One more thing we will have to look for in range scrap

[tomme boy]

http://www.ammunitiontogo.com/product_info.php/pName/10rds-12-gauge-winchester-superx-2-34-34oz-zinc-slug/manufacturers_id/23


Winchester has a new ZINC foster type slug. I can't wait to find these at the range!:evil::evil::evil:

[btroj]

Im not too worried. Nebraska doesn't require shotguns for deer hunting so to many here shoot slugs. I find very, very few slugs in the berms at my club.

Sure glad I don't shoot in an area with lots of slug shooters.

[DukeInFlorida]

I go slow with my smelts. Some people start with a very full pot (big mistake), and crank up the flame madly. Also, big mistake.

I leave a puddle in the bottom of the smelting pot (marked with a sharpie as to alloy), and add small amounts at time to that, increasing the volume as I go. Anything that doesn;t immediately start to melt gets skimmed right out. Never a chance for my smelt to go too high in temperature, and always in control in terms of getting any errant zinc out as soon as possible.

I haven't seen any zinc slug yet, but I certainly skim out lots of powdered metal type frangeable bullets.

[tomme boy]

Here in Iowa it is the main way of taking deer. I find a large amount of them. I use them as a base for most of my casting I find so many of them. I picked up over 40 lbs of them this week alone. I am going to start trying to smash them with channel locks to check them from now on.

One good thing I also found about 100 of the solid copper ones. These add up way faster than bullet jackets for the scrap pile.

[imashooter2]

I sure am glad I got in the game 40 years ago. Can't help but feel sorry for the guys just starting out. :-|

[btroj]

You guys across the Missouri river have it harder that way. I find very few slugs here in NE.

Never though of those all copper slugs as a source of revenue. I was leaving them behind, need to start grabbing them.

I am lucky to have a few berms shot purely with handguns. I love a 45 ACP guy, nice big slugs that tend to stay close to the surface.

Imashooter, it isn't bad. Not that I am a new guy but it just takes some determination, inventiveness, and patience. I added 500 pounds this year solely by gathering range scrap. I bring home more lead each trip out than i took with me. It really isn't difficult.

[imashooter2]

You guys across the Missouri river have it harder that way. I find very few slugs here in NE.

Never though of those all copper slugs as a source of revenue. I was leaving them behind, need to start grabbing them.

I am lucky to have a few berms shot purely with handguns. I love a 45 ACP guy, nice big slugs that tend to stay close to the surface.

Imashooter, it isn't bad. Not that I am a new guy but it just takes some determination, inventiveness, and patience. I added 500 pounds this year solely by gathering range scrap. I bring home more lead each trip out than i took with me. It really isn't difficult.

Yeah, but things have come a long way from stopping into any gas station in town and they'll have Bob carry that bucket of trash out to your car with a smile. I see more and more "lead free" bullets in the future. Slugs dug from dirt will skim off just like zinc WW. But my latest sources have all been indoor ranges with steel backstops. How will zinc bullets react in the pot once finely pulverized? Will the fine particles hit with the heat at the bottom of a pot melt before the lead around them allows them to migrate to the top?

I sure am glad I've already got mine...

[btroj]

How many of the frantible bullets are zinc based? Most I have seen are a sintered copper/tin mix. That doesn't bother me a bit.
Most of what I am finding here is either cast or traditional FMJ bullets. A few are plated. I have not found any I could clearly say were frangable.
It does pay to live in a state with a low number of greenies.

Scrap yards here still sell to me so that avenue still is open. Just one more reason I like NE.

[imashooter2]

I hear you about today's berms and traps. Tomorrow's berms and traps are the concern... Maybe I'm just a pessimist.

[ArrowJ]

I sure am glad I got in the game 40 years ago. Can't help but feel sorry for the guys just starting out. :-|

Yeah, I was hoping to start casting this spring, but I am just going to reload jacketed and hopefully I will hit the jackpocket (as my daughter says) during 2013. If I cannot find several hundred lbs free or darn close I will not be doing it.

[a.squibload]

Zinc is much harder than lead, wouldn't zinc
bullets be more likely to ricochet?
Wondering if indoor ranges would allow them.
Type of trap could be important.

[Jal5]

WOW picking 500#s of range scrap this year alone is a lot. I try to pick up some each range trip but nothing like what you are accomplishing.

[merlin101]

http://www.ammunitiontogo.com/product_info.php/pName/10rds-12-gauge-winchester-superx-2-34-34oz-zinc-slug/manufacturers_id/23


Winchester has a new ZINC foster type slug. I can't wait to find these at the range!:evil::evil::evil:

At $15. a box of five I don't think I'll be seeing many of em.

[evan price]

WOW picking 500#s of range scrap this year alone is a lot. I try to pick up some each range trip but nothing like what you are accomplishing.

I picked up over 800# net of range lead after smelting this year from the berms. We had a drought and the normally muddy berm was dry as baked clay and I could use a kitty-litter scoop to skim off the lead. I use the 2.5 gallon Quickrete patch compound buckets and put 30# or so in each to balance the load. Make several trips with light buckets. Tried the 5-gallon bucket full once and nearly herniated myself.

[btroj]

Yep, the hot dry summer made berm picking easier. The berms were almost turned to dust on the surface. No clumps of clay stuck to bullets. I would fire a few rounds of 44 mag into an area and bunches of bullets would be thrown to the surface.

I usually get 20 to 30 pounds per trip to the range. My goal was to make it a long term proposition. I wasn't after 200 pounds in a trip, I wanted 20 trips of 20 pounds each. If I shoot 30 days a year and bring home 20 pounds on average I have 600 pounds. It adds p rather quickly in reality. Having a daughter who enjoys gathering bullets helps.

[Freightman]

Evan you made my mind up I can now build the forge I have been putting off to melt my jackets since you do not buy them any longer, I have smelted around 1000# of lead from just one station in the bulls eye berm at the range and there are 24 stations. I will not live long enough to mine all. About 12 inches down there is a solid layer of lead 90% cast and hard, you need a pick to dig it out as a shovel will not dent it.
The range has been shot at since the late '40 and they just haul in new dirt to cover up the holes and lost sand

[shadygrady]

save all that zinc up 40 lbs in a flat rate box an send it to me