished i could get that again... Thanks for all the different ideas... Ed, i will have to break out my old metal detecting scooper.. should work well in the sand..