jacketed melt

[white eagle]

can you melt jacketed bullets to retrieve the lead ???????

[Muddy Creek Sam]

Simple answer is yes.

Sam :D

[docone31]

Heck yeah.

[7of7]

No, you must send them to me for disposal.....:kidding:

[white eagle]

sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet

[44fanatic]

Be careful, if you dont crack the jacket, the lead will shoot out in streams. Use a covered pot. Had a few pop in my Lee pot and scared the heck out of me, was my first time melting lead.

[mold maker]

A 20 oz framers hammer with the waffle face will fix them. All you need to do is break the copper so that the lead can leak out. If you have lots of range material to work with it's easier than cutting with pliers.
I smelt on a turkey fryer in a cast iron pot with a lid, so I just cook them covered until ready to flux and skim. The empty jackets float above the dross where the full jackets hide. If your careful most can be found then and dealt with for the next smelt.
The range I scavenge has mostly HP or jacketed with an open back so it isn't worth worrying about the few FMJ that haven't distorted enough to leak. There are few enough that the scrappy takes the whole jacket scrap (#2 red brass), in trade for lead. They will trade lead for ZINC WW also.

[lwknight]

Foretunately , a lot of jacketed bullets are actually semi-jacketed or open base types.
Could save a lot of hammering.

[fredj338]

Most FMJ have open bases, JHP open tips. The plated bulelts need to be ruptured to get the lead core out. The large 230grFMJ 45s core weighs almost 200gr, so quite a bit to harvest there.

[giz189]

How do they make the fmj's, that don't have an opening anywhere? Are the cores formed, then dipped in the jacket or what?

[nicholst55]

How do they make the fmj's, that don't have an opening anywhere? Are the cores formed, then dipped in the jacket or what?

They're copper plated; the few that I've melted, I found that the copper isn't thick enough to worry about - it kind of sloughs off the lead.

[zomby woof]

I've only rendered indoor range scrap, so the jackets are already flattened.

[30CAL-TEXAN]

The hammer is a really good method for breaking the closed jackets but be aware of a sneaky foe that you may encounter.

I pulled a slug out of the pot that I thought needed to be cracked open. I waited about 30min to make sure the core was cool (don't want a lead balloon popping in my face) and proceeded to whomp this thing with a hammer. To my surprise, it did not crack no matter how many times I hit it!

That stupid thing was solid copper!:groner:

I actually flattened the nose on this thing and split it in two with a chisel to make sure. It is the only one I have come across so far but, however rare I guess they are out there.

[fredj338]

I sort range scrap to make sure there are no live rounds. That's when you want to beak the plated bullets open, before smelting.

[nes4ever69]

be carefull of some rifle rounds. i had to pull some 50 bmg rounds that the case was to long on, first 2 were lead core and labeld winchester m33 ball. had 2 m33 ball at a later time and they were steel core with a powder in them. i think they were non-marked api and blew my 4lb pot up real good.

[sargenv]

API? wow, that would have been sorta... entertaining.. as long as no one got hurt.. one good and bad thing about living in california is not much real chance of getting such interesting bullets in my range melt.. but then we can't buy it or shoot it either :P

And in reponse to the Original question.. yep, it's what I'm doing today.. melted down a 5 qt pot full of bullets and started ingoting.. then I'm also mixing in some older ingots of the stuff to re-ingot it to the shape I like now which is about 2#, 2" x 4" x 1/2". The corn cobs stac ok, but I actually prefer a square ingot.. it tends to stack a little better.. and since I have either my 20 # Lee pot or my 40 # Magma pot, the larger sized ingot is ok.

[nes4ever69]

API? wow, that would have been sorta... entertaining.. as long as no one got hurt.. one good and bad thing about living in california is not much real chance of getting such interesting bullets in my range melt.. but then we can't buy it or shoot it either :P.

heard a loud pop sound, next thing i knew my 4 pound pot was empty and my hat, arms, forehead, and my dads garage were all covered with melted lead. made a real mess.

[sargenv]

I hope you took all the precautions.. cotton or leather clothing, eye protection, etc? 4# pot is pretty little.. I think my 5 qt can hold about 50-70 pounds of melt. When I do bullet melts, I usually fill the pot base with some ingoted range lead from the last batch to get it going. Once I put the bullets into the pot, I cover it.. today was one day when I heard an fmj go "pop!". Lids are a must..

My yield today was about 100 pounds of range lead, about 50 pounds of soft lead, and 50 ish pounds of WW's. It sure seemed like more.. these arms are tired!

[nes4ever69]

i didnt have much on for safty gear. no sever injuries, a few good burns. i got really lucky on that one.