Lead Salvage Operation

[richhodg66]

I made a quick range trip this evening. I'm a relatively new member of this range and it is much bigger with many more members than I'm used to. Anyway, as I got out there, it was apparent that they were salvaging lead from the pistol range, I assume for the scrap value of the lead. I'd heard of clubs doing this, but never seen it before.

114021114022

The first picture is of the equipment. The second is bags of range salvage (I peeked inside. There are 12 bags there, each easily has enough range scrap to fill up a 55 gallon drum. Just had to shake my head. I wonder if I could make a deal with the salvage crew to buy some at less than the going scrap rate while it's out there? Nobody was around when I was there.

[twc1964]

I'm already drooling!! Heck, a couple bags would set me up for a long time lol.

[Garyshome]

Follow them down to the scrap yard and make an offer!

[Sgtonory]

Take cash and something to haul the lead and make them a offer. Scrap yard is going to pay around .30 to .35 cents per pound

[smkummer]

Scrap yards here pay .025 for wheel weights but they are not all lead and have metal clips. Melting or smelting range scrap is dirty and takes longer than wheel weights. Some non-toxic or lead free ammo may have zinc in it so slow melting is a must. You will get popping sounds and all kind of bubbling when melting range bullets. Most jacket bullets have very soft lead cores. Others will chime in on what hardness is average from range bullets but its less than 12 from wheel weights or 20 from water dropped wheel weights. If its your only source, then do what you have to do but be aware of the work involved.

[richhodg66]

My other range has a pistol range that is really thick with it and they don't seem to have any plans to salvage it. They also don't mind if I sieve for some as long as nobody is waiting on me to shoot, so I get a big bucket of scrap now and again, I usually keep a small shovel, home made sieve and bucket in the truck. I used to scrounge like this when I was younger and poorer. Now I do it because finding wheel weights is tough.

I just had never seen that much of it in one place before, it really was like looking at a treasure chest for a caster.

[bangerjim]

You are much better off going to your local scrap yards and buying roofing, pipes, and other lead items and not mess with range scrap. Very dirty, very little lead rendered out for all the time/money/effort you will put into it.

Last time I messed with range scrap, from 40#, I melted out less than 6# of lead. And it was a lot of work and fuel for such a small yield. The yard would not take the copper jackets back because they were not 100% clean. Never again!

Let the scrap mongers melt it down. Buy pure lead and alloys.

bangerjim

[dragon813gt]

The yard would not take the copper jackets back because they were not 100% clean. Never again!

Take it to another yard. When you find one that does you will be getting paid for the lead you kept. If they give you #1 CU price you really make out. It's technically red brass which is what they usually pay it out as. Some pay #2 CU price. I guess I'm spoiled because there are fifteen yards w/in half an hour of me.

It is a lot of work and it's really really dirty. You really have to make sure it's cleaned up or you will plug your Lee pot spout quickly. Ask me how I know.

[tomme boy]

Do you have any better pictures of what they were using? Larger??? Can't really see the ones here.

[mold maker]

Yep, I have over 3200 # of that (not worth it) range scrap. Only mine is in ingots, and the scrapper bought all the jackets at red brass prices. No money changed hands, I traded for more lead.
Cost me 3 tanks of propane@ $14. ea, and and some labor. I figure it as getting paid to store free lead.
With the passing of free WWs and the percentage of crud in what you get, I'll chose range scrap any day.

[bangerjim]

Whatever.

I only send lead DOWN the range!

Totally not worth the hassle to me personally when I can get clean perfect lead and alloys from the yards I go to. When I can buy clean pure, Sn, hardball, and Lyman #2 for a dollar a pound......


I guess if you are desperate for lead......do what you have to..........I have tons of it......and only buy it when it goes DIRECTLY into my casting pot. No smelting anymore.

banger

[richhodg66]

Well, I'll keep taking range salvage and if you only got 6 lbs from 40 lbs of salvage, you did something wrong. You're fortunate if you have a reliable source of ingotized lead of known alloy for $1 a lb, I don't.

I haven't tried to sell the jackets back and I have quite a few. Most likely I will try to trade for lead.

[merlin101]

Well, I'll keep taking range salvage and if you only got 6 lbs from 40 lbs of salvage, you did something wrong. You're fortunate if you have a reliable source of ingotized lead of known alloy for $1 a lb, I don't..

