Lead recovery

[Rojelio]

I have a few hundred pounds of pure lead stockpiled and I figured if I managed it right, it should last me the rest of my life.

Shooting into a 5 gal,bucket filled with wet sand works good (unless you miss the bucket).

I built a screen to separate the bullets from the sand. Remelt and cast more balls.

The way all components are getting harder to come by these days, I'm thinking we need to start doing what we can to keep shooting.

Screen


bucket


recovered roundballs

 

[BCRider]

If you have your own dedicated spot a wood sided back stop will hold about a yard of sand tall and wide enough to let you shoot into it for weeks at a time. Then a couple of times a year just shovel it all out and sift it with your screen and "mine" the lead back out.

It'll still slowly reduce the lead over time though. A little lead "dust" gets worn away from each ball or bullet by hitting the sand. So it's not a steady state sort of thing. You'd still need to add a little to make up for it..... I suggest just let some buddy's use it as well for the "make up" lead....

For portable the bucket isn't a bad option. But at the cost of them if you can't find them for free it could add up quick. Not to mention the weight if you're getting on and like many of us are just a back problem looking for a place to start up.

 

[Rojelio]

I know I'm losing a little. I just use this setup for pistol shooting. For rifle, I shoot into a sand berm at 100 yards. I dig into it and sift out what I can, but, I know I'm losing some lead there. After a good rain, I can usually pick up a bunch off the top of the ground.

I have a good supply of buckets. My son works for Otis elevator and they use a lot of hydraulic oil. They just throw them away.

I've used that same bucket 3 times and as long as you fill it with wet sand, it won't run out.

 

[41 Mag]

OK couple of things, oh and by the way, that is how I recover most all of my handgun lead as well, except see below....

1) You need to lay the bucket on it's side and shoot through the top. Lids are WAY easier to replace than the whole bucket. You can use just about anything to mend, repair, and possibly even replace those lids. I have used cardboard, paper plates, old paper targets that I don't shoot at anymore, such and so forth. All you need to do is keep the dirt from falling out. A little duct tape and whatever is handy is usually what works best.

2) I you want more portability look over at one of the big box hardware stores like Lowes or similar for rubber mulch. You might need another bucket to back up the first, I don't know, but it is MUCH lighter and you don't end up with a lot of extra dirt in your alloy. Maybe a little crumb rubber but it will at least burn off.

I get my buckets free from work so far. They get some water treatment pellets in them and after they are triple washed and rinsed, they are up fro grabs. They don't last long either. They have a nice screw on top which makes them great for anything or any type of dry storage.

I fill them with the sand at our farm which is almost like talc. Usually I do one or two in advance and will add in a half 16oz bottle of water, and screw on the lids and let them sit in the sun till we get back. This will fully saturate the sand inside similar to a terrarium. It is JUST right for stopping the bullets and makes sifting pretty easy as well.

You will also find a TON of other ideas, some of them are fairly simple and cheap, some of them are pretty exotic. Just click this link over to Castboolits,
Bullet-trap-ideas-for-recycling-lead

 

[4v50 Gary]

That's better than panning for gold. I leave you with a Bullwinkle's choice (for those old enough to remember the cartoon):

Lead - the poor man's gold or heavy metals are for sharing.

 

[brushhippie]

Great idee Rojelio!

 

[Schwing]

that's better than panning for gold. I leave you with a bullwinkle's choice (for those old enough to remember the cartoon):

+1

 

[41 Mag]

I leave you with a Bullwinkle's choice (for those old enough to remember the cartoon):

Remember it, we still watch them. With three grandsons, we have PLENTY of the older Looney Toons, most aren't PC for this day and age, but are still funny as, well even at 50 the wife and I still laugh with the kiddo's. We also have Bullwinkle and Rocky, and a whole host of others from way back when.

We have to keep those Little Rascal's under lock and key or they will wear them out. You know those VHS tapes aren't quite up to the amount watchin and rewinding that the DVD's are.

 

[Busyhands94]

I'm 20 and I still remember those cartoons! They showed them on Cartoon Network when I was a youngern'. Definitely not P.C. by today's standards. But these were made back in the day when kids knew to not try the stuff they saw Wiley Coyote do. People tell me I turned out old fashion.

