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I've been scratching around my scrap and hardware pile to put together a gizmo to separate shot from dirt. The shotfall impact area at my club is ripe with pellets. I plan on building a sifting box like the ones I used in processing burnt up crime scenes. Anyone have any recommendations or tricks before I start?
I would think even a modest set up can fill a 5 gal pail in no time in a saturated area that has not been disturbed. Good luck picking up that 5 gal pail. Roto Metals online sells reclaimed screened as 8 and 9 shot mixed. ( flattened from its trip down the bore) for not much less than un-deformed new shot. 5 gal pail's worth of mixed shot could last a loooong time. And save you a few hundred bucks.
Just a reminder that you will be dealing with lead oxide so breathing protection is a must. Other hygiene protection as well.
Shovel into buckets, wash with a garden hose, spread on a tarp to dry, use a garden leaf blower for the remaining dust(respirator) package.
It has always amazed me that no one in my area harvests shot from the local trap or skeet range. I use a colander made for washing rice to classify the larger pieces of rocks and clay birds, put it in 5 gal buckets and give it a soak. Then I use a plastic pan made for panning gold to quickly sort out the lead from the rest of the debris, spread it on a tarp to dry out and I am done. If I had the extra money, I'm sure a sluice box would be much faster, but I'm retired, and labor is free.
Yes,,, watch Gold Rush on the History Channel that will show you how to clean it up. I know that if you run the stuff in a cement mixer for a couple of hours it comes out round again. Randy
While attending Arizona State University in Tempe, I worked a whole summer (very hot) recovering shot from a club near the Salt River. We got buckets and buckets of it. Of course, that was in the mid-60s and EPA would have shut us down in a minute today. GF
I recovered shot from a trap range where I shot in New Mexico. It was a pain to remove the rocks which were about the same size as the shot. That’s a problem specific to the geology of the area, though, and not every area will have the problem. Grass was not a naturally occurring object in the area. After sorting it out I put a little graphite on it and mixed it up in a can. I was only using it for cowboy action loads so roundness wasn’t important.
I've got about 180# of reclaimed shot that was never cleaned in any way.
It's been sifted clear of rocks and larger debris,,just dirt remains.
I made a square box frame about 12" sq and used plain aluminum window screen to cover one side. I attached it with staples first, then covered the screen on the edges of the wood frame with thin pieces of wood with nails thru it to better secure the screen and not allow shot to leak thru any gaps in the screen to wood fit.
I just pour some of the lead shot onto the screen and hose the stuff down. The dirt and most anything else not wanted blows thu the screen leaving the shot still in the box.
I dump the shot out of the box frame into a bucket and continue with another scoop of the dirty stuff into the frame.
I can't put too much shot into the frame at a time or the weight will likely rip the screen out.
So far I've been lucky not to have that happen.
The process goes fairly quick as it doesn't take too long to wash whats in there clean then dump it out.
Once I get a good amt into the 'clean bucket' I spread that out on a heavy plastic tarp on the driveway to dry. I place a few layers of newspaper on the tarp first, that soaks up the water from the wet shot very quickly.
The newspaper can then be pulled up and disposed of and the shot left to completely dry which only takes another 20mins to hr depending on the weather.
At $20/25lbs,,it was a good deal in a trade.
I work cheap for lead shot! In reality it's not that hard at all when the rough debris has already been removed.
Also, some time during the process,,doesn't really matter when,,drag a decent magnet through the stuff.
That'll pull Steel Shot Pellets out of the mix.
You will likely find some no matter where the shot comes from as Steel Factory loads are more and more common.
Too much antimony in it to be worthwhile for casting IMHO To re-use in shot shells you'd have to sort it by size.
I’ve reused pulled bullets, but never un-deformed (jacketed) bullets out of the berm, figuring possible bore damage from unremovable grit and maybe loss of accuracy outweighed the savings and hassle.
I’d guess it depends on application, but wouldn’t patterns opening up with reclaimed shot be an issue?
The shot cups would protect the bore
Not enough to make any difference at 30 yards. I have used hundreds of pounds of recycled shot. I can see no difference when shooting clay targets with it. Now if I was completing at the top of the game then maybe I would notice a difference, but so far I can't tell. And FYI it's not like every single pellet is deformed. A small percentage is deformed from going thru a choke or ? but most of the shot is round.Quote:
Originally Posted by kevin c
Also if the shot is processed by someone who knows what they are doing, it gets tumbled in a Cement Mixer for a few hours and that tends to bang teh stuff back spherical.