I second that! Around here none and I mean NONE of the scrap yards will sell or trade anything!
I think it's a liability issue, they buy from the public and then sell directly mills/smelters/china or whatever.

[bangerjim]

I feel for your guys that cannot crawl thru your local scrap yards! Around here, not a problem. One started having me wear a hard hat which I have in the back of my car anyway for jobsite visits. But other than that, there is total access to everything there and they will sell anything including spent brass carts.....anything from 22lr to 45-70 by the barrel-full!


banger

[TheGameMaster]

Up here in Oregon, we are in a similar boat. The scrap yards will not sell to the public unless you buy an entire box (1 ton) of something. I don't have $2000 laying around to buy a rail box of lead scrap. And lead is a toxic substance here in Oregon, and ODEQ is really aggressive about lead. They have threatened all of the shooting ranges into submission, and now there is only ONE shotgun range in the entire state! All the ranges have to recycle any range scrap or sell it to metal recyclers. The one shotgun range has to cover their entire field with tarps every time they shoot, and has new very fine nets over the whole field. Then all the shot is collected and recorded, then recycled. Lead everything was pretty much outlawed in 2007, not just the wheel weights. Lead is VERY hard to find here in Oregon. Ebay and range scrap if your lucky.

Rodney

[bangerjim]

That is just sad. Love those tree huggers and owl kissers in liberal Dem states!


banger

[bruce drake]

Holy **** in Oregon. I may have to drive out there with a box of clays and some Lead #8s to do a protest shoot!

[bruce drake]

I went to my club today and just did a surface sweep of the 3 pistol bays and in an hour I got 25lbs of mostly jacketed but with a decent amount of pure boolits as well. About 2 hours later they were ingots cooling on the garage floor. Very dirty due to the rain that fell this morning meant I got wet sand as well. Fluxed out just nicely though I will have to flux them when they go into the pot again.

[1johnlb]

I picked up 600 lbs of range scrap for $80, thought I did good. I've smelted about 200 of it. Took 46 lbs of jackets to the scrap yard and the best they would do was 70 cts lb. I exchanged that $32.?? plus another $30 for about 125 lbs of coww ,just so I wouldn't have to clean and smelt more range . Iam just looking at the other 400 lbs as reserve for hard times.

[Janoosh]

When berms are mined commercially, the lead is considered "Hazardous Waste" and thus earns a paper trail.
From berm to smelter. I'd bring money and try to interupt the process before the bag count.
Oregon is not the only state to enforce this law....EPA ....is the problem. Most states have established guidelines for maintaining outdoor ranges. Much easier (and cheaper) to maintain than to mine.

[Green Frog]

If you have access to some place where there are a lot of muzzle loaders being shot, that can be your real "lead mine." Most of us use pretty much pure lead when firing the front stuffers, and if you salvage more or less complete balls and bullets you can be fairly certain by their shape and size of what people would use to make them. Those 500 grain Minie balls add up fast! :D

Froggie

[bangerjim]

Just picked up 60# of 30, 45, and 50 cal lead balls at a yard recently. Nice clean soft lead. This stuff is not fired but fresh cast by someone and then sold.

You never know what you will find in a scrap yard! People are desperate for cash these days. Can you believe $1.20/# for Christmas lights ( Cu )? Unbelievable.

banger

[OuchHot!]

One thing that concerns me is the documentation that is being applied to home sales. They already do sweeps for mercury and asbestos in some areas. I would be real cautious about refining/smelting range lead as you have a lot of unrecovered lead in the dross and trash that comes off. Be mindful where you put that.

[fatelk]

Up here in Oregon, we are in a similar boat. The scrap yards will not sell to the public unless you buy an entire box (1 ton) of something. I don't have $2000 laying around to buy a rail box of lead scrap. And lead is a toxic substance here in Oregon, and ODEQ is really aggressive about lead. They have threatened all of the shooting ranges into submission, and now there is only ONE shotgun range in the entire state! All the ranges have to recycle any range scrap or sell it to metal recyclers. The one shotgun range has to cover their entire field with tarps every time they shoot, and has new very fine nets over the whole field. Then all the shot is collected and recorded, then recycled. Lead everything was pretty much outlawed in 2007, not just the wheel weights. Lead is VERY hard to find here in Oregon. Ebay and range scrap if your lucky.

