Best way to clean range scrap...learned the long way

[TES]

Well I started two days ago building a rather intensive shaker with all sorts of traps, combs, gates and even a forced air blow over to get rid of all the **** in my range scrap bucket..infact here are a few pics of this wondrous contraption.

http://imageshack.us/a/img825/5976/0414131312.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img607/9836/0414131313.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img198/4968/0414131313b.jpg

After all of this I was still getting a few pieces of this and that in the end result. SO I thought about this for a second or two and stuck the sucky end of a vacuum hose into the mix of stuff and ......
Holy crud free range lead......just bullets on the screen. So the conclusion that I arrived at is that this rather nice piece of engineering is completely useless.

If you want 99% clean range scrap stick the vacuum hose in your bucket of range scrap and all the bad stuff ends up in the vacuum and the good stuff stays in your bucket. Yes even .22 cal bullets stay in the bucket. The only thing you have to train your brain to ignore is the thought that all the heavy stuff running through your hose is not bullets just rocks. I did a check to verify this and was only able to pick maybe 10 really mangled bullets out of the vacuum.

In short..If you have a shop vac you can turn this...

http://imageshack.us/a/img21/9131/0415131155.jpg

Into this.....

http://imageshack.us/a/img255/4995/0415131221.jpg

In about 10 minutes. Should mean a lot less skimming and fluxing for everyone!

ENJOY

[454PB]

Looks like something they could use for "Bering Sea Gold".

[btroj]

Looks like a good way to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Too much work for me, I will stick to picking up bullets one by one. No equipment to carry, make or store.

[Zombie Whisperer]

Good work!

I have about a ton of bullets that were fired into clay ground to test fire guns, now all I need is a way to dry it. Originally I thought sluice box piped off from a down spout, because we get so much rain here, but with summer coming I am thinking that your way makes a lot more sense then standing in the rain all winter trying to clean lead.

[TES]

Looks like a good way to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Too much work for me, I will stick to picking up bullets one by one. No equipment to carry, make or store.


It took me two hours at the range to get 3 buckets of rough stock and 30 minutes to get clean range lead at home through the vacuum for a total score of 170 pounds. 2.5 hours for 9000 bullets worth of lead. Sounds like a deal to me.

[Doc Highwall]

I think I would just wash it off in the driveway with a hose and let it dry before smelting it.

[mold maker]

Washing on the drive is a good first step, but ya still have all the trash mixed in it. My range pickup was in NC red clay, and ya had to separate the mud balls by weight. Much of the rocks were the same color as lead oxide.
Wish I had thought of using my shopvac.

[TES]

The only thing about washing it on the drive way is I have a kid and don't want all that lead tainted dirt on the ground for him to play around and in. We also have well water and don't even want to take a chance there.