Lead content of range scrap

[Jailer]

I have been able to scrounge a bunch of range scrap of known origin. It's from our range at work so I know what has been shot into it as we are limited to what we can buy in our ammo contract. It is all .40 cal and 9mm Federal, Winchester or Remington ammo mostly FMJ but some hollow point as well. That and the same brands of 00 buck.

Is there any consistancy that can be expected from this being a known source? I don't have a hardness tester so I can't test the ingots I've smelted so far. I have about 100 lbs in ingots right now and about another 700 lbs of scrap to melt.

One more question too, does it take everyone else a LOOOOONG time to melt this stuff down? Spent 3 hours last night to get 22 muffin pan ingots. Takes me about 30 minutes to get that many with wheel weights.

[fryboy]

if you start with some lead left in the bottom of the pot it mite help speed the melt , i'm sure also cooler weather is contributing ( it is here anyways ) for me it seems that the higher percentage of lead the longer it takes to get the melt going good , when i pull out the pure ingots to make either soft alloy or muzzle loading projectiles it seems forever before i have my pot melted
as for the known source ..... while this is true the percentage of what's there will vary ,being mostly fmj's and buck would leave me to believe that it will be fairly soft , if u could manage to separate the buck from the rest each melt perhaps would have a little less variance [shrugz]

[Wally]

I've been told by others that have tested range scrap that it is about 2% Antimony & 0.1~0.2% Tin...IOW about 98% pure lead. It varies enoromously--if most shooters use factory loads it will be softer--if, OTOH, most slugs are from cast bullets, it will probably be of a harder alloy. You can buy enrichment alloy or blend with hard shotgun shot to make a harder alloy. Or sell it...

[imashooter2]

I've been using range scrap collected over a period of 8 to 10 years from a couple of different indoor ranges. It runs between 12 and 14 BHN air cooled and water drops 18 - 22. This from a dozen samples pulled from buckets all across the time line. It casts beautifully as is with no additions whatsoever.

[Thecyberguy]

I picked up a cross section of bullets from our range. It had about an even mix of lead and jacketed. I ended up with about 15 pounds of ingots. They are a lot harder than i would have thought. They have a bit of a ring to them when you strike them. One of these days...I will find someone that is looking to give a hardness tester away...LOL...yeah...right.
Have a good 'un, TCG

[Jailer]

I've been told by others that have tested range scrap that it is about 2% Antimony & 0.1~0.2% Tin...IOW about 98% pure lead. It varies enoromously--if most shooters use factory loads it will be softer--if, OTOH, most slugs are from cast bullets, it will probably be of a harder alloy. You can buy enrichment alloy or blend with hard shotgun shot to make a harder alloy. Or sell it...

There are no cast bullets in the berm. We are not authorized to shoot any reloads, only factory ammo and only the 3 manufacturers I listed. It's been this way for years too so there is nothing but factory loaded bullets in the berm. That's why I was wondering if it made much of a difference knowing the content of the scrap.

[zxcvbob]

The stuff I get at the outdoor pistol range is hard lead; similar to WW's but a little softer and maybe has more tin in it. It's good stuff.

I just got 25 pounds (final ingot weight) of scrap last week at the indoor pistol range, and it is much softer. I can scratch it easily with my thumbnail, like pure lead. But the ingots have that sparkle look to them from the grain boundaries, and they are silvery colored rather than bluish. So there's tin or antimony or something in there -- I haven't tried casting any boolits with it yet because the Lee production pot is full of other stuff right now.

I mostly cast .45 Colt and .38 Special boolits, so I don't care what the alloy is as long as it's heavy and casts good.

[Jailer]

The stuff I get at the outdoor pistol range is hard lead; similar to WW's but a little softer and maybe has more tin in it. It's good stuff.

I just got 25 pounds (final ingot weight) of scrap last week at the indoor pistol range, and it is much softer. I can scratch it easily with my thumbnail, like pure lead. But the ingots have that sparkle look to them from the grain boundaries, and they are silvery colored rather than bluish. So there's tin or antimony or something in there -- I haven't tried casting any boolits with it yet because the Lee production pot is full of other stuff right now.

