whitedogone
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Anyone ever "mine" lead from your outdoor range ? I would have concerns that the grit and stuff may cause problems.
Lead Mining
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Rottweiler
Member
Done it MANY times for many years. When you melt it down the dirt, crud, grit and copper jackets all float to the surface and get scooped off.
Steve Marshall
Member
One other thing- the composition of the lead you retrieve will vary quite a bit. For example: Joe loads his 44 Magnum with linotype. Harry shoots bonded .357 pistol bullets.
Frank shoots nothing but swaged bullets out of his Colt. So when you do this, melt down as large a lot as possible so as to make your own lot.
Frank shoots nothing but swaged bullets out of his Colt. So when you do this, melt down as large a lot as possible so as to make your own lot.
rcmodel
Member in memoriam
Excellent source of recycled lead for bullets.
As already noted, anything that isn't lead floats to the surface when you melt them down & flux the melt.
Only a couple of things you need to watch out for.
1. Plated & TMJ bullets may need to have the jacket squished with a hammer to break them open so the lead can get out.
2. Moisture trapped inside deformed jacketed bullets could cause a steam explosion in the lead pot.
I leave them to dry inside the house for several weeks before melting them down to insure there is no water trapped in them.
rc
As already noted, anything that isn't lead floats to the surface when you melt them down & flux the melt.
Only a couple of things you need to watch out for.
1. Plated & TMJ bullets may need to have the jacket squished with a hammer to break them open so the lead can get out.
2. Moisture trapped inside deformed jacketed bullets could cause a steam explosion in the lead pot.
I leave them to dry inside the house for several weeks before melting them down to insure there is no water trapped in them.
rc
bullseye308
Member
I use a turkey fryer. Fill it 4/5 full and fire it up. When it melts I flux it then pour into ingots. Keep a lid on it while it is melting with just enough of a crack to let the smoke out. Anything that floats after fluxing gets removed.
My last Range trip...firing a Cap and Ball Revolver...I tried digging a little into the Earth Berm, to see if I could find any of my rounds.
In an area of say six inches by six inches, and a couple inches deep, I found enough other people's Bullets to fill a BIG GULP Cup...only rooting around with my fingers.
Eeeeee Gads, there must be Tons of Lead there...
In an area of say six inches by six inches, and a couple inches deep, I found enough other people's Bullets to fill a BIG GULP Cup...only rooting around with my fingers.
Eeeeee Gads, there must be Tons of Lead there...
Quickdraw McGraw
Member
Go out to the berms after a hard rain. I'm like a kid picking up easter eggs! Anymore I am more after the berm scrap than the brass! I can always buy brass but lead is getting harder and more expensive to find!
Maj Dad
Member
Oyeboten, don't let California hear about it or Pelosi & Boxer will declare it a dangerous hazardous waste superfund cleanup site and send ACORN to picket it until Clyburn and Reid can steer some stimulus funding to bury it under 15 feet of concrete... but I digress... 
evan price
Member
I mined about 300# gross weight of berm lead last year. It melted down into about 200# net weight of ingots, after I got rid of the dirt, gravel, jackets, and other crud. Not bad for a few hours every few weeks when I had time.
I never needed to actually "mine" anything. If you go on a day after a good rainfall the loose dirt and sand washes away and the surface layer of bullets will just be laying there to pick up with your bare hands. Now and then I might use a stick to poke into holes where I can see clumps of lead to fish them out.
Cool thing was once I used a magnet to separate the steel jackets from the copper, the foundry gives me #2 Copper price for the jackets. I had 25# of jackets from the 300# of range scrap. That paid for the propane to melt it all and then some.
Best advice I have for a prospective berm-miner:
1. Be respectful of the berm- do not damage the berm or leave any traces of your activities, especially at a public range.
2. Bring lots of small buckets instead of one large bucket. Lead is heavy. Those buckets get heavy quickly! When half full a 5-gallon bucket of bullets will weigh over 100#!
3. If you rinse away the dirt and rocks before melting it takes less time to flux and less propane to heat. Problem is you need to let it all dry in the sun a while or else the expanding steam will summon the Tinsel Fairy for a visit.
