Another Range Lead Question...

[ShooterAZ]

Last weekend I bought a 5 gallon bucket 3/4 full of raw range lead. Also 2 buckets of WW (all at .10 per lb!) that I have already smelted and ingotized. The range lead appears to be half & half jacketed and cast. Would you sort the jacketed from the cast, or just melt the whole shootin' match. Sorting this will be a PITA.

[dilly]

I melt it all down. Gravity does the sorting when the lead is melted out and you can skim off the jackets. Generally there are a few total metal jacket, though and they need the jackets to be broken for the lead to melt out. If you do it while it's hot, it's just like squeezing a gusher (those old fruit chew things) and it can be kind of dangerous.

Sounds like you're planning to keep the WW alloy separate, which is advisable.

[btroj]

I don't sort range scrap. Not worth the effort. It works great as is.

I got 1300 pounds of it last year and if the average bullet was a 158 swc I have almost 58,000 bullets. I don't have the time, or desire, to handle each of them to sort or hammer fmj bullets.

[ShooterAZ]

Thanks...I sure wasn't looking forward to hand sorting the whole bucket-o-boolits. I did hand sort the WW, and even that was a PITA, but I did prevent some Zinc & FE ones from getting in there. I had right around a half bucket of stick on too (still on the tape) that I melted and ingotized separately.

[fredj338]

I don't sort range scrap either. It all goes into the smelting pot & poured into separate ingots. I also pour pure lead & clip ww into diff ingots for easy reference & blending in the casting pot.

[Walter Laich]

mine all goes in one big pot, too. Just using the mix for low power 45 Colt loads so I can be 'off' a bit and still have a good result at the end

[tazman]

I find myself becoming less and less concerned with the exact alloy in my boolits I use for pistol. I started out with pure Linotype,
then went to wheelweights, and now am using range scrap with just enough tin(as in not much) to make it flow and fill out easily.
Still no leading that I can find at all.
My accuracy has improved somewhat during this process but I'm not sure if it was the alloy change or the increased practice. In any case it is working.
I am saving the good stuff for rifle use during the summer.