Forrest r
08-19-2015, 07:31 AM
I don't want people to get discouraged when they read posts about how hard it is to smelt range lead/old bullets/berm pickings. That's all I've shot/used since 1990, free range lead. It works for 99% of all my shooting needs and as a side bonus it pays me to use it. Every year I'll smelt around 300# of cleaned (450# unprocessed) bullets and end up with copper jackets. I'll take those copper jackets along with junk range brass to any of the local scrap yards and cash it in for $$$$.
This year the price was down on copper and brass.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/prices2015_zpss5j8jmzg.jpg (http://s162.photobucket.com/user/forrestr-photo/media/prices2015_zpss5j8jmzg.jpg.html)
So I bought some lead with it, a 165# of it for $.35 a #. This is what $58 bought.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/165oflead_zpsv5nb1ghy.jpg (http://s162.photobucket.com/user/forrestr-photo/media/165oflead_zpsv5nb1ghy.jpg.html)
The bucket has smelted clip on ww's and stick on ww's, there's 61/2# of solder & the long 10# ingots (3 of them) aren't marked. They don't bend, they break. I wanted some pure/soft lead to mix with some of the batches of range lead (100# at a time). Sometimes the the batches of range scrap come out too hard for my needs. What I don't use of the pure/soft lead will end up being sold to the bp shooters at a local club.
It's a little more work to process range lead compared to ww's but it also pays $$$$ for the copper.
Just a different way of looking at if it's worth it or not. I'll spend 1 day (around 6 hours) smelting down 450# of range scrap and turning it into 300# of processed ingots. And end up with a little $$$$ for my troubles along with enough lead for the year.
This year the price was down on copper and brass.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/prices2015_zpss5j8jmzg.jpg (http://s162.photobucket.com/user/forrestr-photo/media/prices2015_zpss5j8jmzg.jpg.html)
So I bought some lead with it, a 165# of it for $.35 a #. This is what $58 bought.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/165oflead_zpsv5nb1ghy.jpg (http://s162.photobucket.com/user/forrestr-photo/media/165oflead_zpsv5nb1ghy.jpg.html)
The bucket has smelted clip on ww's and stick on ww's, there's 61/2# of solder & the long 10# ingots (3 of them) aren't marked. They don't bend, they break. I wanted some pure/soft lead to mix with some of the batches of range lead (100# at a time). Sometimes the the batches of range scrap come out too hard for my needs. What I don't use of the pure/soft lead will end up being sold to the bp shooters at a local club.
It's a little more work to process range lead compared to ww's but it also pays $$$$ for the copper.
Just a different way of looking at if it's worth it or not. I'll spend 1 day (around 6 hours) smelting down 450# of range scrap and turning it into 300# of processed ingots. And end up with a little $$$$ for my troubles along with enough lead for the year.