Randy
I remember back in the 60's when you had to pay extra for SQUARE lead shot. It supposedly opened up faster for Quail and Woodcock.Quote:
Originally Posted by W.R.Buchanan
Years ago I saw a commercial set up for reclaiming shot. It was mounted on a 18 wheeler flat bed trailer. Had hand controls for the one operator to walk along side the trailer and steer the rig with a steering set up attached to the tractor steering wheel. The operator drove the rig across the impact area, the rig picked up the shot, some grass and dirt, which went through a screening system much like a grain combine or a rock crusher screening set up, then into a 55 gallon drum hooked up o back of the flat bed. Company came out of Arkansas as best I remember. This was in the early 1990's.
I used to harvest shot from the skeet range at Ft Hood, it had washed into piles and accumulated in small gullies. Just shovel some into a bucket that I could still carry, took it to the house and washed it in an oil drain pan. Melted some into ingots, shot some through a muzzle loading shotgun. Still have a few gallons, and the ingots left.
rayyb43
Every range I ever saw that reclaimed shot had an outside company do it. They have a big machine made for the job. If you are in these clubs, then it turns out to be worth it, often being 2/3rd the price. Unfortunately for outsiders, they sell reclaimed shot for so much more, I don't see any reason to bother with it. The last time I tried to get in on it, Lawrence shot was $55 a bag, and reclaimed shot at the local club was $46, so I don't know why anyone would buy the reclaimed.
In the future I really hope ranges do a better job at this. Recycling shot is a much better way to go about things. I see no reason ranges can not be set up with the intention of recovering lead. Shooting ranges do not have to look like a golf course. Reclaimed shot should be fine for busting clays. I have more faith in used lead shot than new steel shot. Shot size should be little concern since almost everyone shoots #8 or #7.5. Maybe the skeet shooters get picky about having #8's mixed in their #9's, I don't know. Yes, there can be grit in reclaimed shot, but it shouldn't be that much. Again, I'd trust gritty lead shot down my barrel before new steel shot.
Anybody ever tried a shopvac with the filter removed to pick up the lead and blow out the dust?
I got curious about the antimony level of it. Most recovered shot will 8 1/2 or 9 so 3%; that does not sound like too much.Quote:
Originally Posted by uscra112
Shot Size Antimonial Level
No. 4 to 6 3 to 4%
No. 7 to 8 5 to 6%
No. 8½ to 9 for skeet shooting 3%
It might be too much for muzzle loading bullets.Quote:
Originally Posted by barnetmill
You kind of need a Generator to power it cuz most Trap or Skeet fields don't have electric sockets near the places where the shot lands.Quote:
Originally Posted by Faret
Thought everyone had one from 2000? LOL I have 2 question is would it work?
My uncle used collect shot to reuse, used an old vacuum cleaner motor and hose to blow the dirt away. Red ants tend to collect shot in the mounds around their holes. Dad says he worked a few ant hills to exhaustion.
This is my idea but alittle rough since I'm writing this from a phone and my peepers are at work.
I'm kinda thinking some type of pvc pipe that is verticle with a y about a third of the way way down the length of pipe hooked up to a shop vac. To control the amount of suction, drill some holes in the vacuum pipe About a foot off the main down pipe. To control the feed rate, a hvy duty round one gallon container hooked up to some type of valve to control the rate of feed for the dirty shot.
The idea is to screen the shot through a frame with some 1/8" hardwire screen/mesh to remove vegetation and rocks. Then feed the dirty shot and 1/8" - debris through the hopper. The shot being denser (heavier) by size than the dirt or whatever will drop straight down the airstream in the vertical pipe. The debris will get sucked up through the vacuum line to the shop vac.
The trick is going to be to get the right balance right size of pipes so you have enough airflow to wash the dirt and debris from the shot without reducing the flow of air from the shop vac.
Another idea is to remove the shop vac filter and add some piping inside the shop vac to make a water filter like a rainbow vacuum.
Alright, I laid out the ideas, now it is up to all you retired folks, kitchen table engineers and tinkers to do the R&D.
I have done something like this before to airwask #9 trap rock that was really dusty the we were through ing in as aggregate non-skid is a traffic outing on a garage ramp. The output of our device was slow because we used 2" pipe and had to drill a ton of holes in the vac line for make up air for the hepa vac so we wouldn't suck up the shot. I think if we had a 3-6" option for our main downpipe we could have moved more CFM of air through the pipe without neutralizing the gravity of the trap rock. Lead shot being denser than the rock is an ideal way to clean it.
I'm going to be honest with you all about the small rocks that are the same size as #8 shot. I'd load them right in with the lead shot.
I've never reclaimed shot but I have melted some. It was probably the hardest and most labor intensive stuff that I have melted. A lot of the shot had a "shell" around it from oxidation and maybe hardened graphite and I had to stir the half melted shot and try to crush that shell against the side of the pot. This was salvaged off of a WW2 airfield sometime during or shortly after WW2.
