Plenty of Range Lead

[captain-03]

My local range seems to be bonanza for range lead .... sitting there for the taking ... rules no not permit mining the berms; however, you can pick-up all you want!!

http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss241/captain-03/Casting%20-%20Loading/IMG_3971.jpg

http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss241/captain-03/Casting%20-%20Loading/IMG_3970.jpg

http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss241/captain-03/Casting%20-%20Loading/IMG_3969.jpg

http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss241/captain-03/Casting%20-%20Loading/IMG_3968.jpg

http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss241/captain-03/Casting%20-%20Loading/IMG_3979.jpg

http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss241/captain-03/Casting%20-%20Loading/IMG_3980.jpg

[kyswede]

Got to stop drooling on the keyboard.
kyswede

[zxcvbob]

My gun club is talking about hiring a company to extract the lead from the berms. Makes me sad to think about it, but I've got my hands full already; bucketfuls of scrap from the indoor range (about 700 to 800 pounds) sitting in my garage waiting to be melted-down.

I *think* the company actually pays the club for the lead rather than the other way around, but I'm not sure.

[sundog]

My range yields the same way, especially after it dries after a rain. I've got a screen and can scoop up a 5-gal bucket full in about 20 minutes. A trip to the range when conditions are right will get 2 or 3 buckets real easy, several times a year. It is a must to make sure you do not breath the dust and wash your hands immediately after scooping.

[zxcvbob]

How large is your screen?

I'm guessing about 18x24" box made with 1x4" or 1x3" lumber, with 1/4" hardware cloth attached to the bottom using long staples.

[odinohi]

Looks to be 300lbs there after smelting. Dont forget to take those jackets to the scrap yard. Good find!

[RobS]

Good go at berm skimming............I may have my hand in it again as time frees up a bit.

[jmsj]

captain-03,
That is an amazing amount of lead! I can't help feeling a little envious. The range that I have access to gets little use and there is no where near that amount of range scrap available.
Great find, jmsj

[bowfin]

I did the math figuring out how much lead is in a little trap range that has been shooting since 1918. Conservative estimate is 235,000 pounds of lead out there in just a few acres.

Problem is, recovering that lead shot would be more problematic than sifting out range lead.

[Russel Nash]

it was either on this forum or the shotgunworld forum that I heard a shop vac works really well for sucking up birdshot off a trap/skeet range. supposedly the trick was to have enough sag in the hose that the shot settles in the hose and doesn't make the trip all the way inside to the shop vac,s cannister.

nice find ya got there captain.

[sh00ter787]

i take a bucket, screen and shovel every time I shoot, there is only 2 others at my range who join me so atm its still good!

although I am slightly worried that the other members have gone from taking the mickey to estimating how much weight we are getting every week.... gotta empty it before everyone else starts!

[Jal5]

Yeah it is the best free source of lead that I have. My club is the same, no digging but picking those nuggest off the top is great, if a little tough on the old back! I try to bring home much more than I shoot each trip to the range. In a couple of trips I have a 3 gal pail full easily.

The public range is the one I can dig on, and I need to make up a screening rig. I have been thinking about a 3 gal bucket with the bottom cut out and replace with screening.

Joe

[Jeffrey]

Watch carefully for live rounds (bad primer. live powder). MEGA tinsel fairy.

[WILCO]

Got to stop drooling on the keyboard.

Oh yeah. Jaw hurts from drooping.........

[Centaur 1]

Unless you live in a coastal area you probably don't know what a sand flea rake is. Take a look at this link and you'll get the idea. They're basically just a scoop that you pull towards you, and the scoop is made from metal screen, expanded metal or any type of perforated metal that will catch lead and let dirt fall through the holes.

http://www.pierandsurf.com/fishing-forum/showthread.php?52584-Homemade-Sand-Flea-Rake

[Russel Nash]

image google is our friend:

http://www.shoreproducts.com/images/beachsandrakes.gif

http://www.nationalathleticstore.com/fishing/cpi_designs_photos/sand_flea_rake_lg_2.jpg

[Jal5]

I have seen those rakes, but never handled one. How will it stand up to our use for getting bullets from the berm? Anyone tried to use this yet?

