casting spent pellets

[sv44]

What are your thoughts on collecting and melting spent pellets for larger bore b's. I haven't yet done it but i have been collecting from a basement shooting range to do just that some day. Plan to mix it with lead to do so (pure or 1:20).
Curious what you guys think
Thanks

[fastdadio]

I think it's a great idea. Lead is the gift that keeps on giving.

[BLAHUT]

I have collected spent pellets for years and reused then in my .45s....Just melt them and cast...

[georgerkahn]

Just as BLAHUT posted (#3) -- with 10 - 12 shooters each night, a Styrofoam coffee gets between 2/3rds and 3/4th full. I dump them n a cookie sheet and use an air blower to get off dust/floor sweepings also collected -- and they then are able to be dropped right into the pot. I generally add a bit of RotoMetal pure tin, and have successfully used this in relatively low (target) handgun loads -- mainly .38 S&W Special.
geo

[dverna]

I am saving mine. Even if I shoot 10 tins year it doesn't amount to much. But bullet casters do silly things. I have about 4000 lbs of alloy so that shows you how silly I can be.

[sv44]

thanks everyone- ill keep collecting

[Winger Ed.]

They're more or less pure Lead.
I'd save & recast 'em. Every little bit helps.

[megasupermagnum]

There's no reason not to. If you are already shooting into a bullet trap, why wouldn't you?

[BJung]

This information was taken from various online sources. Pellet lead alloy ranges from pure lead to an alloy with antinomy with a bhn from 6bhn or 9bhn. Crossman pellets are 9bhn which is close to a 25:1 alloy. I have a few ingots cast from pellets. My guess is that the alloy composition would be more consistent than mixing it with other range scrap. I will add tin and lead to it later to test for expansion. Here are bullets I cast with only .22lr bullets. I use 1:2 cavities in a mold per hp pin. So, with one cavity used to cast, the cast bullet weight is very consistent. Here is a photo of the best grouping at (I think) 18 yards shooting 40-160gr Mihec HP bullets.

[GregLaROCHE]

I always thought they were pure lead too, but I’ve recently seen things saying they are not. Are all pellets made of the same alloy or do they vary with brand?

[Sasquatch-1]

Dave Corbin makes a swage die for straight sided pellets. It has to be used with one of his presses, but maybe someone else is making one that can be used with a standard reloading press.

[mdi]

I haven't checked the BHN of my "used" pellets, but I have about 15 pounds I have collected over a while from shooting 2 pellet guns in my shed/shop. Just got to get around to melting and casting ingots...

Later. I melted down about 5 lbs. of pellets and cast 4 bullets. Checked bullets with my Lee tester and got an average of 9 BHN...

[andrew375]

I got given 60+ lbs of pellets from a club range. As it is a SERIOUS target shooting club I know that they were all .177 match wad cutter pellets. I melted them down and cast into ingots, I can assure you they were not pure lead. The ingots had a slight "whiteness " in surface colouration and made a definite "clang" when I hit one against the floor.

I got given about 90 lbs of .22 rf bullets last year, nearly all Eley, and the ingots are considerably harder and shinier than pure lead. I was expecting them to pure, or close enough, lead considering the low pressures involved, but there is definitely a lot of tin present.

[LAGS]

A friend gave me over 100 lbs of pellets he got from a Air Gun Range that went out of business.
I smelted them down and use them for Pure Lead to cast Muzzleloading Balls.
I can add Tin or other material to that smelted pellets to use in other guns.
But finding pure lead and not just Wheel Weights for cheaper casting is not as easy anymore.
WW's are harder than pure lead , so for ML's it is nice to cast with as pure of lead that you can.
Oh, be carefully.
I did find a few pellets that didn't melt right away with the others.
Those looked like they might have been Zinc pellets.

[Winger Ed.]

but there is definitely a lot of tin present.

Interesting.

All I've ever had was just plain old Crossman or Benjamin pellets.
They're real soft and rather dark gray. I never analized them, but they sure look and act like pure Lead.
They're so soft-- I dropped a partial can of them once and some got dinged up from bouncing around on each other.

[Hanzy4200]

I shoot at a large outdoor range. Every year when it's dry, I use a modified colander to sift out 200-300 lbs of spent bullets. I get 75% return. Rest is rocks, dirt, and jackets. Those jackets sell for #2 copper to my scrapyard.