contender1
04-10-2022, 11:08 AM
I have a plan to mine some lead.
Ok, first off, I own a private gun range. We do shoot USPSA competition there,, but otherwise,, it's not open to the public.
Well, a few years back, I lost a lifelong friend. He was into guns, handloading, & casting. His children,, were not. Not even a little. They even didn't know how much he was involved with it all. And they did not care.
As he aged, and knew his time was getting shorter,, he got me to help him liquidate much of his "stuff." But he also left instructions in his will that his kids were to contact me to do the final disposal of any gun stuff. Mostly, ammo.
Well, there was a call, and I got asked to help go through the misc. stuff left over. But the (3) daughters were scared to death of the ammo. They planned to try & take it to the local County Sheriff's Dept & give it to them for disposal. Most of it was his reloads, and most of it was cast bullets. I was able to call our Sheriff, and explain to him the situation, and he instructed them to allow me to get the ammo. He wasn't in a position to take well over 10,000 rounds of ammo like that. So, I got all of my old friends ammo.
Now, as many of us preach; "I don't shoot another person's reloads." But, I've shot with this gentleman for several decades,, and knew his loading practices. And pulling apart such a large quantity of ammo would be very laborious.
So, I decided to pick a single spot on my range, use it as THE spot to shoot this ammo. I plan on using this ONE spot as my "lead depository." I'll use his ammo, practicing my skills, my accuracy, my trigger control, and enjoy memories of past times. Once it's all "deposited" then I plan on a small mining operation.
I already have a way of mass sorting the dirt & debris from the lead easily. But I figure I'll score several hundred pounds of lead for remelting once I mine it all out.
Yesterday,, I started my lead depositing. About 400-500 38 spls. It wasn't too long before I was aiming at the berm through the hole in my target.
I have a long way to go.
Ok, first off, I own a private gun range. We do shoot USPSA competition there,, but otherwise,, it's not open to the public.
Well, a few years back, I lost a lifelong friend. He was into guns, handloading, & casting. His children,, were not. Not even a little. They even didn't know how much he was involved with it all. And they did not care.
As he aged, and knew his time was getting shorter,, he got me to help him liquidate much of his "stuff." But he also left instructions in his will that his kids were to contact me to do the final disposal of any gun stuff. Mostly, ammo.
Well, there was a call, and I got asked to help go through the misc. stuff left over. But the (3) daughters were scared to death of the ammo. They planned to try & take it to the local County Sheriff's Dept & give it to them for disposal. Most of it was his reloads, and most of it was cast bullets. I was able to call our Sheriff, and explain to him the situation, and he instructed them to allow me to get the ammo. He wasn't in a position to take well over 10,000 rounds of ammo like that. So, I got all of my old friends ammo.
Now, as many of us preach; "I don't shoot another person's reloads." But, I've shot with this gentleman for several decades,, and knew his loading practices. And pulling apart such a large quantity of ammo would be very laborious.
So, I decided to pick a single spot on my range, use it as THE spot to shoot this ammo. I plan on using this ONE spot as my "lead depository." I'll use his ammo, practicing my skills, my accuracy, my trigger control, and enjoy memories of past times. Once it's all "deposited" then I plan on a small mining operation.
I already have a way of mass sorting the dirt & debris from the lead easily. But I figure I'll score several hundred pounds of lead for remelting once I mine it all out.
Yesterday,, I started my lead depositing. About 400-500 38 spls. It wasn't too long before I was aiming at the berm through the hole in my target.
I have a long way to go.