Smelting used bullets...am I wasting my time?

[thegreatwrzesinski]

Ok so here's the thing, I am BRAND NEW to casting and I am trying to gather supplies.

I can get as many "once fired" bullets as I can carry from my local indoor range for free. A lot of these have copper jackets. Would it be worth it to collect them and melt them down to make boolits or would it be more trouble than it's worth?

[RayinNH]

Nathan, welcome aboard. Any lead that is free is worth getting. Throw them in the smelting pot and when melted skim the jackets off with a slotted spoon. The jackets float to the top. Save the jackets in a bucket and turn them in to the recycler for more lead...Ray

[thenaaks]

the range lead will be a little softer than wheel weights, but will be less messy also. the copper jackets are worth a bunch so make sure to keep 'em and sell when copper prices get high.

[docone31]

Melt them!
They use soft lead in jacketeds. Good to mix with wheel weights.
Good for you.
Get all you can.

[thegreatwrzesinski]

sounds good! thank you all for your responses!

ok now second question...what about jacketing the rounds? could I melt down the jackets and re-jacket the rounds? If not would it be possible to melt down the jackets and make gas checks? or would it be more cost/effort effective to sell the jacket and just buy gas checks?

[sagacious]

...
ok now second question...what about jacketing the rounds? could I melt down the jackets and re-jacket the rounds? If not would it be possible to melt down the jackets and make gas checks? or would it be more cost/effort effective to sell the jacket and just buy gas checks?
Congrats on getting started. Any lead you can get your hands on is worth grabbing.

No, the fired copper jackets are not useful for reloading. Save them up as you melt down your range lead and take them to your local scrap metal dealer... and check to see if he has any lead at a good price.

Gas checks are a precision-made component. You'll either have to buy them ready-made, or buy the tooling and make your own from metal sheet.

[chris in va]

Copper has a melting point of 1,984f...far beyond anything you could use to melt it. Skim them off, save for later or just sell now.

[lwknight]

Get all you can. Make a career out of it. Lead is more than $1.00 per pound
Melt em.

[evan price]

If I could get all the indoor range scrap I could carry for free, I'd be there the next day with a 2-ton truck and a lot of empty buckets.

Get it all. Every bit. Add a little linotype to sweeten it up because it will be more likely pure-ish (soft) lead.

Be aware that you need to put more heat to jacketed bullets because the copper acts as a heat sink. Also, try to shake/tap as much lead out of the jackets as possible. Then if the jackets are pretty clean you can sell them as #2 copper scrap. You will need someplace to dump the jackets out and run a strong magnet through to remove any steel jackets. I use an old speaker magnet- works great- big enough to hold on to, large enough to attract a lot of jackets, and strong enough to suck them out of a thin pile.

[Gunslinger]

I use a lot of range lead in my applications. It's an unknown composition so it is best used with something you know for instance wheel weights or lino. I mix my range lead 50/50 with wheel weights... works fine!

[sqlbullet]

Okay...I will be the lone dissenter here.

Range scrap is perfectly fine for bullet lead. It will make fine bullets for you, and provides back lots of valuable copper.

However, you don't mention what your other lead acquisition options are. For instance, I have a deal with a local radio pharmacy. I get all their lead for a very good rate. Similar to what they would get at the scrap yard. That works out to 1 ton of lead every 3 months or so. I have had the lead analyzed, and it is 97% lead, 3% antimony and 1% tin. The majority (50-60%) of it comes in unpainted 31.5 lb pigs that are clean enough to go straight in the pot.

I don't mess with range scraps, or wheel weights, or any other sources of lead. I get all I can use, and sell enough on the side to make casting and shooting completely free hobbies.

So, if this is your only source, then it is a good one, and get all you can. If you have other options, then lets hear about them, and we will 'advise' you as to which one will have the best return on your invested time.

[fastgun]

After the jackets float to the top be sure to flux it well. It will help you get the most lead out of the jackets and the scrap yard will pay more for the jackets if they are pretty much lead free.

