Mining lead...

[offshore44]

The place out in the sticks that I shoot at is a pretty popular place.

I was thinking of taking a bucket and a shovel out the next time I went to dig up a little lead for future casting. What should I expect? How far into the berm is the lead going to be? Just wondering.

[clodhopper]

If every body shoots in the same place, like into a back board, then behind it there will bullets will be lying on top of the dirt, and many very shallow under the surface.
If your spot is just a hilside or dirt bank the bullets will be several inches deep and getting any lead will be lots of work.
You could build a target board and leave it out there to encourage other shooters to shoot at the same place so you can mine it later.

[garym1a2]

Bring a kitty litter scoper , it works better than a shovel. Look for spots in the sand where boolits group together. Little boolits not worth the effort, go for the 45's and large boolits.

The suggestion to leave some targets is a good one.


The place out in the sticks that I shoot at is a pretty popular place.

I was thinking of taking a bucket and a shovel out the next time I went to dig up a little lead for future casting. What should I expect? How far into the berm is the lead going to be? Just wondering.

[Sonnypie]

If you have a brass sifter, that would be good to take along.
And the kitty litter scooper would be my second choice.
Because I have a couple or 3 sifters, but no kitties. I like kitties, just don't have any.

[btroj]

I prefer the old fashioned Mark V fingers.
My opinion is that the method used to gather berm lead is more related to soil type than anything else.
Here in eastern NE we have clay. A sieve or screen doesn't work too well. Using fingers to pick up the bullets seems better to me.
I would love to have a sandy berm, would make screening work so much faster.
I find must bullets on or just below the surface. Each rain brings more to the surface.

[runfiverun]

i dig a trench from bottom to top about 1' deep [shovel head depth] picking out what i see and turning the dirt over.
i toss the rocks away.
after the third trip up i use the dirt to fill in the trench.
i just shake the dirt off the shovel.
if its just a pile of dirt with a target in front of it, i go around and especially behind it for about 15 yds, and pick them off the ground and bottom of the hill.

[bpratl]

I find that it is easy pickings, after a rain, because most of the bullets are setting on the surface.

[Franklin7x57]

I use a sand flea rake, I use it on the pistol range and the bullets are on top. About 5 "rakes" I have enough that's all I want to carry up the hill. Takes 2 minutes tops and no damage to the beam. 2 trips to the range usually yields about 60 lbs. Not bad for 5 minutes work.

[offshore44]

Good info guys! Thanks!

The area is a dirt berm (actually a double dirt berm, one above the other) I collect a lot of brass there during the shooting season. Especially just before deer and elk season. The idea of putting up target boards is a good one as well. I'll scrounge up some fixin's and a post hole digger.

So, the list of additional tools that are going along next time: Shovel, Rake, Brass Screen, bucket. I usually take along a couple garbage bags to clean up the junk that people leave behind.

The rains have set in for the winter here, so the next trip may be pretty productive. I know that I have about 30 - 40 pounds of lead into that berm in chunks ranging from 190 to 465 grains. It would be nice to get some of that back for reuse.

[fredj338]

A 2x4 frame you can handle w/ some 1/4 hardware mesh makes a great sifter. Just dump shovels of dirt in, shake & pull out the bullets. Most will eb found form on top to about 8-10" deep in the soil. Takes me about 20min to pull 50# out. Just make sure you put the berm back the way you found it or better. That way they won't stop you from mining it.

[mold maker]

For years I used a comercial round deep fry basket to sift lead from red NC dirt. I finally broke the handle off and wore holes in it. I was just the right size to sit in the top of a 5 gal bucket.
I must have collected 1,000+ lbs with it.

[Oreo]

The litter scoop works well in really bone dry dirt. Even if the dirt is in clumps you can break it up with the shovel. When it's dry it sifts easy but a little moisture will make sifting damn near impossible. In that case just pick what you can off the surface with your hands.

Don't worry too much about getting the dirt & rocks out though. Just try to get more bullets then dirt. You can rinse off your ore when you get home or if it's not too too bad you can just melt it as is & skim the dirt right off the top easy. First time I melted a batch I did it without rinsing. I was surprised that by weight it was 90% lead, 5% jackets 5% dirt. By volume it was only 50% lead. After skimming off all the dirt I sifted out the jackets and then used an aquarium vacuum & a 5gal bucket of water to rinse the dirt. What was left in the bucket was several lbs more lead at about the consistency of sand. It had been mixed in with the dirt. The aquarium vacuum makes sepparating out the dirt from this lead sand pretty easy, just a little time consuming.

[Thor's Daddy]

...I sifted out the jackets and then used an aquarium vacuum & a 5gal bucket of water to rinse the dirt.... The aquarium vacuum makes sepparating out the dirt from this lead sand pretty easy, just a little time consuming...

Oreo, you may have just doubled my weekly haul!

I mine an indoor range and there's a ton of "teeny bits" that pile up at the bottom of the backstop. It's pretty dirty and I haven't found a good way to separate the lead out... until now!

It's certainly worth 10 bucks to find out. Thanks!

[Oreo]

The trick is to not worry about the finer stuff too much. Kinda like paning for gold. Don't be affraid to get your hands in the bucket to stir things up. When the water gets so dirty you can't see through it anymore just dump it out & fill it up again. You'll know you're done when the water doesn't get as dirty. You're not going to get all the dirt this way but I think its enough to smelt & skim the results.

[offshore44]

Lots of good info here. Outstanding!

The supply of wheel weights is getting pretty thin in my AO, and I'm getting broke'r by the minute. This is good info for me.

This little mining expedition will actually "improve" the contours of the berm up there. The slope on the berm is slowly getting shallower as the local folks shoot into it. A little shovel work would make me an unknown hero to the local crowd, and I get lead for casting. What's not to like about that? There is one spot where I may get a LOT of lead out. I'm looking forward to the adventure and using the tips that have been provided.

[jonas302]

Might as well drop an old wire spool for a shooting bench to make brass pickup easier too

[jmsj]

offshore44,
Here's a picture of a shovel I use to scoop up the dirt from the berm. I give it a few shakes to get rid of most of the dirt before I toss what's left on a frame with 1/4" hardware cloth nailed on it.
http://i961.photobucket.com/albums/ae97/jmsj515/detonicsframecomanderslide002-1.jpg

Good luck,jmsj

[RidgerunnerAk]

Nice shovel! I like it. You can also just put a piece of screen/hardware cloth over a wheel barrow and shovel stuff onto it and keep dumping the oversize off. We did this looking for jewelry in the ashes of my neighbors house when it burned to the ground. We actually found surviving diamonds, gold and other gemstones in the ashes!

[2wheelDuke]

offshore44,
Here's a picture of a shovel I use to scoop up the dirt from the berm. I give it a few shakes to get rid of most of the dirt before I toss what's left on a frame with 1/4" hardware cloth nailed on it.
http://i961.photobucket.com/albums/ae97/jmsj515/detonicsframecomanderslide002-1.jpg

Good luck,jmsj

That's a great idea. I wonder if I have an old shovel around that I could modify.