Range lead

[DtheD]

A great day for "prospecting or berm mining". I got to my range early today, about 7:00. Not a soul around. I set up some 100 yard targets and began picking up boolits. No digging or sifting. Just the stuff laying on the surface exposed by all the rain we've had. By 8:40 when the first other members began arriving I had picked up 78 pounds of gold! No berm damage. You couldn't even tell I was rooting around on them. On Sunday I smelted down my old stash of range scrap. 121 pounds of clean ingots. I used my Lee hardness tester and they are about 10.5 -- 11 hardness. Our club has just over 300 members and I thnk I'm the only one who bothers to pick it up. The minor back ache is well worth the lead I picked up. I know we all know this but: Always heat range lead in a cold pot! The tinsel fairy is not a welcome friend. There is always trapped water and air in the mix. It's getting tougher to get our lead every day. I think the bit of stoop work is well worth the effort. Another stroke of luck a few weeks ago. I let everyone know I'm looking for lead. A friend's wife gave me 23 pounds, ( after smelting ) of dental Xray lead packaging. I still haven't hit the pistol range. I'm sure there is plenty there too. I have to ask about the indoor range lead. Cast boolets only. It's out there if you look.

[Bigjohn]

All I can say is "Keep up the recycling."

Berm Mining is definitely one way of obtaining lead; you can adjust the hardness by various means.

John

[docone31]

Well, my club which has a substantial range, uses the berm mining to finance improvements. They hire a contractor who comes, grooms the berms, seperates the findings, and splits the difference after scrapping.
Our club has concrete platforms, screen brass catchers, great target stands, snack bar, brandy newdy club house replacing the trailor one. Archery range, skeet and trap, IMHSA.
I will ransack the tire guys.

[targetshootr]

I pick up previously owned lead most every trip too. I like how it works your back and leg muscles. You really feel it the next day especially at my age. Most times I only pick up half a gallon and like you said, it's laying right on top. I haven't smelted any so far and I've got so much other lead on hand I may never have to but I'm still gettin' it while the gettin's good.

:castmine:

[Southern Son]

I might have to give this a go, as far as I know, nobody has ever mined the berms in the club I shoot with currently, and it has been there a few years. When I look back at my old smallbore club in Bexly, I kick myself for not taking the lead from there. The backstop was sheets of steel at an angle that drove the bullets into the ground, but after about 20 years, the ground had become a great big sheet of lead, honestly, you could pick up slabs of lead that weighed 10lbs. Oh well, hind sight is 20/20.