[Hardcast416taylor]

Evan Price. I take the magnet use 1 step further. I use a 6" long by 1" dia. magnet during the melting process to remove clips when smelting straight ww in my large pot. I wear welders leather gloves and wipe the clips off the mag. I again use it with range smelt to remove any odd steel jackets.Robert

[Bill*]

Evan Price. I take the magnet use 1 step further. I use a 6" long by 1" dia. magnet during the melting process to remove clips when smelting straight ww in my large pot. I wear welders leather gloves and wipe the clips off the mag. I again use it with range smelt to remove any odd steel jackets.Robert

Good to know....Somewhere I got it in my head that magnets dump their ability when heated, but then again when I went to school we were looking at a brontosaurus head on a tyrannosaurus body, or so I was told later. :smile:

[fredj338]

Range scrap makes great bullet alloy. I don't mess w/ smaller jacketed bullets, but a 230grFMJ has a 200gr lead core. Worth the effort for me. I mine a berm atthe private range I shoot at. You can easily pull up 100# of useable scrap bullets in about 15min of sifting out the rocks & such. That's 3k-4k bullets.

[Deliverator]

Okay...I will be the lone dissenter here.

Range scrap is perfectly fine for bullet lead. It will make fine bullets for you, and provides back lots of valuable copper.

However, you don't mention what your other lead acquisition options are. For instance, I have a deal with a local radio pharmacy. I get all their lead for a very good rate. Similar to what they would get at the scrap yard. That works out to 1 ton of lead every 3 months or so. I have had the lead analyzed, and it is 97% lead, 3% antimony and 1% tin. The majority (50-60%) of it comes in unpainted 31.5 lb pigs that are clean enough to go straight in the pot.

I don't mess with range scraps, or wheel weights, or any other sources of lead. I get all I can use, and sell enough on the side to make casting and shooting completely free hobbies.

So, if this is your only source, then it is a good one, and get all you can. If you have other options, then lets hear about them, and we will 'advise' you as to which one will have the best return on your invested time.

How do you have 97% lead with 3% antimony and 1% tin... thats 101% You must be a wizard sir!

[Grapeshot]

When I was stationed out at Fort Dix, NJ, my buddy and I would pick all the spent wad cutters from the berm that the local Police Dept. used. Must have gotten more than 400 pounds of lead after we smelted it down and cast into ingots.

[Multigunner]

In some old shooter books from the muzzle loader days they sometimes describe using wooden blocks as targets then spliting the block when finished to retrieve the spent bullets for recasting.

At casual shooting spots in the countryside near here you can visit after a good downpour and find spent bullets of all types by the bucket full.

Reusing lead is a lot better than leaving it in the ground to poison the environment (I'm no treehugger by a long shot, but even I can agree with that).

Probably best to segregate the bullets by type, lead revolver bullets in one bucket and other types in another.
The Revolver bullets can be used as is for casting pistol bullets then, the other types of recovered lead can be tested for suitability by casting a few test bullets and the alloy adjusted by adding something to the pot if necessary.

I prefer to melt lead either on a wood fire outside or a hotplate, also outside but on the back porch. Using gas may be more efficient but deadfall wood is free and electricity is still fairly cheap here compared to most parts of the US.

Recycling your own bullets also allows greater consistency.

[zomby woof]

I also get indoor range scrap. You will get a 20-30% waste after you smelt it. There is copper, dirt, brass and old lube in my buckets. Be careful of any live rounds in the mix, I had one in my last batch it made a mess when it went off. I will now start with a cold pot from now on. It is very dusty. Make sure you have a fan going or stand up wind. I've had much success with 50/50 WW.

Our range goes through tons a year. The proceeds goes to the junior program. I can have all I want for $.08 per pound. I can't keep up.

Good luck.

[jlchucker]

The best ones you can find are the hard-cast ones that folks shoot and leave. Those can be recast and used without having to deal with disposing of crappy old jackets. Cast them into ingots first.

[Shiloh]

Love range lead. Great for general purpose pistol boolits as is. 50/50 range lead to WW for rifle boolits.

Shiloh

[DLCTEX]

Full metal jacketed may need to be smashed with a hammer to split the jacket. The melted lead can spew from a split with some force, so use protection.

