Zinc ammo now hitting shelves near you. Range lead smelters beware.

[destrux]

I noticed a new full page ad in the front of a magazine from Barnes introducing their new line of low priced range ammo featuring copper jacketed ZINC bullets. They will be making them in common chamberings like 5.56 and .300 Blackout, and logic would also lead to them offering the bullets as components for reloaders. This is the first I've head of any mainstream manufacturer selling zinc bullets.

http://www.barnesbullets.com/ammunition/range-ar/

So I guess this is going to throw a bit of a curveball to the guys smelting range lead from ranges that allow customers to bring ammo in. Going to have to use the same precautions as with wheel weights now.

[destrux]

I guess I'm a few months late with this, but I never saw anyone mention it here before. It's been around since February apparently.

[Walkingwolf]

Zinc melts at a different temperature, keep the temp just barely enough for lead to flow. Your zinc bullets should float to the top.

[xacex]

You can add copper to your pot if you get some zinc contamination, and it will substitute in the place of the zinc. There is a thread on it. I am not a metallurgists so please dont ask me for an explination, but I have tried it and it does work.

[websterz]

Glad the range I'm mining hasn't been used for nearly ten years!

[Black Powder Bill]

I cull out about 5% bronze or solids copper last week while cooking a pot up. Yesterday I picked a handful up and noticed quite a few soilds in 25,32,380 in the berm.

Zinc is a few pennies higher than Pb like.82¢ . Pb was at .77¢ Friday.

I offered a guy $1.00 per pound for all the lead he had last week. He will be SOL
Next time I stop and offer him .75¢ lb.

[tomme boy]

You don't hardly ever find rifle bullets when digging range lead.

[dragon813gt]

You don't hardly ever find rifle bullets when digging range lead.

That depends at the ranges by me. If they're shooting paper forget it. They are buried to deep. If they're shooting swinging steel then I tend to find them in a line in front of the plate. Usually pretty beat up but you can tell what they were :laugh:

[destrux]

See I find a ton of rifle bullets at mine because several people shoot high volumes of subsonic rifle ammo and they tend to hit the plywood backers and destabilize and hit the berm sideways and just stop with a loud thump. In the spring when the snow melts you can just walk around filling up buckets with all the bullets laying around.

I was looking again at this ammo and it since it's $22 a box I doubt we'll ever encounter much. When Barnes says it's an economic alternative, they mean compared to their expensive copper solids, not to normal ammo. Curious looking stuff though.

[Pee Wee]

We mined our range last year and got 3 thousand pounds. Mix of everything. We had a commercial sifter but the range owner only let us use shovels. We did such a good job of replacing the dirt back in the berm that he is going to let us use a small front end loader this year and we hope to get 5 to 6 thousand pounds if not more

[FLYCUTTER]

I just sent a message to Barnes Bullets telling them of my displeased nature because of their move to make zinc projectiles. I further said I will boycott their company and never buy their product again. I encourage all of you to do the same.