Not meaning to challenge you because you seem to be more in the know about this than I am, but I've lived here my whole life and have not seen this. I'm pretty sure you're mistaken about there being only one shotgun range in the state, because I know of several myself. The one I shot at, the shot falls on a hillside; must be tons of it up there.

Portland controls the state politically and is deep, deep "blue", but most of the rest of the state is quite different.

[RoGrrr]

BANGERJIM
As Rich said, you're doing SOMETHING wrong !

Go to the url and read my posts for a primer on what I did last summer. In an hour, I CONSISTENTLY mined close to 200 Lbs of ore. I show my sifter basket (in another thread - my smelting furnace). Granted, I have fabrication abilities which I use to my advantage but in this day of rising prices and increasing regulations, we have to be resourceful and determined.

Don't take NO for an answer.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?174512-Range-diving-186lbs&highlight=186lbs
MY POSTs 19, 20, 21, 24, 30, 43, HLG57(this is a comparison/justification of my method/equipment), 59, 62, 68

[bangerjim]

BANGERJIM
As Rich said, you're doing SOMETHING wrong !

Go to the url and read my posts for a primer on what I did last summer. In an hour, I CONSISTENTLY mined close to 200 Lbs of ore. I show my sifter basket (in another thread - my smelting furnace). Granted, I have fabrication abilities which I use to my advantage but in this day of rising prices and increasing regulations, we have to be resourceful and determined.

Don't take NO for an answer.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?174512-Range-diving-186lbs&highlight=186lbs
MY POSTs 19, 20, 21, 24, 30, 43, HLG57(this is a comparison/justification of my method/equipment), 59, 62, 68


Thanks for the info, but range lead is not in my plans now or ever in the future. Too much work, too little yield. I prefer buying lead in a clean state. And I can find plenty of it where I live. A dollar a pound is very reasonable considering all the time, mileage, fuel, etc you invest to get lead from FMJ's. No smelting, cleaning, fluxing for me........just casting! And there seems to be no end of the supply of good lead and alloys around here!


Thanks,

bangerjim

[6mm win lee]

Thanks for the info, but range lead is not in my plans now or ever in the future. Too much work, too little yield. I prefer buying lead in a clean state. And I can find plenty of it where I live. A dollar a pound is very reasonable considering all the time, mileage, fuel, etc you invest to get lead from FMJ's. No smelting, cleaning, fluxing for me........just casting! And there seems to be no end of the supply of good lead and alloys around here!


Thanks,

bangerjim

I stumbled on to this site and thought I would get in to the lead hunt but I had a good hard look at my state side lifestyle and figured out it would be impractical for me. Plus being in Iraq and Afghanistan all these years has left me far behind the power curve. I am with Bangerjim about not wanting the hassle. I figure I should have 300 pounds of Roto linotype by the end of the year if I buy a little every payday.

However, I do plan on setting up my own range to recycle every stinkin' bit of that linotype when I get back to the pork and bacon eating world.

Six

[RoGrrr]

bangerjim
I understand your feelings on the matter and I won't fault or begrudge you for it.
However, you also have to remember that this is a hobby with SO MANY of us shooters and the little amount of extra time/effort isn't even given a second thought. I mine spent boolits when I go to shoot so I haven't gone out of my way for it. We do it bcuz we like it and getting our hands dirty isn't any factor.
I have mined well over a thousand Lbs of ingots plus all the copper jackets left over from that. That thousand Lbs will give me over 30,000 45 slugs ($4000) or 60,000 9mm slugs or some indeterminate number in between as I cast both. TO ME, it's a win-win situation that I call my hobby. My goal is to accumulate several tons of either ore or ingots so when (not if) the EPA/ohvomit/scummer/feinswine/et.al. manage to outlaw lead in any/every form (and we know that they are trying - no lead boolits for hunting in californica and lead-free solder in electronics) that I can smugly continue my casting.
As my good friend, Sean Connery said, "NEVER say Never".


Then Six explained his state of affairs, and having worked around many military during my govt career, I understand your plight. However, you of all people, should appreciate being able to supply yourself with FREE BOOLITS. Yes, there is some up-front investment, both in time and equipment, but once you amortize it beyond the monetary investment, from there on you have dramatically reduced your cost of shooting. After all, the most expensive part of the cartridge is the boolit. Rather than spending $$$ on lead, you could buy primers. Or a better loading machine...
And when I shoot at my home, I recover the slugs in my trap.
I can load a box of 45ACP for under $4 a box !


