Anyone pick up lead at the range?

[Malone LaVeigh]

My son picked up a bunch of lead out at the range to use as counterweight in a trebuchet project we were working on. The stuff is really all over the place. So that made me wonder if anyone has found a way to recycle used lead into casting bullets for reloading or muzzle loading.

Sorry if this has been covered, but I didn't have much luck with the search terms I used.

 

[Citadel99]

When I used to go visit my uncle in Colorado Springs we'd always pick up lead at the range when we were done. Once he got a lot collected he'd melt it down, skim out the dirt, and cast bullets.

Mark

 

[Grump]

I've done it and had okay results for soft bullets, but alloyed it up for more serious work. Most from the range I raided was .22 LR lead, which is something like 1-3% antinmony or something like that, with barely enough tin to make it work in swaging operations (is it even needed?)

Plan on adding some solder to get the tin up.

Raiding most indoor ranges I've seen is a safety favor to them. The lead builds up in the rear corner of the sand pit and starts causing lead splashback. Not good. It's a maintenance issue, and should be done with a dust mask. MUST BE.

 

[Ala Dan]

I use a local police range, whereas its always some group
or individaul officer practicing their marksmanship. It does
not allow time for anyone to sift through the hill of dirt;
used for a back-stop, in order to search for lead.

Best Wishes,
Ala Dan, N.R.A. Life Member

 

[Corey ACP]

Yeah, back when I was younger and enjoyed bending over alot. I'd pick up all sorts of slugs and toss them in the pot with a bunch of wheelweights, flux, skim, cast away..... You end up with a fairly soft alloy, but for plinking stuff, (practice). it worked fine.

 

[Paul "Fitz" Jones]

Range Lead

As a Police Weapons Instructor, Rangemaster and Reloader for the departments ammo all the lead that went down range was mine. It hit a steel plate then into sand and I dug it out when I needed lead and it went into my 6,000 pound capacity smelter.
Tons of tire weights were given to me as the local scoutmaster for a Scout fund raising project of making fishing sinkers for sale at our town swap meet. When I became a Saeco dealer we made more making bullets for our local gun shop and that is how my business started as a scout project.

I was also a Civilian rangemaster and the bullets spun around steel baffles and into buckets that were mine also as their reloader.

I use my Calif Saeco Lead Hardness Tester and scrap lead from the area along with tire weights to make my lead alloys that I poured into a rotating linotype bars mold 4, 30 pound ingots on each side and the water used to cool the mold went into my swimming pool to help heat it. The bars went into my two bulletmaster machines turning out 4,800 bullets per hour mostly H&G 068 200 Gr Swc, 148 Gr. target 38 bullets and 158 Gr Keith SWC 38/357's. For some of the latter I added linotype for a hardness of 8 on the Saeco scale of 1-10, Tire weights ran from about 4.5-5.5 depending how many glue on weights were in the tire weight buckets.

A handy lead hardness tester is needed to create the alloy you wish and as the distributor for the majority of the local California Saeco production by mail order I sold over a thousand of them when they were the original patent models made of Burnished Steel unlike the current aluminum version.

Part of my large brass collection came from all the brass fired by officers that were not the calibers I reloaded for the department became mine.

Fitz
check out
[email protected]

 

[Quantrill]

Scrap range lead mixed half and half with Linotype usually yields 12-15 Brinnell hardness which is sufficient for the greater amount of my reloading. Quantrill

 

[Malone LaVeigh]

Soft would be good. I'm looking for lead for muzzle-loading and reloads. Where can I get one of those testers?

 

[Paul "Fitz" Jones]

I have several original Steel ones

I have three left for conderably less than the current aluminum one contact me at [email protected] tomorrow and I will be home from the airport around noon. It is old fashioned quality.

I found them straightened up as thought they were all gone. Original instructions included.

Fitz

Retired Saeco Company associate and bullet designer.

 

[Khornet]

MALONE!!!!

Hey it's great to hear you're reloading.

Muzzleloaders must have PURE LEAD, dead soft, or you'll never get it down the bore. Trust me, been there. You can buy pure lead ingots from Midway, or if you're an air pistol nut like me you can save your trapped pellets and cast from that.

As stated, for best results you need to know your hardness with a good tester like the Saeco. I've never cast for anything but ML so I don't need it.

Then of course you'll need a sizer/lubricator, and if you get into rifle you'll need gas-check capability. It looks like great fun to me but I've never had the space/cash/time yet. Someday.

For an interesting read, get the book "Cast Bullets" from the NRA. Loads of great info and advice, extensive discussion of alloys, just a good read in itself.

 

[Malone LaVeigh]

Thanks for the remind, Khornet. I need to email Fitz.

I don't have a muzzle loader, a neighbor of mine does. We are just about ready to reload our first handgun cartridges from store-bought bullets. Casting will probably come later. In the meantime, I'm looking for sources.

 

[Khornet]

Welcome to the world of reloading

I find it adds a whole new layer of interest to shooting. It's gotten so I hate to have a firearm I can't reload for. Right now I have, waiting for a range day, 2 test loads for M1, 3 for .40 S&W, 2 for .45 ACP, 2 for .223. When it's too cold for the range up here, I do as I did last weekend, and settle down at the bench to load up a large batch of a pet load. It's so satisfying to box up a few hundred of a load you know to be a tack-driver, and clamp down the lid of the ammo can and add it to the stack, then record it in my log.

DO start a log book, and enter all the particulars of your loads: brass, and how it was prepped and sized, primer, powder and charge weight, bullet, cartridge OAL, and then a space for results and comments. It realy helps, and enhances safety. AND it becomes a bit of a diary, too: I always not in the results section how the load worked, when and where I fired it, weather condidtions, who was with me, what was going on in my life at the time. Looking through my log I find memories of my boys as they grow up, things I was worried sick about that never came to pass, lessons about living. None of that would have happened with store-bought ammo.

Next, you must take up fly fishing, and learn to tie your own flies. It's the fishing equivalent of reloading.

Good luck!
Khornet

 

[Malone LaVeigh]

Thanks for the good word, quite inspiring. I am looking forward to this.

 

[Archie]

If you are going to use range lead...

Check out the local construction equipment rental places and rent a plumber's lead pot. It hold a lot more lead than a casting pot and will handle junk better.

Make sure the lead is as clean as you can get it and dry. If you drop a piece of wet lead into the pot, the moisture will boil explosively.

Melt it all, skim off the dross (dirt, old jackets and such) and then use some aluminum cupcake pans to cast lumps for later use in your casting pot. Lead won't stick to aluminum and they come out about the right size.

Did I mention to do this OUTSIDE? You don't want the lingering smell in the drapes. (The Bride will not be pleased...) Nor do you want the lead fumes. Wear safety goggles, a dust mask of some kind and coveralls. Don't forget gloves, welder's gloves are best. No shower shoes.

 

[Khornet]

Getting lead dry

the old rule I learned was to put your lead in BEFORE turning on the heat, so that it evaporates any water before getting really hot.