May have hit the mother lode.

[Acorn]

My club has a box about 4’ square and 2,-3’ deep of scrap lead from our indoor range with a smaller box on top of it.
They don’t know what to do with it. Mainly shavings.
I liberated 2 5 gallon buckets about half full. I could hardly lift them.
Now to work on getting the rest.
Got to be a couple tons.

[RogerDat]

Good to know it won't end up as replacement battery terminals in a Walmart :-)

[Hodagtrapper]

Surprised there is not quite a few club members interested in the lead!

Chris

[alamogunr]

Maybe that guy at American Rifleman was right

[Winger Ed.]

Grab it while ya can.
As time goes on, Lead is getting harder and harder to scrounge.

Plus, the price goes up & down like gasoline.
Years ago, I'd scrounged at least 3500 pounds, way more than I'd ever cast & shoot.
When the price went stupid, and the scrap yards were paying almost $1. a pound,
I cashed in a little over 1,000 pounds.

That made a nice addition to what I call the: "Keep Winger Ed. from starving to death this week fund".

[dverna]

I have over 3500 lbs and still would take it all. You can not have too much lead. It stores well and does not take up much space. Nice score!!!

[lightman]

Nice score! Grab all you can. A bunch of 5 gallon buckets partly filled and a 2 wheel dolly work well.

[Acorn]

Surprised there is not quite a few club members interested in the lead!

Chris

I’m not sure how many know about it.
They keep it inside of a locked garage where they keep the clubs zero turn.
Weather permitting I’ll be back there Sunday to try and reconnect with the guy that tipped me off.
My biggest issue is I only have a 4 cylinder Mitsubishi. Not a lot of guts to haul with.
I know it’s dirty lead and will smoke with all the debris in it but I figure refining it will keep Me off the streets and out of the pool halls.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

Fantastic! Good on you!! Our city is set to be replacing all the remaining lead water service lines. I need to get on that and find out who is doing the work. Should be many tons of it. Messy to be sure with all that red clay on it. There is still a huge amount of lead out there in The wild. Just have to hunt it up..

[Budzilla 19]

Go get it!'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As much as the little Mitsubishi will haul! Then make multiple trips! That’s a score! Remelt it! Sell the jackets, buy components, sounds like the start of a great journey. You did huge!

[lightman]

Go get it!'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As much as the little Mitsubishi will haul! Then make multiple trips! That’s a score! Remelt it! Sell the jackets, buy components, sounds like the start of a great journey. You did huge!

My daily driver is a Super Duty! I have had as much as 3000# of lead in the back end!

[RogerDat]

If the vehicle is designed to haul three people or two and cargo you have to figure at least 150# per person. Sticker on the door should tell you the gross weight you can handle. My parents towed a small 4th wheel camper in Colorado with a 4 banger small pickup. I had my knees on the dash in it being a touch over 6' but it had no problem with the load.

My suggestion is load as big as you can without rubbing tires on the fender. Use 5 gallon buckets between half and three quarter full (60 to 80 lbs) They stack well and depending on ones physical condition can be stacked three high or even 4 high. Don't forget if there isn't a passenger then a couple buckets stacked on floor of front passenger side can help keep the vehicle level and the front wheels on the road.

Have had some nice finds where what I got the first time is all I got, or I took my time only to find someone else snagged a good size chunk while I was lollygagging around taking my time.

I'm another vote for it doesn't spoil and it is doubtful the price will drop by a significant amount. If you are of a certain age or have health issues or just in line with good planning line up a fellow caster or friend to see that the material gets sold from your estate to other casters. That way your heirs will get good value instead of a few cents a pound from a scrap yard coming out to pick it up, and so that it goes to a good use. Just mark the ingots with what they are and it is like money in the bank. Small bills maybe but 2000 lbs. at a buck a pound is a nice chunk of coin.

That was a good point on selling the jackets to the scrap yard. Copper even not clean has decent value. Might consider donating that money or some of it back to the club. Could be a good way to get in solid with this supply.

If doing a quantity might be worth looking into the Redneck Gold and Cast Boolit ingot molds. Good size for storing, fit into melter, and right size for shipping in USPS flat rate boxes. One of the members has them for sale in the vendor area. Also potentially useful is bread loaf pans from thrift or garage sale or estate sales. Can pour an inch or inch and a half in a bread loaf pan and have a nice stacking slab of a little over 10 lbs. Say 12 to 16 would be common for 4 scoops of a soup ladle. Not easy to use or as good a fit for shipping but fast to pour and the "molds" can be had for very cheap.