[captain-03]

Unless you live in a coastal area you probably don't know what a sand flea rake is. Take a look at this link and you'll get the idea. They're basically just a scoop that you pull towards you, and the scoop is made from metal screen, expanded metal or any type of perforated metal that will catch lead and let dirt fall through the holes.

http://www.pierandsurf.com/fishing-forum/showthread.php?52584-Homemade-Sand-Flea-Rake


Now that is something that I could use -- looks like just the thing for gathering surface range lead ... going to look into building one ...

[Texasflyboy]

Now that is something that I could use -- looks like just the thing for gathering surface range lead ... going to look into building one ...

What I did was to go to a junkyard and basically get a truck wheel and part of the hub assembly.

The tire was mounted on the rim. I welded a simple stand that put the tire about waist level. Using a Sawz All, I cut two sections 180 degrees apart in the tread portion of the tire about 12" square. Like two doors. I covered the "doors" with 1/4" hardware cloth held in place with dry wall screws.

The way I used it was to open one of the doors, and then shovel in shovel fulls of range scrap. Spin the tire and the dirt fell out of the screened "door" areas. Stopped the rotation when one of the doors was at 6 O'cock and dumped it into a 5 gallon bucket.

Repeat until tired.

I mined about 2,000 lbs of range scrap this way.

The spinning tire really got rid of a lot of the dirt in the scrap.

Later on, I had access to a water line and I would wash the scrap while it was inside the tire to get it even cleaner. Stopping the tire with the doors at 3 and 9 O'clock would let me fill the bottom of the tire with water and anything that floated would just float out as the tire filled with water. Rocking the tire while it was filled with water would dislodge any floatable junk. Then, spin the tire, and the water came out.

Easy Peasy.

[Russel Nash]

this is the new fangled sifter box that archeoligists use out on dig sites:

http://www.public.asu.edu/~iullah/AAA%20SCREEN%20DETAIL.jpg

I just made the top portion out of 1/8" by 1/8" hardware cloth/screen. The frame is made out out one 8 foot long one by four. cut two pieces 32 inches long, cut the remaining 32 inch long piece in half to yield two 16 inch long pieces.

stand them up on edge and screw it all together at the corners, to make a rectangle.

I drilled two holes on each narrow end. Then inserted a 16" long piece of rope through the holes, tied a knot in each end and VOILA! I had rope handles.

Then stapled the hardware cloth to what would be underside of the box or frame.

I will take a garden rake and a flat transfer shovel out to the range. I use the garden rake like a broom to sweep the top layer of dirt and boolits into the flat transfer shovel which is like a big dust pan. then after about 5 shovel-fulls into the screen box, i will bend over, prop my elbows on my knees, grab the rope handles and commence the shaking.

just be careful out there folks with those plastic 5 gallon buckets. I had filled a bucket too much and all the weight made the bucket pull free from the handle. I just about had 80 pounds of dirt and lead crash onto my foot. I'm sure it would have broken a bone had it landed right on my instep or toes.

so now I just fill 5 gallon buckets halfway and that's it.

[Wally]

I have taken a metal coffee can and cut out the bottom--attached a 3/8" mesh hardware cloth to the tottom that is held with a strip of metal to the can. You can push it through sand as a scoop and then allow it to filter out the bullets...the sand has to by dry for this to work well. Also constructed a 12" x 24" wooden frame with the bottom covered in 1/4" hardware cloth. You shovel in the sand and then lift for allowing the sand to filter though. It is very fast and comparitively easy---you can sift a lot of sand in a very short time. You can also make a rake out of an 18" long 2x4---pound in 4" long nailes in a row spaced a bit less than 1/4" apart---drill a hole and attache a long handle--this works extremely well as you pull it through the dry sand...it is the easiest method by far---

[captain-03]

Only problem here is that I can not DIG into the berm ... surface lead only ...

[Russel Nash]

yeah, that's why I bring the garden rake with me, and drag some dirt, but mostly boolits down the bottom of the berm and into flat transfer shovel.

