| Moderated by: miestro_jerry | ||
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miestro_jerry Administrator 
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How many of you have the availability of range lead in your area? I bought some last fall and alloyed it in to Lyman #2 by adding Tin and Antimony. I treat it as if it is pure lead. So I was wondering if any of you recycle? Jerry |
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Sprue HB Pro Staff
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Yeah sorta, I pick up spent lead when I can, when the range is vacated or think about it. I love finding those big honkers. Seems like the best time is after a mild or medium rain has passed through. Our range has been in existence since the...... 40's (pre-senior moment) so, its there! I haven't mined a whole lot though but I do have an ongoing running collection jug. |
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runfiverun HB Pro Staff
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i grab as much as i can and try to go over to the range about once a month just to pick up lead. i usually get about a 5 gal bucket in a years time. i like to sort mine back out as i go, along with the cast stuff. i thro the plated jacketed and obvious b/p stuff together and put it in a separate bucket. i mix this up with ww's at about 25% range to 75% ww's it is great for the levers and handguns,it's also awesome for lowering the antimonial wash in rifle bbls after being water dropped. |
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Charley Board Founder 
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Ranges around here guard their berms pretty zealously. Some of the local salvage yards do sell lead, and prices aren't too bad. I just find it where I can. |
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72coupe HB certified Master Handloading and Ballistics advisor 
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I scooped up 400 hundred pounds of dirt off the range 6 weeks ago. Melted out 120 pounds of clean ingots. Way too much work for the yeild. |
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miestro_jerry Administrator
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I make a wooden frame out of 2 x 4 and nail some hardware fabric to it and sift the dirt through it. If it is too clumpy I use the garden hose, spraying thru the dirt. Once in the past I made a shoot that poured the dirt into the hardware fabric, it got away from me a few times. This is like panning for gold. Jerry Last edited on Mon Jun 29th, 2009 03:52 PM by miestro_jerry |
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72coupe HB certified Master Handloading and Ballistics advisor
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The dirt I got from our range was lead colored grey and looked like paste. I melted a couple pots full of the dirt and it yeilded probably 75% lead but it was really time and propane consuming. |
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miestro_jerry Administrator
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With lead pushing $3 a pound in some places, figure your propane and about half your time at minimum wage. That will give some idea of what the cost factor is to many of the retailers. Plus I recently bought 50 pounds of WW in ingot form for $60 plus $10.00 for shippinf, at the same time I bought 60 pounds of range lead in "loaf" form for $49 and $10.00 shipping. I figure what I get from my back stop is maybe $20 in my costs, but it took a while to figure out how to get the lead separated from the dirt. Jerry Last edited on Mon Jun 29th, 2009 04:50 PM by miestro_jerry |
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