need help/ideas

[desteve811]

Went to the range yesterday (outdoor range) walked up to put up my target and i look down to see thousands of little lead nuggets on the pistol range. Looks like it wasnt touched in a year or so. So what do you think i did? Everytime the range went "cold" i grabbed a handfull of bullets. This took forever. Only was able to do this a few times cause there was other people shooting and i didnt want to hold them up. Wanted to know if anyone has any ideas on making something to make this less time consuming especially when im not the only one at the range. I was thinking maybe bring 2 buckets, one with a screen fastened to the top and use the other bucket to fill with dirt. Bring the dirt bucket back and pour it threw the screen. What do you guys in my situation use?

[GabbyM]

Every club has a lead mining policy. You need to know what that is and have it all squared away before showing up with a shovel and screen. If the whole berm is up for grabs you may want to straighten you club up on that.

Back in the 1980’s we had a big scoop of our berm in Windsor Illinois gun club disappear.
Can’t recall the exact numbers but it took like four truck loads of dirt then some back hoe work to rebuild the berm. IIRC we got it done for just under one grand $. That berm was built just after WWII by a good friend of mine, Ernie Sims, and a few of his friends.

$50 a year club membership just goes so far. I have a JD 4020 with bucket loader and a C-50 grain truck. That’s a 12,000 pound tractor not some little 4 cylinder back hoe. I could take a berm off the range faster than I could un chain the tractor off a trailer. So I just flash my club membership card then claim it’s OK I’m a member. That boat would probably sink.

[desteve811]

Not planning on taking the dirt home. Was going to go threw it on tailgate of my truck. The range is on state game land. No club

[Bent Ramrod]

I use a US Standard sieve with 0.38" openings, a hand trowel and a 5-pound coffee can. Shovel the dirt into the sieve, shake it until the dirt is through, sweep off any obvious rocks and dump the rest into the coffee can. Repeat until can is full.

This setup will pick up all but .22 bullets with fair regularity. You will need a finer screen for them. I sort out the smaller rocks, the loose jackets and the other junk when I get the can home, but I sequester the jacketed bullets from the cast and plated ones so I can have softer or harder alloy if I want. If you don't care about that, sorting can be easier done by melting the whole mess together and skimming the crud off the top.

You can find some wire cloth at the hardware store of a similar hole spacing and staple it to the bottom of a wood frame for the same results.

I think I'm the only member of my clubs who is willing to do such stoop labor to get "free" lead, but I figure such scrounging skills may be important in the future if lead continues to be restricted.

[shooter93]

In Pa. you can't remove lead from the Game Commission ranges. I shoot at one near me and it was mined out and disposed "properly" of a few years back. They are working on cleaning them all up. Too bad we couldn't get it but that's the way it is. Two of the volunteers who work there did manage to gather up 8000 lbs before anyone found out but....they are no longer employed there. I also shoot at an old ore pit on State Game lands that has to have 300 tons of lead in it if it has an ounce...again....shoot there fine...gather lead....a big NO.

[Chicken Thief]

He who lives quiertly, lives good!