Thanks for the info, but range lead is not in my plans now or ever in the future. Too much work, too little yield. I prefer buying lead in a clean state. And I can find plenty of it where I live. A dollar a pound is very reasonable considering all the time, mileage, fuel, etc you invest to get lead from FMJ's. No smelting, cleaning, fluxing for me........just casting! And there seems to be no end of the supply of good lead and alloys around here!


Thanks,

bangerjim

[bangerjim]

Well, you are lucky to be able to "shoot at home"! I live in a large metro area and shoot at indoor ranges and public ranges and CANNOT recover any spend lead. I do not live in the boonies so I cannot shoot out my backdoor. Many on here can. And it makes perfect sense to recover you OWN lead from you OWN property.

The most expensive part of my carts are the primers (3.6 cents). Then lead/alloy boolits (<2.8 cents). Then powder (<1.5 cents). I come home with more brass that I go with!!!!!!!

Good luck recovering that lead!

bangerjim

[RogerDat]

I like the idea of re-use inherit in range scrap. Can see where it's not for everyone but hey getting lead is getting lead. If one can save a bit of money doing it all the better. I know I used a copy of the alloy calculator excel sheet to record my inventory. Price it came up with for that lead was many times what I paid. Now that does not factor in time, or any extra driving costs but a lot of my scrounging is done on trips I would make anyway. While I don't have incredible amounts of free time and have to juggle and ration what activity gets some of it I do know that there is no way I would have the lead stash I do have if not for scrounging for WW's at tire stores, at the scrap yard, thrift stores, and garage sales.

100 lbs. of WW's $25 -$30. 100 lbs. of approx. same alloy from RotoMetals $270 (50/50 plain/hardball) and I got the solder to bring my WW's up to that same tin at .70 a lb. So call it $40 vs $270 I know which amount is going to cause the least conflict in the home budget.

I say if you can find it, get it. As long as the price is right.

[Jayhawkhuntclub]

You are much better off going to your local scrap yards and buying roofing, pipes, and other lead items and not mess with range scrap. Very dirty, very little lead rendered out for all the time/money/effort you will put into it.

Last time I messed with range scrap, from 40#, I melted out less than 6# of lead. And it was a lot of work and fuel for such a small yield. The yard would not take the copper jackets back because they were not 100% clean. Never again!

bangerjim

Holy cow! The worst I've ever done was about 21% waste and that was from jacketed scrap. I tend to get less than 10% waste from cast scrap. I do hand pick it though.

[Jayhawkhuntclub]

Welcome to Capital City! :mrgreen:

[xacex]

Up here in Oregon, we are in a similar boat. The scrap yards will not sell to the public unless you buy an entire box (1 ton) of something. I don't have $2000 laying around to buy a rail box of lead scrap. And lead is a toxic substance here in Oregon, and ODEQ is really aggressive about lead. They have threatened all of the shooting ranges into submission, and now there is only ONE shotgun range in the entire state! All the ranges have to recycle any range scrap or sell it to metal recyclers. The one shotgun range has to cover their entire field with tarps every time they shoot, and has new very fine nets over the whole field. Then all the shot is collected and recorded, then recycled. Lead everything was pretty much outlawed in 2007, not just the wheel weights. Lead is VERY hard to find here in Oregon. Ebay and range scrap if your lucky.

Rodney

In Multnomah county maybe, but this is simply not true. I am a member of two clubs in Yamhill county, there is also a shotgun range out here with no netting you speak of. Enviroterrorists have snuck into ranges, and taken samples in which they contaminate way beyond allowable levels, but most ranges out here have covered their butt with good lawyers. In fact there are some new ranges coming into our county in the next few months. There are scrap yards south of you that have no problem selling lead. It is the Portland tree huggers up there that push for more environmental and gun laws. Portland's city laws suck, and they tax the crud out of you to give it away to the corrupt politicians such as the Portland water board. Now they added a city "art tax" to everyone who owns property there. Where does that money go? Yes, lead is banned in the same places it was banned federally, no different in this state, and it does not have "special" lead laws. ODEQ is bound by EPA law, not some special envirojunky willy nilly Portland envoroboard. Simply not true. Both of the ranges I am a member of collect lead, and if you help you take it home with you. Lead is easy to find in Oregon as well. You just have to know where to look. Trust me, in the marina's there are tons under the waterline.

