Range Scrap ??

For those who scrounge range scrap;

What BHN does it usually run? What I have smelted ranges from 10 to 15.5 BHN depending on the batch. Sort out the 22 RF and the obvious hard cast. It contains mostly hardball pistol, some jsp, some rifle sp and some wc and hbwc.

What is the core of the 5.7X28 bullet? It is soft, can be cut with wire cutters, but will not melt in the pot. It floats. Only way I have melted it is with Ox-Acetlene torch. Makes round balls that are hard as glass, and those will float on the mix in the pot. What I have found on the Mail Order sites states that it is a non-lead core. Bismuth??

Bismuth melts fine. It would sink in a pot of lead. Have no idea at the moment what you have there. ... felix

The above description would fit aluminum.

Check the density of it. Remember Archimedes' method?

oneokie:

I've gotten BHN between 14 - 16 from the scrap I recovered, but I tended to not put too many jacked pistol bullets in the mix. Bless the commercial makers of "hard cast" bullets. Their stuff will help harden the softer scrap.

As GSM said, recovered range lead can be kept to a fairly decent standard if you are prepared to "cull" wisely. I remove all jacketed stuff as well as any Hollow based WC's as they are usually swaged from soft lead. The softer stuff is great for 12g slugs or backpowder balls etc. Most of the commercial stuff is quite hard (hence the price) and is always welcome in my pot.

I for one don't "cull" at all. It all goes into the pot to be smelted. This stems from the fact that I am both lazy and cheap. I'm too lazy to pick out the FMJs, and I'm cheap enough to want to utilize every scrap of lead available. Besides, the range scrap that I get is from an indoor range and the steel backstop pretty well pulverizes everything that hits it, making "culling" difficult if not impossible. It is mostly dust and chunks when I get it. I admit I get a LOT of junk when I smelt, but the lead is free, so I can't complain. The lead I'm getting seems to be fairly soft. I think that most of the ammo fired on this range (I know a lot of the guys that shoot there personally) is .22s and factory jacketed stuff. I don't think there is any signifigant amount of hard cast lead bullets being fired at this range, at least not enough to alter the hardness of the scrap. This lack of hard cast/reloaded ammo is due (I believe) to the location and clientelle of this particular range. They don't even sell reloading equipment or components, just no demand in that particular area. Matter of fact, when I mention to the regulars there on IDPA night that I actually cast my own boolits, I get some funny looks. Most of their guns have never seen a cast boolit before.

Anyway, I rambled all that to get to this point. I think the hardness of range lead depends n the individual clientelle of the range you get it from. I just sent some sample boolits, that I cast from straight range scrap, to another member for hardness testing. I have been mixing the range scrap 50/50 with wheelweights to get a good, hard alloy. However, my supply of free WWs is in jeapordy (and I refuse to pay the scrapyard $0.75/lb for unsmelted WWs), so I'm considering using the range scrap as is.

SSB

I started picking up boolits at our outdoor range and when it's time to smelt them I'm not sure how to do the jacketed. I won't bother to separate them but I read they can squirt lead out of the pot. True?

:castmine:

I suppose they could if the core and jacket have separated internally and have moisture trapped inside.

Even the soft lead from .22s and jacketed bullet cores has 1/2-1% antimony and will harden up nicely with quenching. 1% antimonial lead is the standard stuff sold by the metal dealers that the ammo companies buy in bulk.

The lead I get from thr range is 75% + cast as we have two commercial casters who are members. One even tried to mine lead from the berms but gave up as not labor intensive. My bollits are quite hard with range scrap only, I smelt them in a large cast pot outside and empty the pot each time and start with a empty pot to not have to worry about the tensel farry.

I was thinking of adding range scrap into melted ww because it takes range scrap longer to melt by itself. Is that also true?

targetshootr;

The fully enclosed jacketed, or plated bullets are the ones that will spray. Use something as a cover on the pot.

If the range scrap is "purer" lead than WW it'll melt at a higher temperature. Adding alloying elements lowers the melting point, at least in this range of concentrations.

Aha. How do you add alloying elements? My concentration gets worse with age.

targetshootr - I just got done melting two five gallon pails of range scrap and the only "squirter" I got was about a one inch spurt. Cast and jacketed mixed hardness test around 9 BHN with the Lee tool.

9 bhn isn't bad for my uses. Every trip to the range I try to bring back a one gallon bucket which isn't hard to do when it's not busy. The older berms are sandy so I can reach my hand several inches deep and bring up four or five boolits each time. It's as fun as shooting.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by targetshootr

Aha. How do you add alloying elements? My concentration gets worse with age.

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Basically you melt 'em in, but I wasn't talking about adding stuff to what you have, just pointing out that the melting point drops as more stuff is added to the lead.