Range Lead

[fordfan]

If a person had the chance to buy range lead from an indoor shooting range what do you think would be a fair price? And what kind of yield could i expect. I have got a chance to get all the range lead I could afford, there wanting 47 cents a pound. Any thoughts. Thanks

[btroj]

Not a great price but certainly not bad either. I would want to see what it looks like first. Is it full of sand or rubber or target bits? Is it somewhat loose or stuck together in big chunks? Is it all rimfire bullets or a variety of stuff? Does the range allow cast bulets?
If I had the need I would pay that price. See if they will go any lower.

[on1wheel01]

Yea def try to get a lower price.

[fordfan]

the range allows for any type of boolit except steel core, so its a variety of stuff and cast boolit are allowed. what would be a more reasonable price?

[btroj]

See of they will go 35 cents a pound. You could go lower but not knowing the range or owners I hate to make an offer that might be seen as insulting. Even 47 cents a pound isn't bad in this day and age. Many here pay more than that.

Range lead makes a good alloy. I use lots of it.

[fordfan]

Mr Btroj thank you. Being you use alot of it what kind of yield may i except

[Carolina Cast Bullets]

just a little math for ya.

1 pound (16 oz) = 7000 grains

convert poundage to grains, divide by number of grains in bullet weight to
get bullet yield from poundage you have on hand. Assuming its smelted and
cleaned.

Bullet jackets will float to the top of the melted lead and can be skimmed off and
sold as brass/copper to most recycling yards. Free money

Jerry
Carolina Cast Bullets

[btroj]

I get mine from an outdoor range so I get dirt in mine. I still figure I get about 75 to 80 percent alloy ingots, the rest is jackets and crud. Even at that you have clean alloy for about 55 cents a pound total. Not bad.
I use a propane turkey fryer and a Dutch oven. I can get well over 500 pounds on a single refill of propane so I don't think fuel adds much to the cost.

Flux, flux, flux. Use lots of sawdust and plenty of heat.

[fordfan]

OK Thank You

[SlowSmokeN]

Also keep the brass and copper jackets that you skim out. You may be able to sell them to a scrap yard. I get $1.78 a pound

[Sasquatch-1]

I seem to get between 50% to 75% yield from range scrap. (I dig mine from a dirt birm so there is a lot of garbage in the bucket). I do have a 5 gallon bucket of jackets that need to be scrapped. Don't forget to get a magnet to pull out steel jackets. I use an old car speaker magnet.

[btroj]

Are your sifting the berm for bullets or picking them up with fingers? I use my fingers, seems to reduce the amount of dirt and debris I get.

[Sasquatch-1]

Are your sifting the berm for bullets or picking them up with fingers? I use my fingers, seems to reduce the amount of dirt and debris I get.

I sift with a 1/4" screen and dump whats left in a bucket. Unfortunately the screen keeps a lot of gravel in with the lead. I also get a fair amount of finer dirt from bullets impacting bullets and imbedding dirt in the mix. I sort once I get them home.

[Jon]

The lead from an indoor range shouldn't be too bad, but it will probably have quite a few jackets. I'd plan on about 25-30% of your scrap weight to be jackets. If you can find a place that will take them, then it's worth it.

[zomby woof]

The lead from an indoor range shouldn't be too bad, but it will probably have quite a few jackets. I'd plan on about 25-30% of your scrap weight to be jackets. If you can find a place that will take them, then it's worth it.

My indoor scrap ran around 30% also. It's very dusty too.

[fordfan]

Thats good to know that will help in the future purchases of lead

[runfiverun]

you'll take a loss but you didn't have to clean the traps.
even ending up at 75 cents a lb for the alloy you come out ahead.
ahead enough you can buy some soft alloy and some hard alloy to manipulate each batch of range scrap to a pretty close consistent bhn.
i'd get all you can afford and maybe some you can't afford too.
there will be a day when you'll look back and say,,, maaaan i wish.

[40Super]

I pay $30 per bucket that weighs around 120-140lbs(they fill them till the buckets are hard to lift into the truck). I get several per year for that price because nobody else really casts locally so I can get all they clean out but around 50lbs for the owner to cast sinkers and such. I am trying to build a healthy stash of this up while it lasts. This reminds me that the trough was overflowing there again, time to drop some buckets off8-).

[fordfan]

Well I got the range lead tonight right at 105# for $47 now I guess the fun begins tomorrow night. It does seem to have alot of copper jackets in it so i guess that will be put in a seperate container.

[Sergeant Earthworm]

There is a range nearby where I can get lead for the picking. Time consuming but might be worth it in the long run. However, I am concerned about the possibility of getting an unburned or partially burned tracer mixed in as retailers are selling .223 tracers to anyone who wants to burn out their barrel. That could make things very exciting come melting time...

Oh, and, I totally recommend wearing a good dust mask (and gloves) when sorting either by hand or by filter. There is a good possibility of inhaling lead dust when separating out the dirt, jackets, etc.

Happy casting.

[fordfan]

Well I tried my first batch of ingots tonight. Only did a small batch to see how things would go. Did not weigh what I started with but ended up with 9# of clean ingots and 2.6 pounds jackets, so if my math is right that is about a 22% loss. I think I can live with that, pretty happy right now.