[bangerjim]

Holy cow! The worst I've ever done was about 21% waste and that was from jacketed scrap. I tend to get less than 10% waste from cast scrap. I do hand pick it though.

Even if the yield was 60% lead (and I am talking ALL FMJ's here not cast) I still would not mess with range scrap. I do not see cast range scrap anywhere I go. And I do not dig in the ground because all ranges I use are inside.

Too much work/dirt/hassle/fuel/etc. When I can get pure clean perfect lead at my yards, why bother? For those of you that live in commie states that ban lead sales, more power to 'ya.

To each his own!

banger

[home in oz]

Sounds like a good idea-wheel weights are as common as unicorn eggs around here...

[mold maker]

If you don't like processing range lead, leave it for me.
Seriously I don't blame anyone for buying ready made, if you can afford it.
Shooting reclaimed range lead is an extension of the casting hobby for me.
If I could produce primers and powder, I'd do that too.
My black powder now equals what I can buy, and the cost is less than $3./lb.
I can shoot 45-70 for half the price of 22LR.

[bangerjim]

If you don't like processing range lead, leave it for me.
Seriously I don't blame anyone for buying ready made, if you can afford it.
Shooting reclaimed range lead is an extension of the casting hobby for me.
If I could produce primers and powder, I'd do that too.
My black powder now equals what I can buy, and the cost is less than $3./lb.
I can shoot 45-70 for half the price of 22LR.

You, my friend, are welcome to all you can haul home!

As I told my wife......"This hobby that was going to save us hundreds......is now costing us thousands!"

I do not worry about money. If I want it and enjoy it, I buy it. My time worth far more than money to me. Digging in the earth and standing over a stinking smelting pot is not a prudent time investment I wish to make at this juncture. Mabe someday if I am broke. For now I do just fine with clean lead & alloy stock (lino, hardball, babbitt, WW's, pure Sn, pure Pb, solder) at $1/#......and no processing.

I used to scrounge and smelt WW's until the supply turned pretty much to Zn and Fe. Now I have been fortunate to find OLD already ingotized by somebody else WW's at the yards (all X-ray analyzed B4 I purchase!). They did all the messy dirty work and sold them for scrap $$ for some unknown reason. Obviously not lead hoarders like we all are!!!!!!

Have fun with our friend Señor Galena!

banger

[fatelk]

Digging in the earth and standing over a stinking smelting pot is not a prudent time investment I wish to make at this juncture.
I understand completely. When I was young and had no money, it was well worth my time. I had spare time and didn't make much money. Now my spare time is a little more of a premium, between work and family. Even casting probably wouldn't be worth my time if I didn't enjoy it. I certainly couldn't turn down overtime at work to stay home casting or smelting. I'd be better off dollar-wise to go to work and buy factory ammo.

That said, I can't seem to help myself from picking up lead out of the dirt when I see it. I have a bucket of maybe 100 lbs of berm pick-ups in the garage right now. I'll smelt them down some day. It's worth my time because it was free, and any overtime I get goes into the household budget anyhow; not like I'm going to buy lead or ammo with it. If I want to shoot I've got to be cheap. :)

[xacex]

I understand completely. When I was young and had no money, it was well worth my time. I had spare time and didn't make much money. Now my spare time is a little more of a premium, between work and family. Even casting probably wouldn't be worth my time if I didn't enjoy it. I certainly couldn't turn down overtime at work to stay home casting or smelting. I'd be better off dollar-wise to go to work and buy factory ammo.

That said, I can't seem to help myself from picking up lead out of the dirt when I see it. I have a bucket of maybe 100 lbs of berm pick-ups in the garage right now. I'll smelt them down some day. It's worth my time because it was free, and any overtime I get goes into the household budget anyhow; not like I'm going to buy lead or ammo with it. If I want to shoot I've got to be cheap. :)

If you pick up any colored ones out of the berm those would be mine. You can find some 50 cal in the 50 and 100 yard lines that are black, and green. They get buried pretty deep so it will take a good rain to pop em out. I have left lots of multi colored boolits in each of the bays.

[fatelk]

I have found a number of powder coated bullets, wondered if it was someone on here that might have shot them. Sometimes I'll take a little time after shooting and pick up bullets off the surface of the berm in one of the pistol bays. I calculated that I can pick up about a pound per minute, and that's just off the surface one at a time.