Range lead- worth it?

[evan price]

I may have access to a large quantity of range lead from an indoor range with steel plate backstops. Currently it is sold to a commercial scrap dealer. I saw rows of 5-gallon buckets of scrap cleaned from the backstop waiting for the scrap dealer. What's a fair price to offer for this? Is it worth saving from the scrap dealer? The local recyclers I called are going between 3 and 5 cents a pound for range scrap lead. I thought to offer ten cents a pound, maybe $20 a bucket to make it simple. I don't want to be insulting, though I also don't want to overpay.

Back when I was a mechanic years ago WW were everywhere and thrown out. I never stored them then because I was stupid and thought they'd be here forever. Now-

I've tried calling around to find WW or lead scrap but so far every tire shop has a contract to return WW to the Exide company with battery scrap, the recyclers won't sell it to me, and I don't have a source for hospital lead anymore.

I might be able to find small amounts of WW and battery ends from a junkyard friend of mine. But that's not much.

I do not currently cast my own bullets but I already use lead slugs for all my pistol calibers and am strongly considering getting into casting. At present time (given that everything is sold out or priced stupid high) I would probably just remelt and cast into ingots and put them away in the crawl space for later.

I've got an old BBQ grille and lots of propane for heat, gallons of used motor oil for flux, and lots of angle iron I can weld up some ingot molds out of.

Anything else to consider?

[stubshaft]

Theres no harm in offering $20.00 a bucket. They can only say no or set a price.

[218bee]

personally 20-25 bucks a bucket would be good for me. I would buy all I could afford at that price (assuming 5 gal buckets maybe 75-100 lbs). Last trip to my scrap yard they wanted .40 a pound....I did find some good stuff though

[RayinNH]

Evan, check the ongoing thread;

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...260#post560260

[August]

Range scrap tends to be quite hard. You'll probably want a source of pure lead, also, to alloy the scap with. Another issue in figuring the price is the amount of jacketed scrap in the mix. That is lost in the recovery of the lead, therefore you end up with less than you paid for.

Also, many advise against smelting jacketed bullets because of the potential for explosion in the pot. Many will say they've never had a problem with this, but the guys who say it's happened to them give some pretty sobering accounts of the consequences.

If I could buy range scrap for .20 a pound, I'd jump on it.

[imashooter2]

Range scrap tends to be quite hard. You'll probably want a source of pure lead, also, to alloy the scap with.
-snip-

Not my experience at all. I've used quite a bit of indoor range scrap. Every bucket is different, but in general I find it harder than pure, but softer than WW.

[Tom Herman]

First off, welcome aboard!

Doggone right it's worth it! As you've experienced, lead in all forms is getting hard to come by in certain areas. Get all you can!
Don't be too cheap... If the range is getting 5 cents a pound, offer between 10 and 15 cents a pound so they will sell to you, and build a rappor with them. You want them to be HAPPY to deal with you, even if someone wants the lead worse and is willing to bid more than you do.
I, too, loaded for over twenty years before casting. Seeing .45 Long Colt's going for $75/500 IF you could find them was the last straw.
I've more than recovered my costs for molds, the furnace, and other accessories just in the first year.
I've learned to scrounge wherever I can, and developed friendships. I also trade my sources loaded ammo for the wheel weights.
Good Luck and Happy Shootin'!

-Tom

[anachronism]

Not my experience at all. I've used quite a bit of indoor range scrap. Every bucket is different, but in general I find it harder than pure, but softer than WW.

This has been my experience too. Most indoor range scrap is from jacketed bullets, which have swaged cores. Swaged lead is almost universally much softer than hard cast.

Once you get the jacket fragments out, save them in an old coffee can & let them accumulate. You can sell scrap copper for decent money, if you watch the market.

[Kskybroom]

Just finished about 1200 lbs of Out Door range scrap. 3/4 55 gal drum. Got 900 lbs lead, 300 lbs scrap, Took 7 20 lbs propane tanks. Took forever to get hot. But the hotter the better for skimming jackets off. The more sand you remove the better. Next time I will wash it. The sand makes it hard to skim off jackets. I smelted in about 50 lb lots. Made it into big 50lb ingots didn't flux. Then melted 250 lbs in my plummers pot. Fluxing at 100 and 250. Made 79 to 86 3 lbs ingots to a batch. Every batch seems differant all on the soft side closer to pure an #2. I've learned to be very careful. Live rounds,Unburnt Powder (indoor) Water, indoor and outdoor scrap had popping throughout the smelt. Never add to a hot pot. Start from cold pot and always cover the pot. It's alot of work but you get good lead. ( no zink ) Its good for mixing an trading your buds for?? At the end I always say not again. But in one week I'm looking for more.

[Lee]

Get what you can now. Worry about what to do with it later, including price.
It's only going to get worse............



Errrr, where in OH? I'm in NE OHIO..........

[mooman76]

I'd offer $10 a bucket to keep it simple. That's still more than the 3-5 cents a pound they are getting and you could always up the amount if they don't like it plus that 3-5 cents isn't a picked up price and you can save them the trouble of delivery!