[Agent1187]

Not only is that pretty good yield, but you should check to see A) if your local scrap yard accepts copper jackets, and B) how many steel jackets are in that mix.
If you have 100% copper jackets and can get $2.00/lb for them, your lead is free minus the cost of the gas to get/melt it down.

[evan price]

My personal figures show that jackets yield roughly 20% of total weight. This of course varies depending on the amount of rimfire and cast they shoot. One range I do gets only jacketed and they are about 25% jackets, the plated stuff doesn't recover well.

I try to pay between 33 and 40 cents a pound for range scrap if it's already in buckets.

[Sasquatch-1]

Wow, I feel lucky now. I can mine the birms at my range for free. I think I have recovered about 300 to 400 pounds since this summer. I just finish melting about half a bucket and ended up with 60+ pounds. I currently have a 5 gallon bucket over flowing with the copper and brass jackets. I do seperate the cast from the jacketed. about 8 to 10 pounds of the above weight was cast that after dropping in the snow to cool tested at 22BHn in ingot form.

[dickttx]

Last summer I bought a small amount (about 32#) of range lead already cast into ingots for 50¢ per pound.
I thought that was a pretty good deal and would like to have much more.

[Lizard333]

There is a range nearby where I can get lead for the picking. Time consuming but might be worth it in the long run. However, I am concerned about the possibility of getting an unburned or partially burned tracer mixed in as retailers are selling .223 tracers to anyone who wants to burn out their barrel. That could make things very exciting come melting time...

Oh, and, I totally recommend wearing a good dust mask (and gloves) when sorting either by hand or by filter. There is a good possibility of inhaling lead dust when separating out the dirt, jackets, etc.

Happy casting.

I don't know what kind if tracers your shooting but the ones I shoot, all military pull downs, don't ignite till the bullet gets about a hundred yards out of the barrel. This prevents the burning you are referring to.

If your still concerned about these rounds, put a lid on your pot till its good and hot. Once everything is starting to melt your usually in the clear.

[Sergeant Earthworm]

I don't know what kind if tracers your shooting but the ones I shoot, all military pull downs, don't ignite till the bullet gets about a hundred yards out of the barrel. This prevents the burning you are referring to.

If your still concerned about these rounds, put a lid on your pot till its good and hot. Once everything is starting to melt your usually in the clear.

As tracer projectiles are sealed at the base, failure to ignite is not uncommon. The point of my earlier post is that it would be bad, very bad, to accidentally put an unburned tracer into the lead pot. Not to mention an armor piercing incendiary tracer some GI purloined from a nearby military installation.

Never heard of a tracer that ignites a hundred yards out of the barrel. Tracer material is composed of phosphorous or magnesium (burns very hot) and strontium (produces the characteristic color of the burning material). The burning powder charge is what ignites the tracer while inside the barrel. Look at any photo of night firing with tracers and you will see the characteristic burn trail begins at the same point as the muzzle flash. I ran US Army rifle and machinegun day and night qualification ranges for many years and know this from having seen it. I have also seen the effect on the inside of the barrel of firing large numbers of tracers; the additional heat causes throat erosion and wears out the rifling.

[fordfan]

Just an update, finished smelting the rest of my range lead 105# ended up with 80# cleanlead 12# of copper jacket and the rest was junk. Pretty happy right now.

[RoGrrr]

fordfan
First, Welcome to the forum and we hope you will have something to add to our discussions. We don't growl or bite. We just shoot !
Go to this thread ( http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?174512-Range-diving-186lbs&highlight=186lbs It's currently at 66 posts) and see what you can learn from it. I learned plenty my first few times mining the range, and now I typically gather close to 200 Lbs in a half hour. My basket gets rid of plenty of the dirt, which I would otherwise have to haul home.
If you have any questions, feel free to post them. After all, we're here to have fun and shoot cheaper.

[fordfan]

Thanks for that warm welcome Mr RoGrrr. I have been reading this forum for quite some time before I joined. Have learned alot and think I still have alot to learn. I enjoy shooting and reloading and the casting part of it is just icing on the cake.

[Nose Dive]

At that price, for indoor range collection...I'd jump on it. I pay more and about 10% of that is dirt, rocks and cigarrette butts. Yep... pulled them out of the buckets. Not really a bad price...

Nose Dive.

Cheap, Fast, Good. Kindly pick two.

[RoGrrr]

What little time I'm allowed to spend mining, I do so with lots of enjoyment. I do it as fast as I can bcuz I know, on down the road, not only will I enjoy it, I won't be able to get lead due to EPA, ATF, BHO, etc.... As I posted in the other thread, I strike hard and fast - get IN, get IT, got OUT. Israeli Special Forces, you know.
Oh, wait. I'm not Jewish; I'm Russian, so maybe that would be SPETZNAS. Or something like those rednecks...
Anyway, we all need to share our secrets so we can benefit from what we know.


At that price, for indoor range collection...I'd jump on it. I pay more and about 10% of that is dirt, rocks and cigarrette butts. Yep... pulled them out of the buckets. Not really a bad price...

Nose Dive.

Cheap, Fast, Good. Kindly pick two.

[fordfan]

No real secret just pull behind the building and let them fill my buckets, what more could i ask for