Remelting Range Lead

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Cactus

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Hi guys,

I had some time to kill this afternoon so I went to the range with a bucket and picked up a bunch of range lead from the bottom of a couple berms. Some of it is plated so the lead will come right out but the majority of it is cast pistol and rifle boolets, with a few slugs in there as well.

Since I am going to melt it for pistol, should I add more tin to the mix or just melt and cast? With it being an unknown mix of lead, commercial and home cast I'm not sure what to add to the mix if anything.

Thanks
Cactus
 
I was going to make a thread asking the exact same question...:popCorn: I am not ready to cast but it's something I am looking at in the next couple years. Might as well start collecting now.
 
Melt it as is into useable ingots. Then get the ingots tested for hardness. That will give you a bit of a clue how to proceed. If you don't have a hardness tester, I or some other member here can probaly help you out. Just cast a few bullets and mail them for testing rather than sending an ingot..
 
If the majority of it is cast bullets that lead is good to shoot as is.
If most of it is jacketed it will be pretty soft lead may have to drop a little tin in it.
If you are about 50/50 I wouldn't be one bit scared to melt and cast you mave have 30 to 1 or 35 to 1 bullets but if you are punching paper and not trying to set a new world speed record melt cast shoot.
Oh yes and have fun with it while you are dong it.

Ken.
 
for lower velocity pistol rounds, even pure lead will work, but to avoid leading, it's best to have it at least a bit harder.
I did this many years ago, and because there were quite a number of police wadcutters in the mix, I didn't have any issues.
What I did have was a lot of dross. Contamination from range dirt etc.
I would melt them in an old pot, make ingots with a ladle, and get the crap out of it before putting it through a bottom pour melter. There is so much crap in it, the valve on a bottom pour may leak lead.
 
Cactus said:
Hi guys,

I had some time to kill this afternoon so I went to the range with a bucket and picked up a bunch of range lead from the bottom of a couple berms. Some of it is plated so the lead will come right out but the majority of it is cast pistol and rifle boolets, with a few slugs in there as well.

Since I am going to melt it for pistol, should I add more tin to the mix or just melt and cast? With it being an unknown mix of lead, commercial and home cast I'm not sure what to add to the mix if anything.

Thanks
Cactus
Click to expand...

I don't understand"lead will come right out". I haven't had the privelage of casting bullets yet, but do have access to much used jacketed bullets. How does one go about preparing these for casting use, if it is possible?
 
trebor2880 said:


I don't understand"lead will come right out". I haven't had the privelage of casting bullets yet, but do have access to much used jacketed bullets. How does one go about preparing these for casting use, if it is possible?
Click to expand...

The lead melts at a lower temp than the brass, gilding metal or copper of the jackets or plating.
Jacketed bullets can squirt a bit as they melt. The plated stuff supposedly leaves you with copper foil chunks floating in the melt pot.

Cheers
Trev
 
trevj said:
The lead melts at a lower temp than the brass, gilding metal or copper of the jackets or plating.
Jacketed bullets can squirt a bit as they melt. The plated stuff supposedly leaves you with copper foil chunks floating in the melt pot.

Cheers
Trev
Click to expand...

Alot of FMJ bullets dont cover the base so when the lead melts it either flows out or you can dump it out.
 
old enfields said:
Alot of FMJ bullets dont cover the base so when the lead melts it either flows out or you can dump it out.
Click to expand...

That is exactly the case with most of the jacketed bullets, I picked up 45s with open bases so the lead does run out. I do have some FMJ 45s that I put aside because I want to break open the copper jacket so the lead will flow out.

I would make ingots for sure to remove the crap as a first step and as I said, the majority of what I picked up is cast rifle and pistol so based on the posts here I should be fine to just start casting 9mm and .357 without adding tin. Being that this is going to be an unknown mix I will keep the range ingots seprate from my wheel weight ingots and my pure lead... Great, another coffee can with ingots LOL. I also mark my ingots with a marker W and L, I guess I will add an R to that.

The best part is the only cost was my time to walk around and get the spent lead to recycle. I went to the range to sight in a rifle anyway.

One of the old timers here was telling me last week that now is the best time to clean the berms because shooting into snow slows the bullets right down quickly and there is always range lead sitting on top to be gathered in the spring. Based on what I got last week and today, he is correct.

Thanks for the input fellas.
Cactus
 
On casting day just add 2 ingots of range lead and 2 ingots of WW and you should be fine. The ww will bring the alloys up for a harder bullet. If you want harder yet drop them out of the mold into a 5 gallon pail of water. Instant quench.
I have 700 3lb ingots of range lead. Life is good.
 
That's a lot of range lead you recycle tigrr.

Most of my casting is done with WW but when I run short I have used 2 WW ingots with 1 pure lead for pistol rounds and they have been fine. I agree on the quenching, it is a must for all but slugs and round balls.

Cactus
 
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