Indoor Range Scrap

[lawboy]

my range scrap tests out at 9 t 10 bhn. I have heat treated it to 21bhn. for 45ACP loads, you don't need to do anything but flux it nice and clean and cast boolits!

[jleneave]

my range scrap tests out at 9 t 10 bhn. I have heat treated it to 21bhn. for 45ACP loads, you don't need to do anything but flux it nice and clean and cast boolits!

Thanks, that is what I will do then.

On another note, the place that we got our indoor range scrap was getting .07 cents from the scrap yard and they had to haul it off. So we gave them what the scrap yard was giving them and we hauled it off for them. We also bought a 55 gallon drum of brass from them most of it being 9mm, .40 S&W, and .45 ACP. Hopefully this will be a steady source of lead and brass.

Take care,

Jody

[lawboy]

That is not a bad deal at all. I get all the lead and brass I can handle, free. Keep about 800lbs of ingots stacked in the garage. Top off my supply every spring, also smelt for some of my club members who have back issues and cannot deal with the heavy lead. Trade them powder, bullet moulds, etc. for the clean ingots. Good times!

[mroliver77]

I have quite a pile of indoor range scrap. Range uses a cble to run targets out and clips to hold targets. Steel at 45 deg for stop and water tank to catch everything. I find with most batches to recover about 2/3 in weight in alloy. My scrap yard was leary of jackets but atthe right price he can "hide" them in other scrap. (ya) I didnt have a hardness tester until recently and have not tested the alloy. It makes nice .38 boolits but is on the soft side. Appears to be mostly jacketed bullets shot there. I heat treted some and it was definitely harder than non HT. WW are hard to get around here nowadays and having little in the range scrap I find it more than worthwhile to smelt it.
Jay

[smaj100]

Hey guys my local indoor range just offered me the chance to clean out the backstop for free if I took the lead. I made a few calls to inquire about the copper jacket material for scrap. My local scrap center offered me $1.70/lb for clean jackets with no lead. I am going to try to put the scraps back into the basket and use a torch to quickly melt any remaining lead out of the mixture. Since the scrap guy wanted it as clean as possible.

I figured out a fairly easy way to get most of the jacketed material and crap out quickly. My turkey fryer kit came with a fish fry basket and a shorter fryer pot. I melt several lbs of lead in the bottom of the pot to just cover the basket then I load the basket with range scrap and sit it in the already melted lead. I wait for the mix to begin melting and stir gently then lift the basket with all the junk in it out. Then I pour a few molds to keep the level just at the bottom of the basket. Sorry forgot to add that I flux before pouring the molds. I have noticed the lead is very soft.

Once I get the range lead cast into ingots. I mix my range lead with linotype and ww ingots. I use 1lb of each as a mix then cast into boolits. These have worked well in my 308 with GC's and my 40. I leave out the linotype for my wifes 380 since the speed and pressure are lower.

[imashooter2]

I sure hope that basket and fryer pot are steel... The thin aluminum that comes with most kits is a disaster waiting to happen.

[smaj100]

Ima,

The basket is aluminum. I know this isn't the optimum type/style to use due to failure potential. I try to keep the temp down and inspect the pot closely for bulging, cracks and other sign of failure.

[chas8008]

would .33 cents per pound for lead shot be fair?

[briang]

if you mean lead shot like for shotgun shells, then yes that is a very good deal. Last time I looked at the price of new shot it was around $1.50 a pound. Buy as much as you can afford.

[smaj100]

I am curious does anyone know what the BHN of #4 magnum shot might be? How would you mix that with WW, Range scrap and so on to attain an average BHN for 40SW and 308 boolits?

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Thanks

[chas8008]

if you mean lead shot like for shotgun shells, then yes that is a very good deal. Last time I looked at the price of new shot it was around $1.50 a pound. Buy as much as you can afford.

They did not look new, used in someway

[briang]

They did not look new, used in someway

Than it's likely shot recovered from a skeet/trap field. That's still a pretty good price. Some people say recovered shot patterns wider due to flat spots in the shot, I haven't been able to find a local source.

[chas8008]

Than it's likely shot recovered from a skeet/trap field. That's still a pretty good price. Some people say recovered shot patterns wider due to flat spots in the shot, I haven't been able to find a local source.

180lbs later

said it was used at a Fair?

[evan price]

Used at a fair, probably lead BB's from the shoot-out-the-center target game.

I've been picking up range scrap for $10 a 60# bucket. So far I've melted down and ingotted one bucket, have two more to do today. I got 48# of ingots out of the first 60# bucket, and ten pounds of copper jackets. Takes more heat to melt this stuff. Doesn't seem to be too much different than WW from how it scratches. I get a good mix of jacketed bullets and cast boolits so maybe it balances out. I've also been throwing in battery cable ends from my junkyard buddy when I melt range lead.

Looks like the #2 copper recovered from range lead should cover the $10 it costs to buy the whole bucket. That's sweet.

[canebreaker]

One co-worker and a friend of his cleaned out a closing indoor gun range some years back. He had it stock piled in a storage building. In needing more storage space, he asked if I wanted it. We unloaded 11 ammo boxes from his car to a pallet and carried it to the scales. Each box weighed 63 to 68 lbs. The next week he brought me another 11 boxes. The next week he brought me 9 more, 31 boxes total.
I started out melting some in my Lee production pot. But filling a 3 lb. coffee can with the
trash, I found that I wasn't melting all the lead/tin. The full can weighed 22 lbs. So I set up my large pot with extra heat and got less weighted trash. I sifted the trash from the copper jackets and brass, I had 180 lbs. Sold it as scrap for .90 per lb.
When I melt these ingots in my production pot, I start off with it on 10 and can reduce temp to 8. With ww and battery lugs, I can reduce temp to 6.

[RayinNH]

We just cleaned our indoor range again. I grabbed three buckets full. I mentioned above it has a lot of trash, backstop material. It does however cast very good boolits.
I just changed my smelting pot. My old one was made from six inch pipe eight inches tall. The new one I made from four inch wide stock and rolled it into a twelve inch diameter circle and welded a bottom on it. This shallower pot makes things much easier to smelt in. It allows you to turn over the mixture to get out the trash that has already released it's lead...Ray

[geargnasher]

FWIW one of our new sponsors "lead & brass" is going to start selling their smelted range scrap ingots soon, will sell it by the flat-rate box with a foundry analysis certificate at a reasonable price, I'll let them post the official price, or you can email them. When you factor in the cost of smelting fuel and the pita of dealing with jackets it isn't bad to pay someone else for doing the dirty work, plus you know exactly what you have.

Gear

[Zbench]

Gear,

Thanks for the mention. We just put up for sale the range scrap that was discussed in various threads over the past week. It is priced at .90/lb and is perhaps the cheapest commercial price you will find online. Visit leadandbrass.com and surf to the lead area to read about it. Lyman #2 should be in our hands by Tuesday.

Pete

[WILCO]

I've been smelting some indoor range lead from the gun club and it's been a slow process as I'm only working with a hot plate and cast iron frying pan. Discovered that if I sift it with a screen, I can get alot of good sized nuggets that melt rapidly, but it's the smaller stuff with the trash that slows me down............working a on a better set up. I have a cast iron pot, industrial grade turkey fryer, regulator valve and now need to get a propane tank.