Thar be lead in them hills

[Reefinmike]

I frequent a pretty busy state range and finally decided to mine the berm the past two trips. After asking the range officer, I went out and collected as many fat 45 slugs I could pick off the top in the ten minutes before the range closed and stuffed them in empty cardboard ammo boxes from the trash. This week I thought ahead, filled a 30 cal ammo can with ammo, emptied it, picked up my brass and went out to the berm and took a scoop out of the middle and packed the can to the top. After cleaning out all the dirt, grit and separating out the rubber(to take back), the ammo can was more than half full of shot bullets and small lead fragments. I sorted out all the obvious cast boolits and melted them separate to be casted as is. 15lbs on trip#1 and 18lbs on trip#2. Now I just need to find a way to get this soft lead casted into a suitable boolit. Im thinking 25% of my mystery alloy (super hard and casts bullets 10% light) with 75% soft range lead, casting 230gr 45 bullets and quenching em.

Im seriously considering bringing a shovel and a few 5 gallon buckets next week. This hobby is way too addictive... I thought I was in the clear after I actually stopped picking up brass at 4kpieces per caliber

 

[Field Tester]

Mike,

Congrats on your Comstock Load! Just a heads up, be careful about how you mine that lead. Pockets in the berm can lead to issues later.

Best of luck to you!

 

[Reefinmike]

Im just going to be surface scooping and trying to keep everything nice and tidy. the berm is almost 50% lead in the central area, you stand back and think its gravel all over the surface but nope, those are dirty bullets. If I decide to go crazy and clean out the core of all 24 berm "stalls", Ill bring a rake and hand tamper to make sure I dont leave a nice big crater

I just want to get to all that lead before one of those epa certified companies come through, take away hundreds of thousands of pounds of lead and leave a nice fat bill and a lead bare berm for a year or so

 

[ArchAngelCD]

I'm happy for you but I'm surprised the RO allowed you to touch the berm. A berm isn't just a pile of dirt and like said above, pockets in the berm can cause breakdown problems.

 

[ReloaderFred]

A couple of years ago a friend and I sifted out about 2,400 pounds of bullets from the pistol berm in about 6 hours. We used shovels and screens, and it was hard work.

The hardest work was smelting down the bullets into 10 pound ingots for our Master Caster machines. Separating the cores from the jackets, then the steel from the copper, was dirty, tedious work, but we got a lot of ingots and sold the copper jackets to the recycling company as #2 copper for $3.00 a pound.

Make sure you leave the berm as you found it, or you won't be allowed to mine it again.

The companies that mine lead from shooting ranges usually have several different programs. They will either take all the lead and pay the range, or they will do a 50-50 split, or mine the lead and leave it with the range and charge for the work. They have to be EPA and OSHA compliant, plus comply with state and local regulations. Those that have been in the business for awhile have a good reputation, but they aren't cheap.

The bottom line is, get the lead while you can, and keep a record of what you've gotten and what you did with it. This may come in handy later if a regulatory agency gets involved with lead recovery at the range.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[KansasSasquatch]

There's a range not too far from me that's a free public range. I've been trying to figure out ways to dig up all the lead from it without damaging the berms. It's been slim pickings all year there for brass but I know no one ever digs up the lead. In fact I don't think the state even has anyone clean it up. They seem to just send a crew out with a skid steer loader and a couple truckloads of dirt to "resurface" the berms, as the berms seem to get taller and closer to the firing line every year. Plus to pistol range is where the "gold" is and it stays busy with shooters when I go. I need to come up with some ideas, I just keep drawing blanks.

 

[RugerBob]

One thing to do before melting is to make sure the complete jacketed one have hole cut in them, maybe with a set of dykes. If not the lead will melt inside it and it will 'pop' and spray molten lead. Make sure they are dry, some older ones may be damp inside. I should do this, but just haven't had the time to go down to range when its not being used.

 

[dickttx]

My club (outdoor) now has steel backstops on all the lanes and they are cleaning it out on a regular basis. In 5 gallon cans it looks like dust.
They are melting it down and casting ingots and sell them for 50¢ per pound. I have bought about 80# so far but have not cast any yet.

 

[Potatohead]

At risk of sounding like a blonde here, but what do you have to be wary of when you handle parts of the berm, causing "pockets". Whats the danger messing with the berm? (outside of getting blown to bits if people are shooting of course)

 

[ReloaderFred]

dickttx,

If you're getting reclaimed lead for $.50 a pound in ingots, you need to mortgage your house and buy all you can get. I'd almost make a trip to Texas for a deal like that!

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[Arkansas Paul]

^ No doubt. I'd buy every pound I possibly could. Screw buying and smelting wheel weights at $40 a bucket.

 

[Rule3]

Our State range, mining the berm is not allowed. They had a major company come form out of STATE with heavy equipment, and tractor trailer flat beds with hundreds and hundreds of 55 gal steel drums. They mined the berm sifted all the lead out with these monster machines, sealed the lead in drums and off it went, Tons and tons of the stuff. Considered a Haz Mat site on a State Wildlife Mgt area.

It was a neat operation to watch. They did three ranges/berms. Wish I had pics of it.

I could mine the berm at the range I shoot at now, but that's a lot of work in the heat and humidity. I'll let my nice mail Lady deliver them to my door.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

At risk of sounding like a blonde here, but what do you have to be wary of when you handle parts of the berm, causing "pockets". Whats the danger messing with the berm? (outside of getting blown to bits if people are shooting of course)

For a berm to do the job correctly it has to be constructed correctly with the right heights and angles. It also can't break down so if you leave holes in the berm and those holes get hit over and over it will further degrade the integrity of the berm.

The local public ranges are run by the State and it is strictly forbidden to mine the berm. (or even go behind the fixed backstops)

 

[ReloaderFred]

Rule3,

For clarification, the Federal EPA doesn't consider lead on a range to be a hazardous material. They consider it a recyclable metal product, since it's there for it's intended purpose as long as the range is open for use. It's only after a range is closed down permanently that the lead becomes a hazardous material under EPA rules.

Each state has it's own version of the EPA, so it may have been a state issue in the case of that range. At any rate, the lead recovered from the range you mentioned went to a secondary smelter to be recycled, not to a hazardous materials storage site, which is a whole other issue.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[Rule3]

It's a State Wildlife Mgt area, So as a State thing it is Haz Mat.

Just like car wheel weights. You can not just go down to "Joes" tire shop and buy his 5 gal bucket of wheel weights, In Fl it must be by an State approved company. The 55 gal drums were all marked with plac cards for Haz material,what State it went to for processing, I have no idea.

But yes it is recycled not like it goes to a Haz Mat site

 

[ArchAngelCD]

I don't understand all this crap about lead being hazardous. Lead is found naturally in the ground and does not leach out unless it's in a vaporous form or you ingest it. It's amazing how they twist the facts so they can do something bad to use in the future, but it's not like they would try to ban lead bullets or anything! Oh wait, California already did that...

Here in PA they are doing very stupid things at the State run ranges. They just paid a company Millions of dollars to remove all the lead from the site and rebuild the berms. Allegedly the lead was destroyed in a blast furnace but I doubt that. In neighboring states the companies are doing the work for free because they get the lead and in one state they even got half the profits of the copper jackets. So, my state spent Millions instead of making money. That's about right around here!!! I'm sure the guys who worked out the deal made a bundle though!