[mold maker]

Look VERY closely for unfired rounds in range scrap. I find several each time I melt. When I get home with range lead I tumble it in a cement mixer with purple power and water. That reduces the chance of a live round going unnoticed and gets rid of most of the dirt and even some oxides. I dry them on a framed 1/4" hardware screen in the sunshine.
Having a heavy lid on the pot helps in many ways. It almost stops visits from the tinsel fairy, speeds up the melt, cuts down on obnoxious smoke, and makes for a reducing atmosphere. (stops oxidation and even reclaimed some oxides)
Wally World, and others, sell a kitchen tool made of 1/4" hardware screen that removes the jacket material without the dross and dirt.
The dusty dross is where most of the lead danger is to your health.
Under present conditions, you are wise to seek out every pound of lead, from any source. Just mark it, (WW RL etc) and keep it separate until you are ready to mix for each purpose.
Steel clips from WW etc have almost value and can be trashed safely.
As said above, the cleaner the jacket material the more the scrappie will pay. I always try to trade for lead instead of money. Ask for tin (the metal) in trade. If they have any it's worth more than lead or copper.

[Mk42gunner]

Dale brought up something that I had been thinking about. If the bullets are plated or totally jacketed, ensure there is a break in the jacket for lead to escape. Most full metal jacket ball rounds have lead exposed on the base of the bullet, so you don't have to worry about them.

Since these bullets are coming from an indoor range, make doubly sure that there aren't any live rounds in the pot before you apply heat.

The moisture driven tinsel fairy is bad enough, no one wants to see the powder driven version.


Robert

[sqlbullet]

How do you have 97% lead with 3% antimony and 1% tin... thats 101% You must be a wizard sir!

It is the extra electrons the lead trapped when it was used as shielding!

Or a typo..96% Lead.

[Jon]

I'd take all that I could get. I use a dutch oven from harbor freight on a fish fryer propane burner. It takes about 30min to get everything melted, but then I can just flux and skim off the jackets.

Wheel weights are pretty hard to come by around here. I can get 100lbs of range lead in about an hour. This is what I use to sort out the dirt.

http://i625.photobucket.com/albums/tt332/somephotoguy/bucketbottom.jpg
http://i625.photobucket.com/albums/tt332/somephotoguy/bucketinside.jpg

I will say that wheel weights are much easier to melt down, and have less stuff to skim off, but range scrap will work.

[sargenv]

Since I use a dutch oven to melt my range scrap, I have heard the occasional "POP" from fully encapsulated bullets giving way when the heat is applied. I let the cover take the brunt of the exploding bullets, and after I know things are melted and likely good to go, is when I take the lid off. Usually after about 30 mins on the fire..

[fatelk]

I had a bunch of copper jackets from range lead, maybe 30 or 40 pounds, but I threw them out when the scrap yard told me they wouldn't touch them because they were contaminated with lead.

[scrapcan]

Also make sure you bring each melt up to temp on it's own. Don't just throw more scrap in the already melted pot. The tinsel fairy shows up when you least expect it.

[HangFireW8]

In some old shooter books from the muzzle loader days they sometimes describe using wooden blocks as targets then spliting the block when finished to retrieve the spent bullets for recasting.

OK, gotta tell a story here.

Dear departed buddy of mine used to tell me about getting lickered up and shooting a BP revolver into the firewood... this is inside the house at the hearth, mind you. The point of the story is not the negative safety aspects of this endeavor, but that he and his buddy (which would not be me) marveled that most of the time, the wood not only stopped the ball nicely, but it usually popped out and rolled down on its own a moment later.

I failed to ask him what kind of wood it was, too late now.

-HF

[WILCO]

Nathan, welcome aboard. Any lead that is free is worth getting........

Ditto for me!!!! :-P

[canebreaker]

Ok, I collect range spent bullits, most of the time muddy, red clay. Wash and let dry a few days. If I see one or few that are FMJ's I'll pull them out. Smack them with a hammer and back into the pot they go. If I miss the first time I catch them on recycle day. i have 15 buckets of motor brushes that the carbon needs broken off. Plus the range jackets. I hope the recycler has enough lead for the trade. I'll put the carbon pieces in the driveway.

[leadman]

If you gather the lead out of the range yourself buy a respirator! The building supply stores have them as well as Grainger. Be the best $20 or so dollars you could spend.
Most of the filters I see are 3M so you can go to their website for the correct one to use.

The lead dust is what can damage your health easily. Handling the solid chunks of lead is not near as hazardous.

The Tyvek coveralls are a good idea if you gather the scrap also so you don't carry the lead dust into your vehicle or house.