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Thread: Average % lead in range scrap

  1. #21
    Boolit Master
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    $1/ # for raw range scrap? No way!

    You can buy clean ingots here from our guys for that price!

    Too much waste and effort

  2. #22
    Boolit Buddy fn1889m's Avatar
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    My local outdoor range lets me pick up scrap on the pistol range on Sundays. Apparently I’m the only one who does. What I thought was gravel appears to be lead bullets. I can fill a gallon coffee can with fairly clean lead every 15 minutes. When I get home, I hose everything off, pick out any obvious rocks, and get rid of as much dirt as possible. It then goes into a 5 gallon bucket to dry for months.

    I’ve never weighed it, but it appears that I get at least 75% lead by volume from the melting pot. I toss the copper. I make fairly clean ingots, which I flux again when I’m casting. But I don’t think there is a consistent alloy. Most of the ingots are pretty good, but every now and then I seem to get brittle lead, perhaps because they’re hot when I fill mold. So I mix a few pieces of lead from other scrap, someone else’s bullets, COWWs, some shot, and toss in a little bit of tin solder. I’ve never had cast ingots from range scrap that I cannot scratch with a thumbnail. But I’m only casting for revolver, and everything is loaded under 1000 ft./s. Still a beginner caster.

    If I had to pay a dollar a pound I wouldn’t do this. But it’s free, it works, and it’s fun, making bullets out of free lead.
    Last edited by fn1889m; 03-06-2021 at 04:52 AM.

  3. #23
    Boolit Mold
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    I get range scrap from an indoor range that is probably 99% jacketed bullets. Almost all of it is 9mm, .40 S&W, .45 ACP, and .223/5.56mm. The backstop is metal and the bullets more or less disintegrate on impact. So far I’ve smelted a total of 174 pounds with a yield of 85 pounds of nice clean lead, so pretty close to a 49% yield. The ingots are very soft - probably 6 or 7 bhn, so nearly pure lead. I guess if your scrap was from a range with a lower percentage of jacketed bullets you’d probably have a higher yield and harder lead, but this stuff is free so I’m not complaining.

    Edited to add - I’ve been here for almost two years and this is my first post! I’ve learned a lot!

  4. #24
    Boolit Master 243winxb's Avatar
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    Sierra makes the core of the bullet from four lead alloys: 6% antimony-4% tin, 6% antimony, 3% antimony, 1 1/2% antimony and pure lead.

  5. #25
    Boolit Grand Master


    GregLaROCHE's Avatar
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    All that crappy stuff in range scrap turns into flux or at least floats to the top. I used to remove all the paper pieces from targets and wood chips, until I realized it made good flux and I didn’t need to take the time to remove it. If you’re mining a dirt berm, the dirt is a problem. Best to wash it with water over a screen before melting.

  6. #26
    Boolit Grand Master fredj338's Avatar
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    IT depends. A 230gr/45 FMJ has a 200gr core. Me, I dont bother even melting anything smaller in jacketed. When I do collect range scrap at my local range, I pick up only lead bullets ore 230gr/45 FMj.
    EVERY GOOD SHOOTER NEEDS TO BE A HANDLOADER.
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  7. #27
    Boolit Grand Master fredj338's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jtarm View Post
    It’s indoor so dirt shouldn’t be a problem.

    A local range is selling $1 per lb, so I’m trying to decide if it’s worth it.
    IMO, not worth it. You will get maybe 50% return after all the jackets & such. Buy ingots here for about $1 per & its ready to go.
    EVERY GOOD SHOOTER NEEDS TO BE A HANDLOADER.
    NRA Cert. Inst. Met. Reloading & Basic Pistol

  8. #28
    Boolit Master facetious's Avatar
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    Click image for larger version. 

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    This is what I ended up with 169 lb's lead and 64 lb's of jackets and stuff.
    We go through life trying to make the best decisions we can based on the best infomation we can find, that turns out to be wrong.

  9. #29
    Boolit Master


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    If you can find a source of Wheel Weights, I'd go there first. I can get a 100 pound bucket of used wheel weights here for $5-$10 per bucket. That leaves a lot of room. I used to get 85% lead yield from that after hand sorting and smelting. Today I get about 60%, with much more Steel and Zinc. However, the Zinc can be cleaned melted and cast into ingots using the same equipment (different pot) and sold as higher grade scrap.

    I tried scrounging fired bullets at the rage, and while yields were similar at around 65% lead, I had no idea what kind of lead that I had. Worse yet, I ran into a lot of weird alloys including some Bismuth. The work that I had to put in on both ends made the whole process too labor intensive to be worth the effort!

    Either way, it is fun! Good luck with it.....

