Rule of thumb on range lead?

[myfriendis410]

Has anyone ever determined an approximate alloy derived from range lead? I would think that almost any pistol range you sampled would have a similar result and should be pretty valid anywhere. I have access to a range that has NEVER been mined except for a couple of us for our own casting. I'm getting good results, just wondering.

[tom threepersons]

I have 1,300 lbs of range lead melted down into ingots. It seems to be close to WW metal. This was 100% indoor shooting range lead. The jackets brought $150.00 dollars at the salvage yard.

[sargenv]

I've never determined an alloy.. but I can tell you that the berm lead I get has a wide range of hardnesses. I've gotten alloy as low as about 8 bhn and as high as about 14. This all tested on the LBT tool. I usually do about 80 # batches, water quenching the ingots to see what I'll get out of them.. they usually come in about 12 bhn. The range I go to has a mix of shooters who shoot factory (usually leo), reloaded jacketed (usually Zero or Montana Gold), and various cast bullets (Bear creek Moly coated and others). I try to pick up the larger 40 and 45 bullets but will not nitpick if I find the smaller 9mm slugs. Sometimes I find occasional pockets of Shotgun slugs and I also pick the pulverized lead off of the steel plate racks we have.

[clodhopper]

A rule of thumb may be very hard to come by.
But heres some of information valid where I get scrap lead.
You can find many .40, ,45, and 50 Cal rifle bullets in some berms, and visiting with the shooters they are useing any alloy from home mixed 1-20, 1-30, roto- metals stuff they bought, to wheel weights.
Over on the pistol range I have visited with lead miners who only picked up cast bullets and left the jacketed, assumming they were getting harder lead with some tin.
In my area Oregon Trail Laser cast bullets are avalable at the gunshows, so people buy them in quanity with out haveing to pay big shipping costs. These bullets are hard and quite often found in the dirt berm with the lube intact.
At the indoor range it's mostly .22lr with plated pistol bullets.
Rules I undertsand:
If it was cast it will cast again.
Big cast rifle bullets may contain more tin than other lead sources.
I do not have info what is in swaged bullets, from the .22 long rifle to the plated pistol bullets.

[Defcon-One]

It is a mix of ??????!

Nobody knows, every batch is slightly different, so you really can't know! I'd melt it into one big lot, all the same basic composition, and then test it to check hardness, etc. and go from there. A little Tin will usually get it done. 1-2% is typical.

No rule will ever work! That's why I like Pure and Wheel Weights, at least there is an average mix that you can apply.

I can only melt about 80 pounds in my pot. I recently got a couple hundred pounds of Range Lead. I did small batches of about 45-50 pounds and marked each batch with a lot number. Then when done I mixed about 15 pounds from each lot in the pot to form a common alloy, poured it into ingots and then reapeated, 15 lbs. from each lot, melt, pour ingots. In the end, all of my range lead was as close to identical composition as possible. Then just test it and work up a recipe with Pure Lead and Tin that gets you where you want to be. All the same in the ingots, means all the same once alloyed and poured into bullets!

[Larry Gibson]

I cleaned out 2 indoor ranges several times some years back that allowed bullets up to 2000 fps. I currently have about 700 lbs of the alloy left. There was a mixture of .22LR, hard and soft cast bullets and alloys from jacketed bullet cores (mostly 9mm and .45). Never had the alloy tested but knowing the general composition of the alloys used in the above it was obvious there was a high antimony and low tin content. The bullets cast of that alloy would shatter or break apart with the "hammer test', heat treated very well and still left a "wash" on bores even at lower velocities.

The ingots I have are about 10 years old and the BHN as of last week was 14 as tested with the Lee tester. In the outset that seems pretty good but too high an antimony level is indicated by excellent hardening properties, shattering (shows a definate crystaline structure in the breaks) and the "wash" in the bore. I experimented by adding just tin in amounts from 2 to 5% which helped quite a bit. Best results came by adding 2-3% lead and 3 % tin which gave the alloy a property very similar to Lyman's #2 alloy (90% lead/5% tin/ 5% antimony. The ingots made of that alloy show a BHN of 15-16 with the Lee tester and WQ to 21 - 24 BHN depending on the size of the bullet. That's the "mix" I use with my batch of range lead. You could infer that is the 'rule" but it only applies to the batch of range lead I have on hand.

If you've enough range lead like me or threepersons (I had that much at one time) it is well worth experimenting by adding tin and/or lead to determine what is going to work best for your needs. Since the amounts of whatever kinds of alloy were used are going to vary, even off the same range at different times, it is hard to say what "rule" should be used. If you are mining non commercial cast bullets only then you've probably got a pretty good alloy to begin with. If there is a large percentage of commercial cast, .22LR and jacketed bullets then the alloy will have a higher concentration of antimony than you'll probably want for best results. Adding tin and probably some lead is the solution (is that a pun?) but how much is the answer/rule you will have to determine based on the range lead you have.

Larry Gibson

[fredj338]

I find range lead to between pure & clip ww, so I treat it all as what I call 50/50 alloy. pure lead & clip ww. Good as is for 45acp full pressures & lower pressures in other service rounds.

[myfriendis410]

Thanks for the response. I have been using range lead in my shot maker, the .45 acp and low pressure .41 mag loads for twenty years with good results. I save the ww material for the Sharps. I do adulterate the range lead with about 2% tin and get good results. This is an outdoor range and it is a mix of .22, jacketed, and cast. The concentration is nearly pure down to about six inches. It REALLY needs to be worked on, but my back can only take small doses of it at one time.

[Iron Mike Golf]

I get my range lead from a local smelter. They recover from three different ranges, I think. It is mostly cores from jacketed pistol rounds. They smelt it and cast clean ingots. They had samples assayed and it runs around 2% Sb and a few tenths % Sn. I treat it as 98/0/2 when alloying.