Range lead

[Kansas Jake]

I've scavenged range lead and smelted it to clean it. I don't worry too much about jackets or plated lead. It will float to the top and skim off with the other dross. As others have mentioned it is dirty, but free with a little work and free is still free. I have quite a bit of soft plumbing and roofing lead so I use the range lead to cast for an unmentionable. It still isn't very hard and works good at low velocities for poking holes in paper.

I usually clean the lead and pour it into a cupcake tin to make ingots, but occasionally if I'm on a roll I'll start casting directly from my smelting setup. I use a Coleman stove and a steel sauce pan to clean lead, I save my electric Lyman pot for cleaned ingots or the roofing lead which is clean.

 

[TNGhost]

...
I wonder about the plated stuff? Since the copper plating is so bonded to the lead, do you avoid it at all costs and try to just get the stuff that was jacketed and separated from the lead at impact?
I would think ranges that have pistol shooters would be riddled with copper plated bullets.

I would think that the lead would melt and the copper would just float to the top as it does with jacketed bullets. I have melted plenty of jacketed bullets but no plated ones I can remember. The melt temp of copper is so high that unless it is alloyed with the lead it will not melt and just becomes part of the dross.

 

[sussexmuzllodr]

Go to our State range after the slug sight in sessions.

 

[toot]

I too throw it all in togother, and the jacketed bullets when they meet the melting temp the inner lead core melts out of it . and then I skim the jackets out of the pot. you will never melt the copper jackets.

 

[BS]

Read this, I is how to use up harder lead:

http://rjrenner.blogspot.com/p/tapered-paper-cartridges.html

 

[mikeinpa]

Thanks guys for all the great tips.

Mike