    DC-1
    "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits." - Albert Einstein

  10. #30
    Boolit Buddy
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    I get my lead from indoor and outdoor ranges. The indoor ranges have primarily .22lr lead and all I an say is that it melts much faster than the jacketed bullets I get at the outdoor range. The outdoor range lead takes maybe 2x longer to melt and doesn't scratch as easy as the indoor range lead alloy. I'm assuming it has more tin and antinomy in it since I notice hard cast bullets mixed in the batch. I use lead art pencils to get an idea of the hardness and separate my ingots by hardness, then use the softer alloy for my .38 and .45 and my harder alloys for 9mm and .40. The softest lead ( indoor lead )is used for other projects and the uniquely hardest for rifle. I tend to break up my ingots of similar hardness and blend them together so I'll have a more consistent alloy when I'm casting large batches of bullets.
    Last edited by BJung; 03-13-2021 at 12:46 PM. Reason: grammar

  11. #31
    Boolit Grand Master In Remembrance
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    The current price lead is on the top of the forum webpage …Wallaces
    Regards
    John

  12. #32
    Boolit Grand Master fredj338's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by AndyC View Post
    Well the copper jackets are very light by comparison, so I'm going to say at a guess that at least 98% of the recovered metal's weight should be a soft lead alloy.

    I recovered a lot of j-words a few years back and smelted them down, but I didn't weigh them before and after...
    I mine a couple outdoor ranges. I try to just get lead bullets or bullets that have impacted plates & blown their jackets off. I might get 90%, maybe?
    Last edited by fredj338; 07-08-2021 at 05:55 PM.
    EVERY GOOD SHOOTER NEEDS TO BE A HANDLOADER.
    NRA Cert. Inst. Met. Reloading & Basic Pistol

  13. #33
    Boolit Buddy
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    Quote Originally Posted by facetious View Post
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    This is what I ended up with 169 lb's lead and 64 lb's of jackets and stuff.
    That is a nice looking bunch of range bullets you have there. I, unfortunately, have to gather the pulverized stuff which works fine. Really nice

  14. #34
    Boolit Master Forrest r's Avatar
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    I do 150# batches of range lead and end up with 100#+ of clean ingots. Typical batches and up with this, +/- 130 bars. Some weigh 1# others less.
    [IMG][/IMG]

    I tell everyone that I render 150# of range lead to get 100# of clean ingots. Anything over 100# is a bonus.

  15. #35
    Boolit Master

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    However, the Zinc can be cleaned melted and cast into ingots using the same equipment (different pot) and sold as higher grade scrap.
    I have previously read similar statements (different pot) insinuating zinc will forever contaminate pots and/or molds. Call me a sceptic, but I find the idea of zinc contaminating a cast iron or steel pot/mold to be balderdash. I have suspicions that zinc vs aluminum stories have developed a life of their own and the many retellings have created a distorted reality.


    That said, exposure to some science or actual experience could easily change my opinion.
    Last edited by oley55; 07-08-2021 at 03:48 PM.
    “Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But, the Marines don't have that problem.” Ronald Reagan


  16. #36
    Boolit Grand Master fredj338's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by oley55 View Post
    I have previously read similar statements (different pot) insinuating zinc will forever contaminate pots and/or molds. Call me a sceptic, but I find the idea of zinc contaminating a cast iron or steel pot/mold to be balderdash. I have suspicions that zinc vs aluminum stories have developed a life of their own and the many retellings have created a distorted reality.


    That said, exposure to some science or actual experience could easily change my opinion.
    I have had zinc contamination in my casting pots before. It is a pita but it isnt permanent.
    EVERY GOOD SHOOTER NEEDS TO BE A HANDLOADER.
    NRA Cert. Inst. Met. Reloading & Basic Pistol

  17. #37
    Boolit Grand Master

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    This was 20-25% trash by weight:
    ”We know they are lying, they know they are lying, they know we know they are lying, we know they know we know they are lying, yet they are still lying.” –Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn

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  18. #38
    Boolit Buddy SoonerEd's Avatar
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    I get around 70% from outdoor that is mostly jacketed.

  19. #39
    Boolit Buddy
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    I would guess I get about 2/3 yield on the outdoor range lead I pick up. Last batch (from handgun range) contained a LOT of bullets that appeared to be FMJ and never leaked out their lead in the melt, so after they cooled down, I tried cutting a few in half but some of them just broke and appeared to be sintered copper or a copper alloy. After that experience, I'm not sure I'll bother trying to chop up the ones that don't melt in the future...

  20. #40
    Boolit Buddy anothernewb's Avatar
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    I pull the scrap from my local indoor, We have steel deflectors and a sand trap. I average 30-40% waste from it. Tend to get about 600-700# of ingots for every 1k of range pickup. Sometimes more or less, depending on whose helping me clean the range. If I'm real selective about what I collect, I've gotten to about a 10% waste. but that leaves a lot of junk (and lead) in the backstop that just builds up that much faster.

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