range lead

[shickf3]

will range lead ingots be good alloy ready to go or do you need to add ayything

[sheepdog]

Yes and no.

Range lead can and will be anything. Including some zinc on occasion when some knucklehead casts some so watch out. If you're melting all factory ammo its zinc free but can range greatly. You can cast it straight as projectiles but for me I wonder the content, how much variance I might get. So I melt mine up in separate ingots for mixing in large batches of WW for better consistency.

[shickf3]

I just bought 25.lb of ww ingots and im looking at 50.lb of range lead ingots should I just melt all together and pour into new ingots

[imashooter2]

If I had 25 pounds of known alloy, I would not mix it with 50 pounds of unknown alloy. Try the range scrap as is. If your application is not demanding, it might work fine. I know the indoor range scrap I get works very well as is for .38 Special and .45 ACP.

[sheepdog]

Will it work? Yes? Will you get constancy in batch to batch from a load? If you're going to do that then at least do it with a load you know works well. Then if it does or doesn't work well you know its the projectiles not the load.

[Larry Gibson]

I have shot quite a bit of range lead recovered from an indoor range where mostly commercial cast and jacketed handgun ammo were fires (mostly 9mm and .45). I have about 460 lbs left. It casts ok by itself but the BHN is only 8.5 and seems very crystaline in nature. I add 2% tin to it which increases the new alloy's BHN to 9.5 and decreases the crystaline nature making it more maleable. I use it for handgun and low velocity cast bullets up through 1500 fps. WQing does not have a very consistant affect of hardening. I concure that adding another good alloy to it likely will not make for a much better alloy. If your range lead alloy is like mine I'd suggest just adding tin and use it within it's capability.

Larry Gibson

[LeadThrower]

I melt my range scrap about 50-75 pounds at a time to get large quantities of consistent (but unknown) alloy. The range I visit allows shotguns, so I suppose I'm getting some bismuth in the mix. I'm lucky in that my experience is BHN of 9-11 for air cooled, and I can consistently get the hardness into the 22 - 26 range by oven-heating to various temperatures and then plunging into ice water.

[Shiloh]

Cast some yesterday. Free lead = free boolits.

I filled two empty .22 LR brick boxes with range scrap. Lots of shotgun slug chunks as well as cast, jacketed and .22 LR lead. Smelted it in the pot . I got 325+ LEE .45 TLTC boolits.
Sized 'em yesterday, tumble lube 'em today, load tomorrow, shoot Wednesday or Thursday. I'll get more when I go back to the range. Maybe I'll take the screen this time.

Shiloh :castmine: