frangable bullets in the mix?

[mac1911]

Getting some indoor range lead and it is know to be mixed with frangable ammo?

what to expect with this ? I have not seen any disscussion about it?

[fryboy]

ummm more dross ..lolz it actually depends upon what the frangible is and that we have no way of knowing ,there's another thread going on that makes mention of a substance that sounds like frangible matter ( plus the normal umm dirt etc ) i'm going to go out on a limb and state that u'll prolly remove it as dross

[sagacious]

Most anything fired in an indoor range at a steel backstop becomes frangible in a hurry.

There's a lot of sintered fangible ammo fired at our local indoor range. The dust it produces is of no consequence when melting range scrap. Flux generously-- as one should anyway when melting raw range scrap-- and no problems will arise. Good luck.

[markinalpine]

I don't know if all manufacturers use the same ingredients, but one describes their frangible bullets as being made of copper and tin, ground to a coarse powder, and sintered under high heat and pressure into a bullet. The metal particles aren't fused, but stuck together by the sintering process.

[mac1911]

Although the doner of this range scrap did not disclose the location he mentioned that alot of the "powdery" stuff is from the frangable ammo. I am surprised how many well deformed chunks there are in the bucket. Only claim was he dismantled a live fire training house ????
I did not press him, I listened to his story and removed the lead from the truck.

[mac1911]

I had a few minutes to really look over this stuff....there where a lot off FMJ????so I thought.
I took some Diaganal cutters to them to split befor melting.
Looks like I got a half bucket of non lead bullets? They would break apart. Inside looks like powdery coppery tin-ish stuff. I salvaged about 20lbs of decent mushroomed lead bullets.

[sagacious]

I took some Diaganal cutters to them to split befor melting. Looks like I got a half bucket of non lead bullets? They would break apart. Inside looks like powdery coppery tin-ish stuff.
Yes, those are sintered non-lead 'frangible' bullets. Usually copper & tin as you guessed. You'll learn to spot them by their color, and sometimes they have a distinct shape.

Next batch of range lead you get, be sure to check for sintered bullets, and demand an allowance on the price if you're paying for the lead. Live and learn. Good luck.

[mac1911]

As it be it was free......he did tell me that they used a lot of frangables where he got this stuff.
why the bullets where not" franged" unless these are just non lead ? I know I find many undeformed bullets on our range out doors. Especially pistol shooters. The seem to hit the paper then take a shallow dive and just kinda land on the sand, no real damage.

[sagacious]

why the bullets where not" franged" unless these are just non lead ?
"Frangible" is a term often used very loosely. For the purposes of bullets intended for informal target shooting, frangible just means "capable of being broken up." It doesn't guarantee that they will break up. The exact nature of the backstop and the impact angle determines whether the projectile actually fragments or not. Our local indoor range has angled steel backtops, and I have found unbroken sintered bullets in the range scrap.

"Sintered" is the word we need to use in this case. Sintered bullets are compressed from metal powder and then often heated to bind the powder together strongly. I have seen sintered bullets that would break in half if accidentally dropped on a concrete floor. I have seen some that are very tough and resist breakage upon firing/impact. Sintered is a better term. You've got a bunch of sintered bullets in your range scrap. Good luck!

[fryboy]

i have to agree with sag ,sintered perhaps describes it best ...( hmmm can we extract and use the tin ??? lolz ) bullets do strange things ,take for instance the hornady v-max - designed to work with hydraulic pressure to violenty explode( expand-whatever) on varmints simply awesum !!! yet they will drill right thru a 3/16 steel plate ( my 22-250 ) leaves about a .25 cal. hole ..perhaps some of the frangibles work the same way ?

[sagacious]

yet they will drill right thru a 3/16 steel plate ( my 22-250 ) leaves about a .25 cal. hole ..perhaps some of the frangibles work the same way ?
Yup! There are a bunch of .224" diam holes in the 1/4"-thick mild steel catch apron above the hardened steel backstops at our local indoor range. The city swat team put them there by accident while training, using sintered bullets in 223Rem. At close range, the sintered 223 rifle bullets zip right through mild steel, but make no impression on the hardened steel backstops.

[Bloodman14]

I found some today that had some kind of IRON based core (dust was magnetic!) in a brass jacket. No wonder it wouldn't melt.

[frkelly74]

I did find some sintered 40's in some range scrap I was melting up once. I thought they were the totally encapsulated lead and took them out to hit with a hammer to split the jacket and they turned to a red powder. They float quite high in the melt and are quite easy to spot.

[mac1911]

I would say a large percent where 9mm and .40 cal. After hitting about 15 with a hammer I just chucked them all.....I only kept the mushroomed chunks. Out of a 3/4 full 5 galon bucket I eneded up with 20lbs of smelted lead. As I have been thinking about this the bucket felt a little light for being so full ? O well 20lbs of free lead is still good to me. plus I have another bucket......