Straight range scrap lead in my 45 Colts

[Finnmike]

I cast up some of Blackbike's range scrap lead for my 45's a couple of weeks ago. They were hurriedly cast with a Lee RN 250 gr mold, lubed with Javelina Alox. I ran a hundred rounds through my USFA 3.5" Sheriff and my 4"625 Mtn Gun. The load was 8 gr of Unique with a good crimp. Pleased to say they shot great with NO leading, and they were not gas checked. Just FYI. Now I can use the other range scrap ingots I've been smelting without worries - lots of cast boolits in that bunch from my range.

[dbarnhart]

I've been having very good luck with range scrap for my .45acp boolits.

[Harter66]

Yep the Colts,Schofields and ACPs are real easy that way. Do you sort at all? Like all the jackets in 1 bucket, slugs/BP/HBWCs in another "hard cast"in a 3rd? It'll make a difference. I have 2, 3gal buckets of ,functionally,1-20 and 1-30 and about anothers worth of WW and No.2 from last years salvage. Again it is functionally the above,who knows what it really was.

[AndyC]

I've been having very good luck with range scrap for my .45acp boolits.

Likewise - I've just had to add a lick of tin solder to get the lead to flow properly, but it's been great so far.

I actually water-quenched a whole bunch of boolits a few weeks back and they're hard as rocks (which worried me a bit) - but they shot very well this past weekend and I've had no leading.

[Finnmike]

Nahhhhh...Too lazy and so much is fragmented that I doubt the utility of going through 100+ lbs at a time. I'm not that fanatical when it comes to "shooting" lead. Keep my WW and Linotype ingots for the serious stuff.

[Cowboy T]

Actually, you'll get similar results with any gun for which the boolits are properly sized and properly lubed. I shoot range scrap quite regularly through my .38 Spl, .45 Colt, and even near-full-house .357 Magnum with no lead fouling. I even dared to try BHN 12 through a Ruger-only .45 Colt loading of (according to the books) right around 30,000 PSI, maybe just a hair more. Again, no lead fouling. Range scrap is good stuff.

[SlippShodd]

Do you sort at all?

I never used to, but started recently. I thought it was just my OCD taking over, then I read Gear or R5R talking about it and thought, "Phew! It's not just me!" I think it started with a battle with plated bullets that just won't ooze fast enough and the fact that you really have to deal with them separately anyway. While you're at it, you might as well sort soft from hard and make 3 or 4 smelts to give you better control of blending materials. Smashing the plated bullets and running them on their own seems to leave a lot of copper behind in those ingots... I ran some of those a second time to get some clumpy copper out of them. I don't mind, I have the time and it's just one more QC aspect of my finished product.

mike

[runfiverun]

mmmm. copper alloy from plated boolits..... yummy.
the copper 22's make a nice alloy too with antimony the plateds don't have.
if you are gonna fight with them anyways you might as well get something from them..
like a higher velocity.
get the easy alloy out of the scrap.
low to none antimonial stuff thats easy and quick to grab [jaxketed] makes good cores for swaging.[and muzzle loader fodder too]
the bits and pieces [and stuff you know] gives you at least an idea of the alloys makeup..
i don't sit there and pick piece by piece but do a quick pick through the pile on a large piece of sheetmetal and hold stuff out that gives me useable alloys.
all the lead 22's,copper 22's, plated,and jaxketed, 20-30 lbs of each over a few sessions is enough to make some good useable specialty alloys from.

[mrjog]

I do the same thing. And for some reason I have the best results with 45's.

[rexherring]

Same here with my .45 LC even pushed to max. Just good lube the 255 RCBS SWC and never had trouble.

[evan price]

I just chuck all the range scrap into one pot. No reason to sort it. I get bhn 12 after water dropping. bhn 8 or so with air cooling. It works great in everything I try it in. I haven't had to use any of my WW lead in a while.

[JScott]

I have started to sort mine too due to the large amount of shotgun slugs available at my range. It's easy to get a pretty diverse alloy due to the size of these things. I mark the ingots accordingly.
Foster-type shotgun slugs and swaged into one bucket. "Slugs"
Jacketed cores into another. "Range Soft"
All identifiable cast in another. "Range Cast"
When casting 1 ingot of "Range Soft" to 1 ingot of "Range Cast" makes makes "Range Lead" which comes out at 10-11 BHN by my tester. Just about right for all of my standard velocity handgun duties. This method seems to get me a pretty consistent alloy. I know it is probably overboard but the main advantage seems to be getting bullets from different batches to weigh close to the same.
I have been accused of being a little OCD myself...

[Freightman]

I use nothing but RS and I am not deficient in my shooting, of course the pistol range is 90-95% commercial cast. Which reminds me I need to go mine some more as the last time I was out there after a rain and the berm was silver through my spotting scope.

[Jon]

I use range scrap in my 45acp. It seems to shoot fine. I've never checked the hardness, but I don't get leading either.