If you had electricity out there close to the berm, I do gotta wonder how a shopvac would do as far as sucking the boolits and some dirt up just from the surface.

whatever dirt I end up sifting out I put back onto the berm where the erosion seems to be the worst...so it's kinda like berm maintennance too at the same time.

[evan price]

Must be nice- here in Ohio our berms are thick soil, mostly clay, and the rake & sifting does not work. I hand pick the ones laying on top and it takes about 1 hour for 30 pounds depending on how motivated I am.

[btroj]

Yep, same type of soil in Nebraska. So much clay that the dirt forms into hard globs. Our best bet is a period of hot, dry day then fire some big boomers like 45-70 into the berm to loosen it up. Then pick out what we can. I figure 10 pounds on a trip is good.
Between the FIL and I we get about 100 plus pounds per year. Sadly, we add much more than that to the berm. It is interesting to find bullets that you know you fired, most likely nobody else with that group buy mould.

[Russel Nash]

have any of you guys thought about approaching an indoor range to take their lead and copper bullet fragments off their hands?

I'm just curious as to what their response would be.

[btroj]

Local indoor range here sells it. I have asked. They seem to know what the metals market is doing. Over 10 years ago they were getting 35 bucks for a 5 gallon bucket, have to imagine it is well over 50 a bucket now.
Was at a different club in the area. Lots of spent bullets on the berm, I just didn't have anything to put them in. Will be back there soon with a few buckets, that is for sure. If I can get 25 pounds in a half hour or so I will be satisfied.

Brad

[zxcvbob]

We had our cleanup day a couple of weeks ago at the gun club. I got several buckets of lead from cleaning the indoor range. (wrote about it here: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=114531) They thanked me for hauling it off for them, and said to help myself to more any time I want to bring a hoe and a pail along when I shoot. I've got a 5 gallon bucket full of ingots out of it so far; I think that's about 400 pounds. Not enough jackets to mess with because this range only allows lead and plated bullets. I still have about 2.5 buckets of unprocessed lead to go.

It's kind of messy to render because it has bits of rubber mixed in, so it smells like a tire fire. I try not to let it flame up.

[barefoot1]

Range lead?, Lots of cooper left over , what or how do we deal with it. Piles of crumpled cooper help.

[tomme boy]

OK, tell me how you get the lead out of some of the bullets that are FMJ?? When I pick up range lead I look at the bottom of the bullets to see if it is open or a fmj. It it is not open on one end or the other i pitch them. Any way to save these? It seems that about a 1/3 of the ones I pick up I have the bases covered. I don't want to have to drill a hole in these to save them. Any suggestions?

[bumpo628]

OK, tell me how you get the lead out of some of the bullets that are FMJ?? When I pick up range lead I look at the bottom of the bullets to see if it is open or a fmj. It it is not open on one end or the other i pitch them. Any way to save these? It seems that about a 1/3 of the ones I pick up I have the bases covered. I don't want to have to drill a hole in these to save them. Any suggestions?

You could smelt them with a lid on the pot so that they don't spray when they pop.
I only pick up a few pounds at a time, so I just hit them with a hammer & chisel.

[a.squibload]

Smash 'em with a hammer, they should split.

[saltydog452]

Beats rocks any day.

Back when it was safe to do so, we used to go camping with the kiddos in Big Bend TX. Part of our stuff was a pot metal RG .22 Short and some CB Caps.

A 'Wham-O Wrist Rocket' sling shot and a pouch of FMJ bullets from the backstop was also part of the gear.

salty

[sargenv]

My club recently was cleaned up by a company that does it. If we hit 100,000 pounds of lead, the treatment was going to be "free". Likely they will spend the diesel and man hours and just sell the lead as scrap. The last time it was cleaned I think they took out about 150,000 pounds. Though that time it was a different company and they charged us quite a bit.. The benefit is now that they processed the lead out of the berms is nice new sand that they re-deposit on the berms.. so my "picking" will be a tad easier until it gets all filled with shotgun wads, clay targets, and other junk.

[sh00ter787]

the thought of a company charging to steal my main supply of lead would turn my blood cold!

i always think im doing a service by taking home bits of clays, stones and not forgetting 30lbs at least of the sand contaminant every-time I shoot :D