I mostly cast .45 Colt and .38 Special boolits, so I don't care what the alloy is as long as it's heavy and casts good.

Thats about what my ingots look like. Kinda shiny silver in color and crystalline looking. The center of them depresses as they cool too and the melt gets a gold colored oxidation on top when it's in the pot. My wheel weight ingots are light grey and dull looking. You can definitely see the difference between to two.

[44fanatic]

Looks like we have a similar source of lead, indoor sherrif range for me. I have found that once my pot gets going, I dont ever leave less than 3" of lead in the bottom until I am done.

Add about 1/8 of a bucket, skim the jackets, add more scrap until the pot is full. then flux the heck out of it and scrape the sides and bottom.

get about 75=80% lead

[Charlie Two Tracks]

I just tested some range scrap and got 13.5 bhn on a Lee tester. Don't know if that helps or not.

[lwknight]

I have gotten some range scrap from a local indoor range that is 99.9% jacketed bullets and they melt out to very soft almost pure lead and 15% copper. I can sell the copper for $0.45 out of every pound of range scrap. If I buy the range scrap for $0.50 , that leaves me with about 7 or 8 cents per pound in the lead after I sell the copper and brass jackets.

[zomby woof]

I've been using range scrap collected over a period of 8 to 10 years from a couple of different indoor ranges. It runs between 12 and 14 BHN air cooled and water drops 18 - 22. This from a dozen samples pulled from buckets all across the time line. It casts beautifully as is with no additions whatsoever.

The indoor scrap from our range is like this also. I mix 50/50 with WW and WQ for my rifles and it comes out hard as a rock.

I just cast some .38's with about a 4/1 RS/WW and they cast nice and were very hard.

I call it the magical scrap. We clean up about every three weeks and generate about 400lbs each time during the heavy fall/winter months.

I pull lots of jackets from the melt, it's no where near pure.

[largecaliberman]

I have been able to scrounge a bunch of range scrap of known origin. It's from our range at work so I know what has been shot into it as we are limited to what we can buy in our ammo contract. It is all .40 cal and 9mm Federal, Winchester or Remington ammo mostly FMJ but some hollow point as well. That and the same brands of 00 buck.

Is there any consistancy that can be expected from this being a known source? I don't have a hardness tester so I can't test the ingots I've smelted so far. I have about 100 lbs in ingots right now and about another 700 lbs of scrap to melt.

One more question too, does it take everyone else a LOOOOONG time to melt this stuff down? Spent 3 hours last night to get 22 muffin pan ingots. Takes me about 30 minutes to get that many with wheel weights.

I have been scrounging lead from one particular indoor shooting range that uses a lot of 22s, 38/357, 9mm and 44. I would try to smelt the largest batch possible (500-600 lbs) to get consistency. I tested a boolit for my 45 acp and the BHN is around 12.

When casting for my higher velocities such as the 357 and 44, I would take around 400 lb of range scrap and add in around 20 lbs of WWs (for the arsenic). After H20 Quenching the boolit and letting it sit for 2 weeks, the BHN would read slightly above 15.

The key is scrounge your lead that will permit to shoot only factory ammo. Lead acquired from ranges that allows other shooters to shoot reloads will leave you wide open to contaminants such as the dreaded zinc from other casters. ESPECIALLY now days, those who scrounge WWs from tire shops would tend to pickup zinc WWs.

[felix]

The name of the game is making the alloy perfect for the mold being used that day. Perfect? When 80 percent or more of the boolits weigh with no variation in weight. Sometimes it takes me 2 hours to get that alloy composition for the days work. I work with one mold per day, but when I really get frustrated in making lead, then I will select another mold where at least 50 percent have a perfect weight. Again, perfect weight means no variation. The actual weight provides an indication of what is in the alloy. BTW, arsenic prolly is not included in the current crop of WWs. If there is no garlic smell during the melting stage, then there is about zero arsenic included. ... felix

[Jailer]

Felix when you say no variation in weight, how close in weight to each other are you talking? A couple grains? A couple tenths of a grain? Exact weight?

[felix]

Exact = 0.00 deviation on a typical cheap scale, like a RCBS 5-10; 10-10. ... felix

[Jailer]

Ok, thanks.