Range scrap

[Crazyrcflier]

I was melting some range scrap this last weekend and a casing with a live primer slipped by me. Thankfully there was no bullet, I heard the pop and started running away. Luckily it was facing up and didn't sling any lead around.

A a couple minutes later I found a live .22 round still intact. That one didn't slip by me thankfully.

[captain-03]

I ALWAYS keep my pot covered when melting range lead ....

[Garyshome]

"I heard the pop and started running away" Great escape!

[Crazyrcflier]

I keep my pot covered also, but I was adding more lead on top of the pile. It was from an indoor range so i wasn't afraid of water being in it.

[country gent]

Indoor ranges seem to have quite a bit of live ammo in the recovered lead. Its a real issue when melting down to clean up. I always spread it out good on a flat surface before raking it into the pot. Wear appropriate saftey gear glasses hat heavy shirt and pants work boots and keep pot covered as much as possible. Be safe not sorry.

[mold maker]

I started cleaning my range scrap in a cement mixer, with Dawn. Then I spread on the drive, and turn with a rake to dry.
You'd surprised what some folks just throw down range to get rid of.
Several times I've found mags or at least parts, and often there are dud rounds.
They will sure demand your attention, and check your agility.

[Harter66]

139352

I believe this was a 9mm and that was about 90 lbs on the floor, walls, ceiling ,garage door and roof. Opps .
139353
through the long sleeve jersey type tee shirt.

[62chevy]

139352

I believe this was a 9mm and that was about 90 lbs on the floor, walls, ceiling ,garage door and roof. Opps .
139353
through the long sleeve jersey type tee shirt.


That can't be good. :holysheep

[Debo]

How do you miss a live round in your scrap......Jack Daniels????

[fredj338]

I ALWAYS keep my pot covered when melting range lead ....

^^THIS^^ I had a sim exp, but it was a tire valve stem. I expect some moisture was trapped inside it. But for the lid on it, a significant tinsel fairy visit.

[merlin101]

139352

I believe this was a 9mm and that was about 90 lbs on the floor, walls, ceiling ,garage door and roof. Opps .
139353
through the long sleeve jersey type tee shirt.

It may not seem like like it , but you are very lucky!

[Harter66]

I'm well aware of how lucky I was that day . The problem was that the range scrap had been hand sorted but had set for a month to close to the bench, that has been resolved the casting area and loading spaces are on opposite sides of a 40x60 .

[jwber]

I might have had the same thing happen to me recently on my first smelt.

I was weighing out my range scrap that I pick off the top of the berm when I found a live 9mm round I must have picked off ground to reclaim the lead and case. I was like holy **** that coulda been bad. It was so dirty from the other scrap I almost missed it.

[Cowboy_Dan]

Last time I smelted range scrap, I found 3 fired 22's, an enormous bolt, and a wing nut that was too small for the bolt. This was in 70#, so it wasn't really much, but just a little strange.

[rockydoc]

Dirt and pulverized lead = two things in range scrap that I am concerned with. I am thinking of washing the RS in my rotary separator(for separating stainless steel media from cartridge cases) this should separate dirt, lead dust and plywood scraps from the bullet scraps and jackets.
My concern here is : "Is it safe to pour this lead dust containing water onto the ground at my house?"
Rocky

[62chevy]

Dirt and pulverized lead = two things in range scrap that I am concerned with. I am thinking of washing the RS in my rotary separator(for separating stainless steel media from cartridge cases) this should separate dirt, lead dust and plywood scraps from the bullet scraps and jackets.
My concern here is : "Is it safe to pour this lead dust containing water onto the ground at my house?"
Rocky

Lead came from the ground but I'm sure the Tree Huggers would have a fit. So do you want to piss off a Tree Hugger?

[mold maker]

Take it back to the range and put it back where the contaminates came from. Or like above, add some natural fertilizer, and water a tree hugers trees.

[62chevy]

Take it back to the range and put it back where the contaminates came from. Or like above, add some natural fertilizer, and water a tree hugers trees.

I think extra fertilizer is needed to get th lead buried deep, at least 6 inches.:cool:

[Landshark9025]

After having sorted three five gallon buckets totaling just short of 450 lbs, I ended up with about a gallon of sand. I'm in Florida where the berms are sand so you can do most of your sifting at the range pretty quickly and not bring much home. That said, I'll not be dumping this on my lawn where it can leech into my well. Will it hurt anything? Doubt it. But I'd rather put it in a bucket, put a lid on it and next range trip just dump it back on the berm before I commence to mining. No sense in having that on the lawn, washing into the drainage or sewer of you can prevent it.

[WILCO]

How do you miss a live round in your scrap......Jack Daniels????

Trolling?

[mold maker]

He missed it the same way I did once. It wasn't a bright shiny new round. It was mixed in with the range scrap and dirt. It had assumed the same dirty grey appearance as the lead and jackets, coated in dirt.
Believe me when I say it takes some real concentration and some washing to clean NC red clay off the scrap, enough to find every live piece. The last trip I found a half box of 22LR misfires among the debris. The box had broken open on impact with the berm, and scattered the contents over quiet an area.
In all I've collected half a coffee can of live rounds.
Any one of them would have been an exciting and dangerous experience.
Once is enough. Be safe.

[lobogunleather]

Back in my range mining days (the only way I could afford to shoot back then) I used a screen made of hardware cloth over a box to clean out most of the dirt and debris. This allowed me to visually examine everything that went into my lead bucket. Then I would melt and flux in a cast iron pot (with lid) outdoors on the barbecue grill and pour off into ingot molds. Never had a problem, but I do recall seeing lots of stuff in the ground at the range.

