Scrap Yard Score!

[el34]

Today a buddy and I went to a local yard to check out the range lead we learned they had by phone. We got there and saw 14,000 lbs in 4 boxes, it was mostly jacketed and was collected from ground up rubber birms. There was a lot of small rubber chunks but we realized they were light and wouldn't represent much of the cost, $0.70/lb. There was a bit of brass and I found a mangled casing with a live primer- that was while I was telling my buddy I had read here about live rounds found in range lead!

While we were waiting for our 300lb order to be bucketized we cruised the main area and found mystery lead. Some looked like it had been cast in beer cans, some looked like hand-formed snowballs, a few were odd shapes. A supervisor used his analyzer gun and revealed 74% lead, 7.5% antimony, 11% tin. That left 7.5% we didn't find out about but my friend thought he saw Fe 5% on the display, not sure. Thinking it was similar to monotype we bought all 299lb, also $0.70, and cancelled the range lead. My 100lb share-


73609

Cool lunchtime trip!

[Cherokee]

Melt some and cast a few test boolits to see how they come out. Compare them to what you have cast from a better known alloy and check out the quality of the castings. That unknown 7.5% may be OK or it may not, only way to tell is try it.

[el34]

Good suggestion Cherokee. I plan to ingotize the stuff to homogenize it, measure its hardness, then mix with soft to make a batch of 'casting alloy' at 12.5BHN, 2% tin. That should dilute the mystery 7.5% quite a bit. Then shoot some!

I hope to make it back to the scrap yard and get the rest of the analyzer info. Stupid to not realize I didn't have it all, I heard the tin and antimony content and got stupid. 70c a pound for a source of hardness and tin will bring my alloy cost way down, part of the fun of it.