[Johnw...ski]

I'd offer $10 a bucket to keep it simple. That's still more than the 3-5 cents a pound they are getting and you could always up the amount if they don't like it plus that 3-5 cents isn't a picked up price and you can save them the trouble of delivery!

Low balling the offer seems the way to go. I usually get my range scrap for nothing so it's worth the extra work, I wouldn't even bother if I had to pay much more than a nominal cost for it.
Don't forget you are going to have some really dirty crap to get rid of after smelting that stuff.

John

[evan price]

Getting rid of the crap is not a problem for me- the shredder won't notice a bucket full of dross dumped in the trunk of a junk car.

I'll start at ten bucks a bucket. Worst they can do is say no, right? Follow up to come later.

[Brick85]

I'm thinking of doing the same thing. I figure I'll go with 15 cents a lb, and offer to bring in a bathroom scale. My thought is that I can probably actually make a profit and keep the lead, by keeping aside the jackets and selling those to the scrap yard. Anyone ever try that? How much do you get for it, and is there a good way to truly separate them so there's no lead in the jacket material? I'm figuring that there'd be a coating of lead still, like when you solder a wire. Also, wouldn't some stay inside any busted jackets that aren't flattened or shredded?

[imashooter2]

The lead separates from the jackets easily. The jackets will be burnt and nasty when finished. The scrap yards around here won't touch them, but other folks have reported selling them as "#2 copper."

[evan price]

Welp, this is up in smoke.

I offered $20 a bucket for his range lead and $1 a pound for bulk unsorted range brass, and I would provide containers & labor. I would provide two of the commercial wheeled trashcans with hinged lids and swap them out with empties.
The lead buckets would be 4-gallon square plastic kitty-litter buckets with lids. I have access to a huge lot of those.

He said no, and actually laughed.

He wants $300 a five gallon bucket for range brass- including the .22's, aluminum Blazer, steel case crap, whatever floor-sweepings get mixed in.

Lead he wouldn't even discuss a price but told me to come back with a "real offer".

I guess he's got somebody paying better? Heck with it.

[imashooter2]

He wants too much. You were right to walk away.

[Brick85]

The local range here has a deal with a reloading company, brass for ammo. Perhaps that's why the guy wanted $300 for the brass--you may have seen how 100 rounds of various autoloader pistol brass sells for $3-$5, and there's thousands of rounds of that in a 5 gallon bucket.

My advice is to scoop up a few handfuls each time you go. Most ranges don't seem to mind someone doing this as long as you're not obnoxious about it.

[armyrat1970]

Welp, this is up in smoke.

I offered $20 a bucket for his range lead and $1 a pound for bulk unsorted range brass, and I would provide containers & labor. I would provide two of the commercial wheeled trashcans with hinged lids and swap them out with empties.
The lead buckets would be 4-gallon square plastic kitty-litter buckets with lids. I have access to a huge lot of those.

He said no, and actually laughed.

He wants $300 a five gallon bucket for range brass- including the .22's, aluminum Blazer, steel case crap, whatever floor-sweepings get mixed in.

Lead he wouldn't even discuss a price but told me to come back with a "real offer".

I guess he's got somebody paying better? Heck with it.

Years ago I bought several 5 gallon buckets of mixed range brass for $20 a bucket. No way I would pay $300 for a 5 gallon bucket right now. I have enough from the other buckets I bought for my own use, probably for my lifetime. And still have some I can sell to anyone that wants them and not rip them off in the process. I'd tell him to stick it, with a smile.
You have to sort the cases your self, which takes a lot of time. You have to clean and polish them before selling, which burns up a lot of electricty. Then you have to sort to make sure there are no Berdan primed cases. Case by case. Seperate military from commercial. All of this takes a lot of time and effort. Believe me I sold cases on EvilBay years back. Tumbled and cleaned 10's of 1000's of cases. You can make a few on the return but at $300 a bucket it ain't worth the time and effort. I did it to make a few bucks for extra handloading equipment and may try again but I will not pay any more than $50 a bucket for range brass. It takes a lot of work and time to get it ready to sell. you can find a lot you will keep for yourself but you need to get rid of the rest some way. Your not going to get the money back from selling it for scrap. There may be a wider market for selling cleaned and polished range brass right now since components are hard to come by but you are not going to be able to ask a high price for all of the time and effort you have to spend to get it to a point where someone will buy it. I recently sold 1700 9mm cases along with 26 pulled bullets for $55. Half were tumbled cleaned and I shipped. Check Midway and see what their grade 3 cases are going for now without being cleaned and the buyer has to pay shipping. It's outrageous.

[Dale53]

At the height of the metals price, we (our local club) sold our indoor range bullet metal to a scrap dealer for $.65 per lb (AND the dealer did all of the work). It enabled us to put several hundred dollars in the treasury. We also sold our fired brass (mostly .22 rimfire) and got $300.00 for a small barrel. It was a real windfall for the club. Now, we probably couldn't give the stuff away.

FWIW
Dale53