I helped clean out and upgrade parts of one of the ranges backstops
2 Of us had a trailers and front end loaders
The supports for a deflector plate were rotting away and shot away
20 or years ago they decided to use railroad crossing ties for the supports
So we used the front end loaders and lowered and removed the deflector plate
So they could dig holes , install steel supports and pour concrete
The deflector plate is chunk of 3/4" thick steel , I was told came from a Naval Ship
It will be reinstalled in 2 or 3 weeks
Well I also scooped out a number of partly full 55 gallon barrels of a mix of lead and white sand ( fine crushed limestone )
That was under the deflector plate in a pit
OK I figure the mix is 60% to 70% lead and the rest stone
As there are 30 to 50 lb chunks of built up lead splatter
They would just scatter the white sand in front of the pit from time to time to catch any bullet splatter not caught in the pit
As the target holders are 10 feet in front of the deflector plate
The "Pit" was about 3' deep and normally full of water
But a lot of the time they just pushed the lead & stone mix into the pit as that was easy
I plan on dumping the mix on a tarp in the barn
Letting the mix dry for a while , as it was covered by water
Then removing as much of the chunks of mostly lead as I can
But then I will be left a mix of lead and limestone
Any good suggestions on ways to smelt the mix into useable alloy ?
Thanks
John