Today's haul

[zxcvbob]

A couple of us cleaned out the bullet trap at the indoor range. The hard part was hauling it up the stairs. (I have no idea if this image link will work; I'm experimenting with Picasa) The other guys each took one bucketful and that's all they wanted. Here's what I got:

[clodhopper]

You just know you are recycling with all those green buckets!
Nice haul.

[leadbutt]

All that lead is dangerious to your health. Messing with those buckets is def gonna give you a hernia. The 1st on the bottom and the one right above it just look like real nut pullers. Good score friend.

L. Bottoms

[zxcvbob]

I was kind of stupid filling them that full. (I brought home an empty bucket.) But when I first started shoveling I wasn't sure I had enough buckets.

I figure it's about 800 pounds total. It has a bunch of rubber bits mixed in with it, so it's pretty nasty to melt down.

[AndyC]

Nice haul - congrats

[Trail Finder]

You have motivated me to start making some calls.

[220swiftfn]

I was kind of stupid filling them that full. (I brought home an empty bucket.) But when I first started shoveling I wasn't sure I had enough buckets.

I figure it's about 800 pounds total. It has a bunch of rubber bits mixed in with it, so it's pretty nasty to melt down.

Take some time and float out the crumb, just give it some time to dry after, and start with a cold pot.


Dan

[imashooter2]

Good score! You've got a long weekend in your future, but the pile of ingots at the end of it will be very satisfying...

[jsizemore]

I got 400lbs from a military training center. No rubber nuggets. Ended up with 320lbs of ingots that needed very little fluxing. It wasn't dead soft but definitely not near as hard as coww.

[Shiloh]

Nice.

Too wet to mine the berm here.

Shiloh

[40Super]

Take the time to seperate as much of the copper before hand if possible. I've done 2 buckets of that indoor range lead so far and spent some time with a needle nose and picked out as much of the copper as I could stand before it went into the pot. The copper stays nice and clean so I got top scrap copper price for it that way. It paid for the buckets 100%+ a few bucks toward more lead.

The copper pieces I missed are still here, I'm trying to figure out how to shine them up/the scrap guy didn't want them because they looked so dirty/contaminated.

[zuke]

and all it cost was some time..............

[melloairman]

Good job . But full buckets up stairs is way to heavy for me .Marvin

[10 ga]

Polish up those copper jackets in a brass tumbler. If it's a lot just use sand and a cement mixer! It'll look as good as soldered copper pipe. That sure aint the same as the junkyard guy that I go to, he don't turn nuthin away. 10 ga

[zxcvbob]

Try using a weak solution of dish soap and either citric acid or ammonia to clean the copper jackets. Hydrochloric acid (also very diluted) would clean them faster than anything, but they will quickly corrode afterwards; probably turn green. You don't want that.

I didn't have much time today, but I unloaded half the buckets into my garage, and snapped lids on the rest to keep the rain out until I can do something with them. I think I'm gonna try separating most of the rubber bits out by washing and skimming (thanks Dan) but I don't want them to get wet until I'm ready for it.

There's not a lot of jackets in here; the range has a rule (not totally obeyed) about no jacketed bullets nor gas checks. I've been picking the big pieces of copper and gilding metal out as I handle the stuff.

[40Super]

If there isn't a bunch of jacketed bullets used,that is going to be some nice lead for 15-18bhn bullets if you need them.