Great Score Today

[Bear4570]

I got a call from the president of my gun club the other day asking if I would be interested in some range lead. They were cleaning up the pistol range. Told him sure and I would pick it up today while attending my weekly sunday morning pistol shoot.

11 - 5 gallon bucket of lead were loaded into my truck. Gotta be close to 1000 lbs.

Looking like I've got plans for the next couple of weekends

[cohutt]

If the buckets are full they are probably going to weigh 140++

This one had a lot of rocks and dirt and still yielded 130 lbs of ingots + a heavy bucket of jackets, dross dirt etc

[imashooter2]

By coincidence, I smelted 11 buckets of indoor range scrap just last spring. I got 850 - 900 standard Lyman brick ingots and a LOT of dirt/jackets and crap. My buckets were about the same level as cohutt shows or a little less. I figure the rough percentages of the stuff I got as 50% .22s, 25% commercial cast and 25% jacketed. It casts beautifully just as is, air cools soft and responds well to water quenching. Some of my favorite raw material! Congrats on the big haul!

[targetshootr]

Nice find. I'm guessing it's an outdoor range. How did they get it out of the berms, and why. Last summer I started picking up previously owned boolits from our berms on most every trip so now my net loss of lead is zero.

[Bear4570]

Nice find. I'm guessing it's an outdoor range. How did they get it out of the berms, and why. Last summer I started picking up previously owned boolits from our berms on most every trip so now my net loss of lead is zero.

The indoor backstop has about 3 sheets of heavy conveyor belt rubber backed by a steel plate angled down into a sand pit. There was about a 6" thick by 3' X 15' slab that they had to break up on top, then pull out the old sand, sift as much as possilbe back in the pit and refilled it will 1000 lbs of new sand.

Should last a while.

Did you guys do anything with the old copper jackets and gas checks that were mixed in after you smelted the lead?

[trooperdan]

Yeah, if you separate the copper-washed steel jackets out you can sell the true copper that is left! Some guys say they even sell the old primers, say they are all brass! I never thought of that! I've tossed many a pound of fired primers out!

[Bear4570]

Thanks, I don't throw old primers away either, got a 6 gallon bucket full, just sitting in the garage, mainly cause the durn thing is to heavy to move.

[imashooter2]

Did you guys do anything with the old copper jackets and gas checks that were mixed in after you smelted the lead?

The stuff I got as skim was so mixed and contaminated with burnt rubber and oil residues, dirt and whatever else didn't burn off that I didn't even consider taking it to the scrap yard, and I'm one of those guys that saves his primers. The dust that came off of that stuff was not something I was interested in being near either. I boxed it, sealed it and threw it away.

[imashooter2]

Thanks, I don't throw old primers away either, got a 6 gallon bucket full, just sitting in the garage, mainly cause the durn thing is to heavy to move.

$1.50 a pound last fall here in the Philly suburbs. Move that bucket!