Any Bullet Casters In Here?

O

One Lung Wonder

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The other day I went down hassle the boys at Phoenix range in Edmonton and they had some signs up that they had closed some of the shooting bays down for lead removal. When I got there they were all done and up and running again but my question is this - can you bullet casters scavenge that lead? I would think it would be perfectly good if you fluxed the chit out of it, wouldn't it?

I've only casted for BP guns and that stuff is all about pure lead... But this alloy stuff should work fine in smokeless guns, right?
 
Damn right. It would depend how well it's cleaned and how much oxide, but yes it is useable. The recovery company likely has dibs though...
 
I've heard from a few sources that the lead core in jacketed and plated bullets is dead soft pure lead suitable for casting round ball for muzzle loaders. It's the "plain" lead lubed bullets which are of some degree of harder mixed alloy that can ruin this apparently. But again this is just what I've heard from a couple of fellow shooters in passing. I don't have any actual facts on it from credible sources.

That being said I "mined" a sample from my club's indoor range and smelted the lead out from the sand and jackets and other crud. The amount recovered from this mess is certainly worth the effort and propane cost. And in my case being an indoor range the sand is dry as a popcorn fart so no moisture to worry about.
 
I've used recycled range lead from a couple sources. Can be a bit of a chore depending on how much crap is mixed in.
Indoor pistol range lead was harder than I wanted for muzzle loaders and a little soft for hot pistol loads but great for lower powered plinking and practice loads.
 
22 bullets are also soft lead. I've used plenty of recycled range lead over forty years, stiffening it with wheel weights, but tin is better if you can get it. Only needs a bit.
 
Mostly . 22 and soft cores; works well for me in .45, .40 and reasonable 9mm loads. Subsonic revolver loads are fine too with a good bullet fit (I shoot unsized bullets in all guns but one 44-40 that won't chamber them).

The caveat is the amount of crap you will find in it. I would be cautious in an appartment building.
My range has a complicated arrangement of wood and rubber before the backstop, which stinks terribly. Years ago I used lead from a damp range that saw some floodings and I had to cast that lead in winter or at night in order not to upset people.
 
Only made around 1000 .45 bullets (.4535" from a Lee 200gr-SWC mould) so far, made over a year ago, from indoor range scrap. Didn't test the hardness but it was harder than pure lead, couldn't have been much harder though as you could still mark it with your fingernail. I tried a couple in a Rem. R1, they went bang and cycled and were surprisingly accurate for being powder puff loads, so I didn't bother swaging them down to .452". A couple people I shoot with at our range said as long as it's soft lead usually up to .454" is fine as it just "squishes" into the barrel. Makes sense to me and have had zero issues or pressure signs, but, they were loaded up really soft, just nice plinking rounds.

I do believe .45auto is about the easiest pistol round to load for. It's a nice short, fat case so you can see your powder charge easily, it's a big, fat bullet so not as much fumbling around as the smaller calibers, and it's lower pressure and velocities are a match for naked bullets!
 
Please go to the Bullet Making section on this forum. There is a wealth of info there.
As a general rule, re-smelted "range" lead can be cast into excellent quality cast lead bullets. The key to range lead bullets is velocity. Perfectly fine for 32/38/44/45 bullets NOT driven to 900 FPS. Prefereably 600-800 FPS is okay. Forget & avoid ANY high velocity bullets like 9mm. 40 cal & 45acp @ 800 FPS okay. Range lead bullets approaching 900 FPS & over will seriously lead your barrel. Definitely NOT recommended for firearms with polygonal rifling.
 
I have used a lot of range lead and a friend of mine in Seattle acquired three 45 gallon drums of reclaimed pistol bullets when the rnage they shoot at did a clean up. The range lead he got from mostly jacketed pistol bullets test out to be a Brintnel (sp) of 9. I have used our range lead salvaged from our back pits and mostly just mix it with WW alloy and have had no problems in 9MM, 40cal, 38/ 357,44 Mag, 45acp and 45Colt. For the underlined calibers I water quench from the mold to harden the bullets up.

If the indoor range see a lot of .22 shooting then I would expect the lead to be softer than what my friends recovered lead and my own from our pits.

Take Care

Bob
 
I've lost the bit of paper with the weights on it but a "core sample" I took from the club's indoor range turned out to be roughly 1/5 lead by volume and 1/2 lead by total weight. I also screened the sand and dust from the bigger lumps using a scrap of 1/4 inch screen I had kicking around. The return from the fines was probably 1/8 lead by volume and was a lot of work to try to scoop off the sand and other non lead fines. The lumpy stuff was by far the less work intense recovery being much easier to scoop off the trash. But keep in mind that the backstop is well past due for a swabbing out so the "sand" is highly rich in bullet ore. Most places likely won't let it go that long. So potentially a lower return for the effort.

In both cases this sampling was done using a modest Lyman Little Dipper electric pot. To aid in getting a reasonable melt I covered the pot with an old skill saw blade to keep the heat in. This helped a lot. But this was only a small trial batch. If I take on trying this with a bigger batch I'll need to get an old big steel soup pot or dutch oven and run it over a good propane burner. Otherwise it'll be all far more work than it's worth.

Lots of bits of wood and plastic in the trash even after picking through it means that it pretty much NEEDS to be melted down outdoors. Even in the garage with both small doors open it was smokey and stinky as blazes. So don't even try it.
 
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