Smelting "Lead" from range sweepings

[durango]

Interesting thread--enough so, that I have to join in. I have melted and sold (on this site) a few tons of lead from many sources and most of my experience follows what has been said here. I will comment on two subjects that are not in line with my findings--OK--three. The third is that indoor ranges ARE NOT the best places to buy lead and here are the reasons. #1-lead dust, or as I call it-"mystery dust". Recovered in dross, this stuff is of quantities great enough to be a concern with health, disposal, and financial loss. It is heavy, so you're paying good money for a product that will not be recovered in the final sale price. I've offered it to several scrap yards and been turned away every time--some have been very professional recyclers and others are kind of 'junk yard dogs'.
So, what is it? I sent a sample to BNE and his findings came back as very high lead content--80-90% as I remember. I tried to melt some by itself and still no molten lead, I called several powder manufacturers-no idea. Lately, I've read some comments about primers having something with lead in the name, so????. You can't melt it, can't sell it, so???
Lastly, the remainder of jackets--it aint copper or brass- put a magnet in it and it all jumps out of the bucket!!! Its steel with a copper wash!! You have to find an awful dumb scrapper to not catch that one!

[rsrocket1]

Interesting thread--enough so, that I have to join in. I have melted and sold (on this site) a few tons of lead from many sources and most of my experience follows what has been said here. I will comment on two subjects that are not in line with my findings--OK--three. The third is that indoor ranges ARE NOT the best places to buy lead and here are the reasons. #1-lead dust, or as I call it-"mystery dust". Recovered in dross, this stuff is of quantities great enough to be a concern with health, disposal, and financial loss. It is heavy, so you're paying good money for a product that will not be recovered in the final sale price. I've offered it to several scrap yards and been turned away every time--some have been very professional recyclers and others are kind of 'junk yard dogs'.
So, what is it? I sent a sample to BNE and his findings came back as very high lead content--80-90% as I remember. I tried to melt some by itself and still no molten lead, I called several powder manufacturers-no idea. Lately, I've read some comments about primers having something with lead in the name, so????. You can't melt it, can't sell it, so???

Primers are made with Lead Styphnate, at least "non-corrosive" primers are nowadays. "Corrosive" primers used Potassium Perchlorate which results in Potassium Chloride after the ignition. This is like Sodium Chloride in that it attracts water and results in rusted bores and other gun parts.

The Lead Styphnate turns into some other Lead salt compound after ignition so the dense lead is still there in the dust but may be in a compound with a much higher melting point or which simply doesn't melt. The 14 pounds of "dust" was very dense but not as dense as 14 pounds of lead so it was probably in the form of a lead salt.

The smelted lead cast up nicely into boolits. I ran the PID at 710 degrees which usually resulted in frosty bullets with my reclaimed shot lead but the lead content was probably higher in this case which made very shiny boolits. I cast about 40 pounds of Lee 429-200-RF bullets, powder coated them and shot them at anywhere from 980 fps to 1520 fps out of my "new" Ruger Super Redhawk 9.5" gun and they performed well.

first shots with a rest and off hand at 10 yards @ 1000 fps.
The first target on the left was 10mm shots I used as a warmup.


After adjusting the scope to 25 yards at 1520 fps (LabRadar average with 17.7g AA#7)
Nice kick but completely manageable with the heavy gun and long barrel.
Yes it's a totally impractical "handgun" but for plinking, it's a fun hand cannon.