Range shot

[caseyboy]

With the difficulty in finding wheelweights, I am thinking of alternatives. The last batch of WW that I got had about 1/3 steel/zinc weights included. The club I belong to has trap/skeet fields. The drop zone is a hillside. After heavy winter rains, the shot has piled up in the little rivulets that come done the hillside. Scooping up the shot is easy. I suppose that some is chilled and some is magnum and would probably average about 2.5% antimont. If I were to add say 2.5% tin (pewter) would this be a satisfactory WW replacement. Any guesses as to the BHN of this alloy air cooled?:drinks:

caseyboy.

[jbelder]

That's what I'm going to do, I bought 50lbs of reclaimed shot from Rotometals and I'm going to add 3.5 lbs of 40/60 solder. I think it should work just fine.

[WHITETAIL]

Get free lead anyway you can.
And be thankfull because any free source can dry up.:cbpour:

[WILCO]

Get free lead anyway you can.
And be thankfull because any free source can dry up.:cbpour:

+1!! A local tire shop was in business one day and gone the next.

[caseyboy]

Thanks guys, I agree. Get it while I can. Next time I am up there, I will fill a bucket with as much as I can carry. Should do that everytime I go to the range. In a short time, I will have hundreds of pounds. I can worry about smelting/cleaning later.

[caseyboy]

OK, scooped up about 20lbs of shot. Went home and smelted it down into ingots. Added 2% tin and proceeded to cast with my 314299 double banger for the Lee-Enfield. This stuff (shot plus tin) cast beautifully and the finished boolits seem to be about as hard as ACWW with 2% tin.

I will make a point of collecting as much of this as I can.:drinks:

caseyboy

[captain-03]

OK, scooped up about 20lbs of shot. Went home and smelted it down into ingots. Added 2% tin and proceeded to cast with my 314299 double banger for the Lee-Enfield. This stuff (shot plus tin) cast beautifully and the finished boolits seem to be about as hard as ACWW with 2% tin.

I will make a point of collecting as much of this as I can.:drinks:

caseyboy


Good show!! Get all you can!!

[*Paladin*]

How are you guys separating something as small in diameter as shot from the dirt? Just curious, because I haven't pursued reclaiming shot, but I know a spot to try depending on how big a pain in the *** it is...

[leadman]

Commercial reclaimers use a machine that blows air thru it as it drops. I have done this with a large floor fan and it does work to a point.
A screen seems to work better, followed by water.
I have cast reclaimed shot without the addition of any tin and it still casts well. If you have a mold like the older 38 SWC designs that do not fill out well you may need to add tin. Always good to try with no tin first to save money.
Most of the shot for target loads has a higher antimony content than the cheap loads from the big box stores.

[Mugs]

Have been mixing my WW 50/50 with recovered shot plus a small amount of Lino. for Tin. WD all boolits, looks good and shoots good.
Mugs
IHMSA 5940L

[mold maker]

This isn't a chicken little story. The end of free and cheap lead is going to end much sooner than later. More than not being available as in WWs, all it takes is a stroke of the pen to eliminate most other sources. It will happen in our lifetime. This years elections did little to forestall the inevitable.
Get all you can, from every source you can, while it's still there. Having tons of it in any form is poor mans gold.
Remember when Gold was $200. an oz???? Well, the fed gov isn't trying to outlaw it, and it's $1300. + today, and I look for $1800.+ this year.

[Spector]

I have reclaimed lead shot during the wet winter months and used water through a small screen to clean it. I have also dry processed it through a larger screened frame during the hot dry summer months. Either way I always do it where I find the lead shot so no lead waste leaves the site.

I found some relatively cheap foreign made stainless steel window screen, but before I could use my newest set-up the drought broke in my area and it has been too wet to dry process the lead shot since then.

I have mounted wheels and a handle on my frame. Actually I use 3 stacked frames. The top one with 1/4'' hardware cloth. The next frame down is 1/8'' hardware cloth. The lowest frame with stainless steel window screen. The upper screens remove the larger sticks and rocks and both of those frames are removable from the wheel mounted lower frame.

I used 18'' spoked wheels and mounted them so it is easy to tip the frame and dump the shot into a box while all the dirt is returned to the exact spot where it and the shot was scraped up from.

I have filled eight 2-liter drink bottles with reclaimed shot so far while 2 friends have gotten at least 4 more. Each bottle holds right at 25 pounds of shot. It does not pattern as well as new shot, but is very usable as is for close in shots.

I still have about a half ton of ingoted, soft, nearly pure lead and 100 pounds of WW. But the reclaimed shot is free for me at the moment. Might be competition by this summer though after others read this thread. ha ha

I did not get as good of fill-out using lead shot as some have described even after adding 3% tin. I must have another problem I have yet to diagnose. No problem in the past with WW + 2% tin..............Mike