Berm mining may soon be full of zinc

[trapper9260]

When I smelt , I use wood and the alloy melts first before the zinc . The Zinc just floats with the rest of the junk and just skim it off. I do all my smelting outside in a open fire , it works for me. Also that is how I was taught by my dad that use to work in the foundry many years ago before me. He taught me how to cast lead for sinkers and then I went to what I am doing now like the rest of you. In my bullet stop is where I do my berm mining when I change the board of only the alloy I find for when I have the dirt drop out. I save the rest for hard times. also for what is going on at the time.

[ok-22shooter]

The video of separating copper and zinc was informative. It is separating the zinc from the copper in the brass. A bit different than our melting lead and keeping the zinc solid. vapor point of zinc is around 950 deg C so not something we will be getting with our turkey friers. I use a 12" long type K thermocouple with the tip at the bottom of my pot. bring up the temperature very slowly. I do a pretty careful initial sort to remove Zinc and pure lead weights and then watch as I fill the pot with weights. about every 3rd batch of COWW, I will find 1 to 4 Zinc weights in 60# of lead. Actually good if you find Zinc weights as you know they did not melt. I tried using a propane lance weed burner once to heat the top of the COWW in my pot. It was like instant melt of the lead so concerned that it might get too hot and melt Zinc. Decided it was better to go slow. I am smelting large quantities of used Linotype 40# slugs in a home built 400# pot. 7 psi propane on the primary 200,000 BTU burner with lots of heat from the lance will get 150# of slugs to around 675 deg F in around 30 minutes.

[BJung]

I like casting certain bullets using its source. For example, I use berm lead for FMJ and wadcutter bullets. My concern is lead free zinc alloy bullets getting mixed in with lead alloy pellet lead.

[Rickf1985]

Temperature and patience. Key words.

[The Appalacian]

This thread piqued my curiosity.....

I just processed 120 lbs of indoor range scrap I buy from a guy on ebay. By that I mean I prepped it for smelting. It's already very clean when I get it, absent of any dirt and paper and other associated range debris so "cleaning" isn't a part of it. I do want a high yield of clean copper though, when it's all said and done. That involves a little more heat, and quite a bit of flux to separate the good lead from the copper jackets.

An issue I discovered early on is with any FMJ and TMJ bullets. Usually the bulk of those are 9mm and 40 cal. The bulk of those are undamaged except for rifling engraving, and no efficient way for the lead to escape the jacket. There is a rather large quantity of these type bullets throughout the lots of scrap.

To make it easier for the lead to melt out of the jacket I sort the entire box through a sifter and hand pick any undamaged bullets. I run those through a machine I made with a bolt cutter to crack the side of the jacket open providing a large gash for the lead to melt out in the smelting pot. An extra step and effort, but the result is a higher percentage of lead recovery and all clean copper jackets.

To get to my point, I run across some bullets through the machine that are quite a bit harder than most. It takes double the effort on the lever to crack the jacket open. I had attributed this in the past to simply a higher antimony content and thought nothing of it.

I decided though with this 120 lb batch to do a rudimentary melt test and see if these harder bullets were actually a zinc alloy. I did a side by side melt test in the same pan at a low/slow melting temp far below what any zinc would require (I smelt down zinc wheel weights so I'm quite familiar with zinc).

I melted a handful of each hard and soft.
Both the softer core bullets and the harder core bullets melted at the same time and in the same manner as the heat increased on the cold pan. Obviously not zinc, at least in the range scrap I'm buying at this time from this guy. I will be aware though in the future due to this discussion.

[turtlezx]

good thing your cracking the jackets open or a unpleasant squirt of hot lead can happen

[wilecoyote]

...a sheet metal manual shears bolted to the bench, the same one I use to cut lead pipes, works wonders on jackets, and without effort_

[The Appalacian]

...a sheet metal manual shears bolted to the bench, the same one I use to cut lead pipes, works wonders on jackets, and without effort_

I use the same contraption to sort out zinc wheelweights from full buckets full at a time, without the time consuming and eye straining effort of looking at each one.

Too much volume to do with hand held wire cutters and mild carpal tunnel in both hands, and I don't cherish the hobby to that nth degree. Either it effortlessly cuts into a wheelweight marking it to be lead, or it doesn't cut at all, identifying it as zinc.

The cutting of bullet jackets with it was an afterthought to be honest, and same as your shear, very little effort on the soft core bullets......

[wilecoyote]

...Appalacian, I admit I would never have gotten there:1st class Engineering !
for me it's already miraculous not to cut my fingers with mine, but to avoid any effort and scrounge some lead I'm ready to risk some spare tweezer ...

[The Appalacian]

...Appalacian, I admit I would never have gotten there:1st class Engineering !
for me it's already miraculous not to cut my fingers with mine, but to avoid any effort and scrounge some lead I'm ready to risk some spare tweezer ...

For sure and certain if I had one of those shears I'd have left my bolt cutters alone. Lol.

On aside, my lead pipe cutter is probably a little overkill for cracking TMJs and testing wheelweights.......

[wilecoyote]

^^^ ^^^

[muskeg13]

An easy way to crack open FMJ bullets to melt out the lead is to place them on an anvil (or other suitable hard surface) and smack them smartly with a 2# hammer. Plated bullets are easily opened with one hit while real FMJs may take a few hits.