[rosewood]

Bit off topic, but I melted down some range scrap and got some blueish/purple colors in the lead. It seemed to cause my drip-o-matic to be a run-o-matic and the bullets didn't cast well at all. I threw it to the side. Any idea what I got that caused that? Any way to clean it up?

Thanks,

Rosewood

[Harter66]

Pure lead ,too hot .

[Landshark9025]

Back in my range mining days (the only way I could afford to shoot back then) I used a screen made of hardware cloth over a box to clean out most of the dirt and debris. This allowed me to visually examine everything that went into my lead bucket. Then I would melt and flux in a cast iron pot (with lid) outdoors on the barbecue grill and pour off into ingot molds. Never had a problem, but I do recall seeing lots of stuff in the ground at the range.

This is kind of what I do, but I have a "basket" with sides about 1" tall and it is about 12" square. Sits on a 5 gal bucket. I pour out some. Dirt and big chunks sift through and then I spread it out and inspect it. Acknowledging my own ability to get mentally distracted and keep saying to myself "What would a 22 look like in here?" over and over. I pick out all the mangled cases and pieces of brass or copper that have no lead in them and throw those in a separate bucket.

Fortunately, our berms are all sand so most of it sifts out pretty well. Can't imagine trying to do this with real dirt or clay.

[rosewood]

Pure lead ,too hot .
I smelted in my plumbers furnace. I then made ingots and put in my temperature controlled Lee pot and could see the color swirls in the pot. I also have melted pure lead and never saw those colors before. I figured it got contaminated with copper or something???

Thanks,

Rosewood

[Harter66]

I'm not a metallurgist but that is what I have experienced. I sort my range scrap to at least very hard,ww hard,ML /buck shot and jacketed . I use my well calibrated thumb nail so it is subjective at best but it generally results in A/C ingots of 6-8,10 ,12-14 and 16 bhn's . By pencil test. The colors are generally oxides from the lead . Copper isn't a bad thing in your boolits especially if you want to hunt with them for rifles .

[rosewood]

It seemed to cause a hanging drip below the pour spot and slows down the flow.

[RoGrrr]

I mine the berm and sift with a basket I made out of quarter inch machine screen. With my gathering procedure I can collect a bucket (about 150 Lbs) in under an hour.
Then I dump the ore near the front end of my dump bed trailer.
I lift the bed about 15° and with my garden hose from the downhill side of the pile of lead I push the ore up to the front of the trailer with the water stream. The dirt runs downhill with the water and I end up with relatively clean ore resting at the top of the bed.
I have spotted many "foreign items" during my wash procedure. It's not particularly fast but it IS therapeutic.
Then I spread it out and let it dry in the sun today so I can smell them into ingots tomorrow.


I also feel that no matter what the alloy/BHN is, it's ALWAYS going to shoot better than YOU can. So, I just don't worry about it. I love listening to those discussions of what is the BHN/how hard/where to test.... I lean back in my easy chair and sip my BIG GULP and let them go at each other's throats.

And since I can mine the berms there's NO AMMO SHORTAGE. The other neat thing is that I can load a box of either 9's or 45's for less than they can buy 22's. It's only the cost of primers and powder ~4 cents. We, miners/casters are a unique bunch, aren't we.

And when someone grouses at me for mining being dirty/back-breaking/slow, I mention to them that my ton of lead which will eventually be between 60,000 and 120,000 9mm/45 slugs translate into about SEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS, if I had to go out and buy them. THAT makes them stop and think.
Granted, they have a point when red-axxin' me about dirty/etc but I ring it up as part of my HOBBY.

[RKJ]

It seemed to cause a hanging drip below the pour spot and slows down the flow.


Rosewood, I don't know if this will help but, my Lee drips like crazy if the handle isn't shut down all the way. Hard to describe but with a little time you can feel the difference, kind of like a latch closing feel. Also if I have it turned up too hot it want's to drip badly. One other thing I do is use a small paper clip to insert into the spout to dislodge anyting that might be catching in there. I wear welding gloves when doing that and do my best to keep my ham hock hands out of the way of the drip. Just some ideas.

[Jayhawkhuntclub]

I hand pick my range scrap a bullet at a time. Then I hand sort it into jacketed/cast. I've come across live rounds at the berm. Never had any get into my can though. IMHO, washing scrap is a waste of time. If you do wash, I wouldn't dump the residual in my yard (or anyone elses'). As someone else mentioned, take it back to the berm and dump it. The same goes for smelting slag/contaminated dirt. The range is already contaminated, so it's not going hurt anything there.

[blaser.306]

I keep my pot covered also, but I was adding more lead on top of the pile. It was from an indoor range so i wasn't afraid of water being in it.
Good plan in theory! When we are doing a lot of shooting IPSC, IDPA, PPC on our indoor range during the winter months along with the ventilation fans running, we also water down the sand in the pit to stop dust from being raised up. I make it a rule to not assume the lead is dry. One lead / steam explosion and you look at things a little more cautiously.

[montanamike]

I have had a few pretty good pops come out of the big melting pot. I dont know if they were tmj's or 22lr or what. Luckily there was always a lid on when it happened. When adding more scrap to an already molten pot I slide the lid (a piece of plywood) over just enough to get a shovel in there then slowly dump it. The new scrap will eventually cool down the melt and partially solidify it. Then it is safe to fill your pot all the way and let any moisture evaporate out. This works great for me. I wouldn't do it if your scrap was really wet but if it came out of moist ground you'll be ok.