Shotgun slugs

[bayjoe]

I mine lead from a police shooting range, where they shoot lots of slugs. When smelting the range scrap these slugs don't melt at the temperature the Wad cutters and other stuff melt at.
I have been pulling the slugs out and putting in a bucket.
Does anybody know what the slugs are made of and can the be cast into pistol bullets?

[turtlezx]

remington copper solids sabots you wont be melting those down

[bayjoe]

The slugs are some kind of lead mix, when I turn my pot up on high they melt

[cbrick]

Back when we where renting the range to the LAPD they shot a lot of shotgun, most of the slugs were lead but they also played around with some with leadless "green" stuff. No idea what they might have been made of.

Rick

[40Super]

I get some slugs out of a local outdoor range when hand picking, they all melted but needed closer to 630F, I assume they are close to pure. These are not PD slugs though. I would try to melt them in a separate batch and watch what temp they melt at, my guess is many are just pure and need more heat than the other alloy is at. I get that with certain ww, I keep my pot temp just above their melt temp(usually around 575-600F) and certain "brands" will just float , till the pot temp gets up to 625F'ish, (not zinc).

[I'll Make Mine]

Just something to watch for; there are now zinc slugs available from a couple sources; these will still melt in your pot, at around 780º F, and will then give you a melt contaminated with zinc. Get more than 2% (roughly) zinc in your melt, and you'll get separation of the lead-with-zinc from zinc-with-lead (about 1.8% lead), either in the pot or in the ingot mold or bullet mold. This is bad; it makes hard spots, out of balance boolits, and weight variation from one to the next (zinc is only about 2/3 the density of lead).

So, you need to watch for slugs that float on the melt at temperatures above about 650º F; those are zinc and should be skimmed out and saved for shadygrady, who will shortly be along to tell you to send him your zinc for lead... ;)

[bayjoe]

Thanks I'll Make Mine
I have over 700 lbs of range scrap and it looks like there is a lot of those slugs.
I'll be sorting slugs and copper jackets for quite some time.

[Lizard333]

Now forgive me if I'm wrong here, but if those slugs are pure lead, they will melt at a higher temp than WW. At least this is what I have found. When I add ingots to my pot, the COWW melt sooner than the pure lead. The pure lead will sink to the bottom and takes a little more heat to melt.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. Just my observations.

[I'll Make Mine]

Now forgive me if I'm wrong here, but if those slugs are pure lead, they will melt at a higher temp than WW. At least this is what I have found. When I add ingots to my pot, the COWW melt sooner than the pure lead. The pure lead will sink to the bottom and takes a little more heat to melt.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. Just my observations.

You're correct, Lizard -- pure lead melts at about (IIRC) 650º F, significantly higher than wheel weights or most other lead alloys involving antimony, tin, and arsenic. Zinc, by contrast, melts above 780º F, so there's a wide range of temperature separating pure or low-alloy lead from zinc.

Bayjoe, if you have good temperature control of your smelting pot, you can separate by temperature and not get enough zinc in your melt to cause trouble, even if you don't sort that range scrap at all. Heat to 600º and you'll be getting wheel weights, cast boolits, and commercial lead with more than about 2% tin; pour that off (or skim out the stuff that's still solid). Heat to 700º and you'll get all the rest of the lead alloy (and a tiny percentage of zinc, only as much as will dissolve, since you're well below the melting point of zinc); pour off the liquid again, this is the low-alloy lead. The remainder will be the zinc and jackets.

[40Super]

By controlling my pot temp closely, I have found a certain "brand" or type of ww that is almost pure. They will always float on top unless I turn the heat up to 630F'ish, then they melt. I generally smelt ww at 575F'ish, so I see the differences. Same thing with some of the slugs I've gotten. Again these were hunting slugs, not defensive.