JWFilips
Well-Known Member
I have been wanting awhile now to smelt the range lead I have collected over the past 2 years. I try to make it a point to pick the berms with my shooting buddy Ed, every time we go to the range. Our range opens for shooting at 8 am 7 days a week ..so we get there early to get good tables and set up and spend the rest of the time until shooting hours walking the berms and picking what we can. I like to at least get the weight of what I shoot each trip...but most times it is a good bit more! (I have 300 lbs of range lead in kitty litter containers taking up space in my basement) Well since it has been down right beautiful weather here in NEPA all this November & My leaves are cleaned up and things are batten down for the upcoming winter; I told my wife that I would like to try to smelt some of my cache.
Anal that I am; i started picking though the buckets to sort out all the commercial "hard cast" from the jacketed stuff! I guess my wife felt sorry for me and sat down with me and we sorted about 1/2 of what I had this morning. By the time I hauled all of my smelting stuff up the hill behind the house ( far enough so no one would think I had a House fire) it was pretty late in the day but I was able to Clean smelt 100 lbs of the commercial hard cast bullets! Had to leave everything up there because it started getting too dark; figure I will try again tomorrow!
After supper we sorted the rest so I have another 60 lbs of Commercial hard cast to go along with 150 lbs of jacketed. With luck I should have it all done before dark tomorrow.
Why do I like to sort?
Well, this way I get two "almost known" alloys. Commercial cast is most often BHN 18 as cast
The jacketed stuff is pretty soft at about 9 BHN ( at least this is what I have seen in the past) For me it just seems easier to blend the two alloys then to smelt it all together and get pot luck!
Anal that I am; i started picking though the buckets to sort out all the commercial "hard cast" from the jacketed stuff! I guess my wife felt sorry for me and sat down with me and we sorted about 1/2 of what I had this morning. By the time I hauled all of my smelting stuff up the hill behind the house ( far enough so no one would think I had a House fire) it was pretty late in the day but I was able to Clean smelt 100 lbs of the commercial hard cast bullets! Had to leave everything up there because it started getting too dark; figure I will try again tomorrow!
After supper we sorted the rest so I have another 60 lbs of Commercial hard cast to go along with 150 lbs of jacketed. With luck I should have it all done before dark tomorrow.
Why do I like to sort?
Well, this way I get two "almost known" alloys. Commercial cast is most often BHN 18 as cast
The jacketed stuff is pretty soft at about 9 BHN ( at least this is what I have seen in the past) For me it just seems easier to blend the two alloys then to smelt it all together and get pot luck!