There is a stack of slabs on floor next to blue bucket. Right side, those are on a $10 harbor freight furniture dolly so I can pull the stack out. Some other stacks of slabs scattered on shelves. It is how I stored batches of scrap until I cast them into cast boolit ingots of around 2.5 lbs each.

Man you are going to have you some real fun, and this is the time of year when it cools down so it isn't so hot melting large batches. Large score also helps justify buying gear. Molds, ladles, pots, bigger burner etc. I bought my bottom pour ladle when I converted the slabs to cast boolit ingots. Seemed like a good time for that purchase if you get what I mean ;-)

289489

[kevin c]

My first major score I was lucky enough to have good friends who helped out with a dually pickup and a trailer. They even came along to help load and unload.

If you need to, rent an appropriate vehicle.

[richhodg66]

I probably have enough to last a very long time even if I increase my shooting volume a lot, and almost all of it is going into a berm I own and will recover it one day, so I'm not worried about running out, really.

I'd still snatch all I could get if I were you.

[cabinarms]

for me, that would be a lot like winning a powerball. But really, good for you, right place and right time.

[imashooter2]

I’m not sure how many know about it.
They keep it inside of a locked garage where they keep the clubs zero turn.
Weather permitting I’ll be back there Sunday to try and reconnect with the guy that tipped me off.
My biggest issue is I only have a 4 cylinder Mitsubishi. Not a lot of guts to haul with.
I know it’s dirty lead and will smoke with all the debris in it but I figure refining it will keep Me off the streets and out of the pool halls.

It’s not so bad. The junk in it fluxes as it melts. This is what mine looked like:

http://imashooter2.com/pictures/scrap600.jpg

[Acorn]

As far as cooking it down, I have a gasoline plumbers pot.
Problem I have is my good buddy is also a caster and I’d like to get him involved but the guy that tipped me off, made me promise not to tell anyone.
I figure here doesn’t count as we are relatively anonymous here.
I’ll be back scrounging tomorrow and hope to run into the same guy again.
This time I’ll have more buckets and make multiple trips.

[Acorn]

It’s not so bad. The junk in it fluxes as it melts. This is what mine looked like:

http://imashooter2.com/pictures/scrap600.jpg

That’s what mine looks like. Just not so many big chunks.

[lightman]

Oh yeah, you know we like pictures? Be sure to take a few when you start melting it down.

[Acorn]

Dang it! Raining here so my connection “the grass cutter” won’t be there.
Thinking about approaching the club about making a donation for the access to take it all.

[oley55]

Saying or doing something generous to/for your club just may possibly have the opposite effect...

Below is an article from my local shooting club/range. The volume of material salvaged from just two of the pistol ranges is quite impressive. The next time I see the company mining, I plan to approach them to see if they will sell me some bulk unprocessed material, but I fear environmental interests and/or club income could be an issue.


Lead Mining

If you were out to the range to shoot in January, you may have noticed unusual equipment on the property (like that in the lower right of the page). The last time we mined lead from our berms was about 2 years ago and with the heavy usage of the range by our members, it was time to mine the berms again. Perhaps this is one of the maintenance chores that the average shooter doesn't typically consider. The bullet goes in the berm and that's good, right?

In the early years of the club, we were much smaller and didn't have to mine the berms very often. As our membership passed 2,000 in the 1990's, we started mining the berms on a regular basis and were surprised by the 60,000 lbs. we recovered from the old 25/50 yard Bullseye line the first time we mined it.

We currently have a lead management program that complies with the Florida "Best Management Practices for Environmental Stewardship of Florida Shooting Ranges". This program gives the club certain protections under Florida statues, the main one being that as long as we periodically recycle our lead, it is simply treated as a recyclable metal and not hazardous waste.

Given the shear scope of our mining effort, we have been using a company that specializes in lead recovery from shooting ranges to recover our lead. Not only do they recycle it, but they provide written reports for documentation in our lead file and after removing the spent bullets, the dirt is treated to maintain a Ph-level that prevents possible leaching of lead into the soil. They also reface the berms and all the tractor tracks are smoothed out.

As the mining is occurring we also take this time to do maintenance on the ranges like straightening up target frames and rebuilding bulkheads. Each range has to have the target frames removed so the machines can reach the face of the berm. In the case of the 25/50-yard pistol line, those heavy 50-yard target holders have to be taken out. It's a job! Get this; the last two times this was done, 115,000 lbs. of lead was removed!
Thanks for reading. See you at the range.