I never needed to actually "mine" anything. If you go on a day after a good rainfall the loose dirt and sand washes away and the surface layer of bullets will just be laying there to pick up with your bare hands. Now and then I might use a stick to poke into holes where I can see clumps of lead to fish them out.
Cool thing was once I used a magnet to separate the steel jackets from the copper, the foundry gives me #2 Copper price for the jackets. I had 25# of jackets from the 300# of range scrap. That paid for the propane to melt it all and then some.
Best advice I have for a prospective berm-miner:
1. Be respectful of the berm- do not damage the berm or leave any traces of your activities, especially at a public range.
2. Bring lots of small buckets instead of one large bucket. Lead is heavy. Those buckets get heavy quickly! When half full a 5-gallon bucket of bullets will weigh over 100#!
3. If you rinse away the dirt and rocks before melting it takes less time to flux and less propane to heat. Problem is you need to let it all dry in the sun a while or else the expanding steam will summon the Tinsel Fairy for a visit.
Our home range is backed by a creek/berm. Whenever the crops are in and we get a big rain our creek floods over its banks and washes away a few inches of dirt, exposing a LOT of lead. I have never really thought about picking it all up, but now that I'm about to start casting, it ain't a bad idea.
qajaq59
Member
This is a good move. It's amazing just how much water can get into them while they're buried.
Maj Dad
Member
Walkalong Speaks Truth
Which makes him a truth sayer. You cannot imagine how surprising it is to drop a piece of friendly garage lead in the pot & watch a mini Old Faithful in your lead pot, sending you backwards over all that other crap in your shop that somehow winds up behind you at importune times... Dry, dry, dry, or cry, cry, cry...
Which makes him a truth sayer. You cannot imagine how surprising it is to drop a piece of friendly garage lead in the pot & watch a mini Old Faithful in your lead pot, sending you backwards over all that other crap in your shop that somehow winds up behind you at importune times... Dry, dry, dry, or cry, cry, cry...
jcwit
member
The Tinsel Fairy is not a welcome guest!
janobles14
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for you miners out there how deep can one dig for lead? im sure a rifle will bury them fairly deeply but how about standard pistol rounds? was just wondering about using a sifter to speed things along.
evan price
Member
If we're talking a fairly dense berm that's got a lot of lead in it, I have nver actually needed to dig at all. The layer of the top surface of the berm is almost all bullets. There is a little loose dirt there, you could scrape off the top inch or two and get mostly lead. IN an old, well established, heavily used berm, the lead builds up in clumps that get bigger and bigger right behind where most of the targets get put.
Rifle bullets have a lot less lead in them than pistol bullets, and at higher velocity they pretty much explode when they hit a solid object like a rock. For the time spent, a pistol berm will yield much more lead for much less work.
Sifters work if you have a loose sandy type soil, but here in Ohio clay they just clog up. Water works pretty well, as in a bucket with a screen in the bottom and you pan the dirt out. That's a lot of work, like I said, I just pick them up by hand and don't bother digging.
Rifle bullets have a lot less lead in them than pistol bullets, and at higher velocity they pretty much explode when they hit a solid object like a rock. For the time spent, a pistol berm will yield much more lead for much less work.
Sifters work if you have a loose sandy type soil, but here in Ohio clay they just clog up. Water works pretty well, as in a bucket with a screen in the bottom and you pan the dirt out. That's a lot of work, like I said, I just pick them up by hand and don't bother digging.
1SOW
Member
re quantity available
A 1# coffee can weighs 10 lbs when full of melted down range lead. It makes a great anchor for a Jon-boat.
As I remember a 3# coffee can full of mixed lead and jacketed range bullets fills the 1# can with clean usable lead.
I've made several in years past, and it takes no time at all to get the bullets to do it. I never used tools/sifters to get the bullets. A range owner isn't going to smile if it "looks" like you're excavating their berm. Just pick them up within finger-deep of the surface.
A 1# coffee can weighs 10 lbs when full of melted down range lead. It makes a great anchor for a Jon-boat.
As I remember a 3# coffee can full of mixed lead and jacketed range bullets fills the 1# can with clean usable lead.
I've made several in years past, and it takes no time at all to get the bullets to do it. I never used tools/sifters to get the bullets. A range owner isn't going to smile if it "looks" like you're excavating their berm. Just pick them up within finger-deep of the surface.
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