I found that you can make a pretty simple lead trap out of an empty cardboard box with some dirt in it. I fired a bunch of rounds into a White Flyer box filled with hard clay soil, and I found that it would stop my .30-30 hard cast loads repeatedly with no problems whatsoever. My buddy's 5.56 didn't go through, nor did my .38, or my .44 Remington. All the roundballs and .38's (the ones that didn't get hit with rifle rounds) seemed to retain most their weight. The 5.56 bullets mushroomed out. And the .30-30 bullets came out looking like lead mushrooms, gas checks seperated.

All in all, it was a pretty successful experiment. The bullet trap worked just as I'd intended it to.

 

[DD4lifeusmc]

buckets

are free if you know where to look.
Go past any housing or commercial building project. There are always empty buckets in the dumpster. Just get an ok to pluck them out!
Look up house painters in yellow pages, go to their shop, they'll usually have some empties.

 

[swathdiver]

I seen dozens of them on the side of the highways, fall off the back of work trucks all over America! Free for the taking!

 

[kBob]

I wonder if a kitty litter plastic sort of mini jerry can might work? I think maybe I will save up some more ( use several for water storage to flush the toilet during power failures) and perhaps double stack them. The plastic is thin but soft. I am thinking perhaps duct tape for repair between targets and move the targets abit with each new pasteing and turn the container when one wall gets weak.

I would bet that just for stopping, not so much bullet recovery that pea gravel would make a better filler as I have done so and stopped GI FMJ .30 Carbine with six gallon buckets full of pea gravel for a few rounds. The particular bucket had UV damage and cracked after five rounds rather than self sealing a hole sort of so I stopped. All hits in the center third of the bucket and no penetration.

-kBob

 

[ridgerunner1965]

you can do the same thing at any range with a dirt backstop.

we have a local range only for county leo guys. i can get into it because i work for the same county. after picking up 3 or 400 45 acp brass, along with a few 357 brass, ill pick bullets out of the dirt backstops.lots of them laying on or just below the surface.

these are often copper jaketed but after a good drying time, i melt them down. the lead melts and the copper gets skimmed off the top of the pot. good lead and good valuble scrap

 

[kBob]

.......and for many of us getting caught "mining" the club backstop is a toss outable offense. Mining gov't ranges might be considered will full distruction by some folks.....

This is why some of us are interested in catching our own bullets.

Been watching a few You tube vids on metal detecting......in 50 years when my wood pile is completely composted and a pile of .44, .36,and .31 Round lead ball is unearthed by some coin shooter, I wonder if there will be a You tube entry about a little known ACW battle in Central Florida.

-kBob

 

[Busyhands94]

I shoot at a good non-profit gun club, if I ask the rangemasters or the club president if I can mine the berm after everybody is done, they don't think twice about saying yes. And they always point me to where people are usually shooting their .45's so I can get plenty of soft lead.

It pays to belong to a good gun club. If you do things like paint trap houses, pick up brass, etc. and take care of them, they will take care of you.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

I hang 3/8 quarry belting behind the targets
The round balls hit the belting strip and drop to the ground.
Smokeless bullets would tear up the belts but round balls dont

 

[Pancho]

Can you imagine the amount of lead is in the hillside of Friendship Ind.?

 

[Panzerschwein]

I want to try doing this when I start shooting minie balls for my 1861 Springfield.

I want to make like a wooden box like 4x4x4 and fill it with dirt. After it gets shot up, take off the front wall and replace, and sift/wash off the dirt to get out the bullets.

Sound strategy eh?

 

[rcmodel]

My buddy built a backstop out of old railroad ties.
Then we got a large steel plate and leaned it against the back at about 50 degrees.
Under that is a sand trap.

Once the railroad ties get a hole shot through them, which doesn't take very long!
The bullets hit the steel plate, and are deflected down into the sand.

Where they can be 'mined' out of the sand with a garden rake.

rc

 

[loose noose]

At my range, I recover all the left over lead in the side of the berm, my little ole heart desires. Incidentally when getting ready for a CAS match, a use my steel targets, swinging and knock downs, and get all the slivers of lead I can, as this is pure lead from my BP hand guns, and rifles. It usually stays right at the base of the targets.