No I'm not out on a river panning for lead, but having a gold pan around comes in handy when you dump 1/2 a 25 lb bag of shotgun shot on your reloading table. What a nightmare, into all my 2 lb coffee cans full of 9mm, 45, 357, 308, etc etc. Oh and a handful also went into my box of 5000 223 bullets, those are staying there, not worth sorting. And on top having to empty all these, I have a carpeted floor. I've had all component's for 3 or 4 years, but when I could buy a case of challenger 12 ga for 69 bucks, it wasn't worth reloading, but those have gone up, and I bought a 410, now those are expensive and almost impossible to find, 2 boxes of 410 costs more than a case of 12 ga. So now is time.
Panning for lead
- Thread starter Greglc
- Start date
I recall watching one of the many 'gold mining reality' TV shows. On one episode they were evaluating a 'wash plant' and ran lead shot through it to measure how much it would capture, as a simulation of how well it would capture gold.
- Location
- Western Manitoba
If I understand what happened, maybe try to find a screen? Large enough "holes" for lead shot pellets to go through - small enough that your ammo or bullets can not. Through a CGN'rs help, I got some screens from McMaster Carr in an attempt to sift #7 shot - so smallest shot to be .095" and largest to be .105" - you are looking to separate much much greater than that?
Ya I'm all done, vacuumed it all up then used gold pan to separate from dirt, hair etc. Going to trade my 3" funnel for the 6 inch one in garage, make it a little harder to screw up again. On a side note, although I've loaded 10s of 1000s of 9mm 45 etc. this was my first shotgun reloading. I have an older mec sizemaster sm77, what a treat to use compared to metallic presses, I'm sure I could load 12 ga faster then 9 or 45 on my turret press.
I load 250-300 rounds of 410 or 28 gauge per hour on my MEC 9000 presses. I used to do 500 rounds per hour on my PW800C, but I wasn't using overshot cards , and there is no issue with shot bridging, like there is with a 410.
After having a few spills, I decided to take some action. My shotgun press is mounted on a 18 in square piece of plywood. I took some half inch quarter round and made a barrier around the edges of the plywood. Its saved me a lot of grief...
I wasn't paying attention to time, I did 125 12 ga, was down there for about 2 hrs, but that included my mining for lead. I bought 410 conversion, so will finish my 12 gauge hulls and convert to 410. I imagine that is a little slower then 12.
The issue with 410 is shot bridging, I have eliminated that by sticking to #9 shot, and rapping the press frame with a small rubber mallet before fully lifting the handle, so any bridged shot falls into the hull. I loaded over 4000 28 gauge and 410 hulls with no shot spills last month, but the extra steps using the mallet, and using an overshot card for the 28 gauge to get proper crimps with some hulls, does take longer. I can't even imagine the time to convert from one gauge to another, fine tune it all, then change back to do another gauge, so I run multiple presses.
When I'm finished with 12 gauge I'll have approximately 3000 rounds, so won't be switching back to 12 for a while, have about 500 410s, once I've loaded those press will probably sit for 5 years. According to online it takes about 20 minutes to swap between gauges, so doing so every 5 years isn't bad.