When salvaging range scrap, let the really fine stuff go. The bigger chunks yield much more lead per the amount propane to melt down and will normally have less impurities.
Most trap/skeet/SC ranges limit shot size to 7.5/8 & 9
So that's what you find in the reclaimed shot you pick up.
Yes you do get some big stuff from the few who skate the rules, but that stuff doesn't make it thru the home-made window screen sifter.
Steel shot which is usually present as well is dragged out easily with a magnet pulled thru the stuff repeatedly.
I use the cleaned reclaimed shot as a mix of the varoius shot sizes for Skeet and SC.
Works just fine. I'm just shooting for fun. I break just as many targets as with the good stuff.
So if I can get it and at the right price even if I have to put some time into screening and washing, that's fine with me.
I shoot all vintage shotguns,,pre-WW2, some pre-WW1.
None show any damage from it's use in the last 30+yrs. I load it the same as I would new shot when I can get it.
Using it for melting down for cartridge bullet casting or M/L RB casting,,I don't know.
They tell me it's too hard. But I have plenty of scrap lead for those projects anyway not to waste good 'shot' on melting it away to make bullets.
It's easy to cast bullets and RB's. Not so easy to make your own shot though some do.
I don't want to get into another project and set-up like that. Too many things going on now.
I have been looking at doing this at our range on a small scale at night because the Forest Service won't let us mine our range which has been there since before WW2!! There is literally tons of shot there.
I am thinking a small Trommel made of 4-6" ABS Pipe about 4Ft long rolling on small casters tilted at about a 5-10 degree down slope with a small battery operated yard blower blowing thru it to blow the dirt out. Battery Operated Drill Motor to turn the tube. Air is blown back up the tube while it is turning slowly. Shot is pre screened to remove the big stuff so only fine dirt, shot and dust that will blow easily will be left.
This whole thing has got to be super portable so that all extra that is needed is a shovel and some small buckets ( maybe Plastic Nut jars or Pretzel jugs) to carry the shot.
I have to cogitate more on this before I jump in. My goal would be to capture about 100-150 lbs. of shot per trip. for my own use.
Randy
Think about how the ancients used to winnow grain in a crosswind.
I would think that once cleaned and inspected, the shot would benefit in roundness from a good tumbling for several hours. I cast #4 buckshot and after removing the sprues, I thow them in my RCBS Sidewinder tumbler with a little graphite powder and let it tumble for 3-4 hours. After removal, sprue cuts are about rounded and the graphite makes them look like factory shot. Can't stand to be in the shop while tumbling due to the noise.
Now, loading mixed shot in shotgun shells is not all that bad. I had a 1# can on the bench that I used for salvaged and spilled shot. Got about 1/2 full and I loaded it in mixed loads for blackbird shooting at my feeders. #5 through #9s. Took care of the starlings just fine so unless you're shooting skeet at a higher level than I am, recovered mixed shot should do fine for hunting./beagle
I thought I was pretty clever when I put #4 cast buckshot and a pinch of graphite in a Gatorade bottle and then put the bottle in the wet tumbler. It worked very well and probably would for reclaimed shot too, all while keeping the tumbler clean.
I am thinking about making a sluice box type unit for reclaiming at my home range.
These sources of lead are much more dustier than stuff like wheel weights used to be. If you haven't done it yet, you will find that processing range scrap is a very messy business.
I reclaim backstop lead. My primary issue is the dust released when transferring the material from the bucket to the melting pot. Then again dust released when removing dross from the melt. This may not be an issue with you.***
I went to the propane business and asked for an old tank I could cut down to make into a large pot. (They'll check with the boss and get back to me.) My plan is to start with about 1/4 to 1/2 of a kitty litter bucket of lead in the pot. I'll let that melt over the turkey fryer, then I'll flux it and let it cool. Once cooled I plan to pour a thin mix of plaster of paris onto the dross and stir, then pour that off and let that harden. Once hard - dispose of the encased dross. That will hopefully leave me with a semi-clean chuck of lead.
*** If the lead is in large pieces, such as boolits picked out of a berm, they can be cleaned first before melting. I have put them in a hardware cloth basket then sprayed that down at the carwash to remove the dirt and sand.
Check with your local places like hardware stores, etc that fill propane tanks. A lot of times, folks come in with tanks that have old fittings and cannot be refilled. These places used to charge them $5 to dispose of. One place near my old place would gladly give me (free) as many as I wanted. Grabbed four. Two to cut into smelting pots and two somehow found their way into those swap tank cages.Quote:
Originally Posted by sknhgy
Funny this came up. I went to the propane place just last night and asked for a tank. The boss wasn't in just then.Quote:
Originally Posted by MrWolf