Sorting Range Scrap -- How do you do it for top $$

[trochilids]

I've got a small bucket of hand-picked range scrap. Basically I pick up any piece of copper / jacket / lead that I find on the hillside where we shoot. Then I sort it.

1) a pile for copper jackets / solid copper bullets without lead (run magnet through it, non-magnetic in this pile only).
2) a pile for jackets / metal pieces that stick to the magnet
3) a pile for anything with lead on it. Plan to melt that lead, then separate copper jackets pulled from smelter into two piles -- a pile that sticks to the magnet, and a pile that doesn't...

Question:

1) Should the smelted copper jackets be kept separate from the "clean" jackets if you want to get top $$ from the scrap yard?
2) Can the steel jackets be tossed in to the recycle bucket containing wheel weight clips and/or Fe wheel weights?
3) Can anything that sticks to a magnet be scrapped together?

I'd kinda like to get the best return for my efforts when scrapping the metals, and I'm curious how the rest of you do it.

Thanks!

[merlin101]

If it sticks to a magnet keep it seperate. I put all steel in the same bucket, that includes WW clips,scrap iron ect. Steel is steel
As far as copper vs brass jackets I just lump them all together, but just jackets!( keep copper pipe/wire ect. seperate) Reason being you will get "dirty brass" or "dirty copper" price for mixed metals.

[dbosman]

First, find out if your salvage yard will accept bullet scrap.
Mine won't. They did in the past - but stopped after the second batch with hidden bits that exploded when smelted.
For the same reason, they don't deal in cartridge brass.

The one on the other side of town, takes both.

[shadowcaster]

Totally clean copper goes for a much higher price here. The rest of it, dirty copper or brass, the dross, steel, and a bit of dirt all go in the same bucket and I'm paid 40 cents a pound.

Shad

PS: It's been a long time since I was in Wasilla.

[KYCaster]

There isn't a recycler within 100 miles of here who will take jackets or WW clips, and only one that I know of who will buy cartridge brass....and his offer is ridiculously low.

Jerry

[btroj]

I got 12 cents a pound for jackets. Luckily I had 215 pounds of em with me. Woo hoo, got 25 bucks.

Not sure they are worth saving any more.

[tomme boy]

I'm getting #2 copper for them. Used to get #1 till another guy seen what I was doing and he started to do it. He did not use a magnet to get out the steel jackets and a bunch went through the yard. Now they say since they can't prove were it came from, everyone gets the lower price. Even though the guy at the scale knows it was the other guy because I was the one that asked him if he checked the guy to see if he was sorting it out.

[trochilids]

Thanks for the info. My wife is big on the "Ain't worth it -- throw it out" side when it comes to most stuff. For some reason I'm more on the side of "any little bit helps." Not sure I'd be super excited about $25 for a couple hundred pounds worth, though. But since I'm not planning to get rich casting / loading, the whole recycle thing may just be an extension of the "sound environmental stewardship" mindset I grew up with.

Anyway, I guess the first step is to see if there's even a scrap yard in southcentral Alaska that will take the metals I separate.

[trochilids]

PS: It's been a long time since I was in Wasilla.

Shad -- bet you wouldn't recognize it, then. We moved to Alaska in 2005 and Wasilla in 2008. So much has changed even since then.

[Browningshooter]

I've been thinking about the feasibility of smelting down the jackets into ingots. What do you guys think? I have seen some home smelting rigs on YouTube but I'm wondering if it would be worth it...

[mrbillbus]

There is a lot of good info on this site about scrap metal.

http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/forum.php

I wonder why the two forums don't have more cross pollination. People here want to buy lead and I see people there often looking for a market for their scrap lead. I will throw a link to Cast Boolits every time I see those posts.

Bill

Ps The site search function isn't so great. Good tip is to do your search on Google and tag it with "SMF". That will give you the best results when trying to find a particular subject. I just did this (scrap bullet jacket SMF) and got this: http://www.google.com/#q=scrap+bullet+jacket+SMF first two hits are on SMF.

[shadowcaster]

Shad -- bet you wouldn't recognize it, then. We moved to Alaska in 2005 and Wasilla in 2008. So much has changed even since then.

I bet it's changed.. I haven't been there since June of 1983. It only had 1 stop light back then.

Shad

[DX250]

The last time I took in jackets I got about $2.80/lb give or take a few pennies. That paid for a lot of my lead, I buy from an indoor range for $.45/lb.

[dilly]

Has anybody tried stainless tumbling their copper jackets, maybe in one of those giant cement mixer tumblers some of you guys seem to have? I know those scrap yard guys claim to be all business, but if your copper is red instead of black I bet they're a lot more willing to pay a bit more for it.

Edit: It wouldn't even have to be stainless tumbling. If those things just wet tumbled against each other with some soap or lemishine they'd polish up for the most part okay.

[evan price]

My scrap yard guys run a few samples on a grinding wheel and see if it is yellow or red.
So many bullet makers switched to brass jackets that it is not worth my time to sort anymore.
I pull out the monolithic solids which go with the #2 copper. The rest goes for whatever they will give me, brass turnings lately.