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Thread: Anyone harvest reclaimed shot?

  1. #21
    Boolit Buddy Faret's Avatar
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    Thought everyone had one from 2000? LOL I have 2 question is would it work?

  2. #22
    Boolit Buddy
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    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.

  3. #23
    Boolit Master


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    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.

  4. #24
    Boolit Buddy
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    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.

  5. #25
    Boolit Grand Master

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    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.

  6. #26
    Boolit Grand Master


    GregLaROCHE's Avatar
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    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.

  7. #27
    Boolit Buddy
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    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.

  8. #28
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    W.R.Buchanan's Avatar
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    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
    "It's not how well you do what you know how to do,,,It's how well you do what you DON'T know how to do!"
    www.buchananprecisionmachine.com

  9. #29
    Boolit Grand Master uscra112's Avatar
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    Think about how the ancients used to winnow grain in a crosswind.
    Cognitive Dissident

  10. #30
    Boolit Master


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    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
    diplomacy is being able to say, "nice doggie" until you find a big rock.....

  11. #31
    Boolit Buddy
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    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.

  12. #32
    Boolit Bub
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    I am thinking about making a sluice box type unit for reclaiming at my home range.

  13. #33
    Boolit Buddy
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    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.
    Last edited by Charlie Horse; 03-02-2023 at 10:38 AM.

  14. #34
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    Quote Originally Posted by sknhgy View Post
    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.

  15. #35
    Boolit Buddy
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    Quote Originally Posted by MrWolf View Post
    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.
    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.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check