Range lead pickup!

[Freightman]

I went to the range yesterday, I was the only one there, I think I am the only "old" man tough or dumb enough to be there. Temp. was 96 and wind 30mph from the south, the range lies south to north so it doesn't affect shooting to much. Anyhow if I wait for a calm day here I might get to shoot two days a year.
Noticed lead just lying all over the ground in front of the berm and on top of the berm which is flat for about 15 yards, so I got my truck and backed up to the back of the berm and got on top with my rake sieve and shovel and raked the lead up in piles and sifted it. In a short while I had a five gallon pail full of really good cast boolits. It only took the top 1" and there was that much more exposed b y the rake but I can only take the heat for so long, and it isn't going anywhere so next time I am there by myself.
This berm has been turned over and rebuilt with the same sand for the last 60 years so there is a lot of lead in it.

[wrench]

Gosh that sounds great! At my range, the dirt has a lot of small rocks in it, so my attempts at sifting out bullets is met with a sifter full of rocks. I've only been successful actually picking out the lead by hand.
Time consuming.

[btroj]

I pick by hand. I find that in under an hour of picking I can easily get well over 50 pounds.
I pick as I shoot.

Put up a target, bowling pin, whatever. Shoot a few rounds, maybe 50 or 100 if handguns. Go change targets, pick up a cup or two of spent bullets.
Repeat that a few times and ou can get quite a bit. It makes it much less like work in my opinion.

I have well over 200 pounds of scrap I need to melt down. That is far more lead than I shot all year. I plan to get another 200 pounds by the end of the year.

[Freightman]

Just smelted a six quart + two quart batch weighed 100# +- and I got 86# of good lead BHN of around 15/16, and I ran out of steam I have five more gallons to smelt but it is starting to get hot.
Will get five more gallons next trip to the range. I was told I could mine all I wanted if I dressed the berms down after I am through, and as I said the range has three pistol ranges and two rifle ranges and it has been shot in since '51.
If I was younger I would invest in a shaker and separate a lot, but at 73 I can get all I need for me and my sons with simpler tools.

[Any Cal.]

I went picking after some good rain, and ended up with twenty-eight lbs. It takes me about an hour to get twenty lbs usually, if it goes slower than that I wait for another day. Getting fifty or a hundred lbs would be a nice haul! :-)

[pergoman]

Has anyone come up with a simple and effective sifting screen device for getting the lead away from the dirt and small rocks? The traditional sloped chute with a 1/4" hardware cloth bottom lets a lot of small rocks make it to the bottom along with the boolits. There is a lot of time spent picking out rocks before smelting. The rocks float and can be skimmed off the molten pb but it seems to slow things down as far as getting the batch into liquid.

[beagle]

I was wondering about that. How about a rotary lawn mower with a slightly off balance blade and a heavy metal screen type arrangement.

Heavy slotted stainless steel grates use to be available from the coal mines that were used in the grading operation but they've all dissappeared on barbeque grills./beagle


Has anyone come up with a simple and effective sifting screen device for getting the lead away from the dirt and small rocks? The traditional sloped chute with a 1/4" hardware cloth bottom lets a lot of small rocks make it to the bottom along with the boolits. There is a lot of time spent picking out rocks before smelting. The rocks float and can be skimmed off the molten pb but it seems to slow things down as far as getting the batch into liquid.

[Cactus Farmer]

To sort the lead from the rocks,use a vacuum but set to blow air and blow it from the bottom. The rocks leave but not so with the dense lead. We harvested lead shot while I was in the USAF. Built a drum on a jeep wheel to tumble it to remove the oxidation,a quick wash and then tumble with graphite to lube it. Killed many birds for cheap. We even recycled the old wads. YMMV

[btroj]

I stick with hand picking for several reasons.
I don't want to get in trouble with the powers that be in the club
I don't want to carry more "stuff" to the range with me.
I am not doing this on a commercial scale.
My current methods are providing me with very adequate results.

If I can spend some time shooting and then pick up 25 to 30 pounds of scrap all in a 2.5 pur visit to the range I am quite happy. I figure I can aside get 300 to 400 pounds of scrap a year. That should give my 250 to 300 pounds of very nice alloy.


My feeling is that you need to use something that fits your needs, wants, and abilities.

[Any Cal.]

You might use bigger grating so you lose the rocks. For me, I don't worry about the small caliber stuff, since it takes a lot of it to get much lead, and it is all soft. Now and again I will use expanded metal, it lets stuff smaller than nine mil fall through.

[TheGrimReaper]

I pick by hand too. Time consuming....but hey it is FREE lead!

[mold maker]

For those that hand pick, a double jointed pair of needle nose pliers (14" long) sure save your back. It is good for improving hand eye coordination too.

[zomby woof]

at our last match I got yelled at for "Mining the berm" while everyone else was scoring. It was easy pickings too. It's a very busy range. I'm pissed, I shoot there once a month and usually walk home with more lead than I leave.

[Frank46]

At one of our range club meetings it was discussed that folks try and take better care of the facilities. then my name was mentioned as doing my part in mining the pistol berms. I made up a frame from 2x4" and used 1/4" hardware cloth as the screen. In about an hour I had two buckets of spent bullets. Since most of us shot hard cast store bought stuff I keep it separate if I need to sweeten up some lead. Frank