smelting range scrap

[Walks]

Fortunately I quit drinking in 1988. And have been drinking 2 qts of water a day for over 50yrs. Liver recovered long ago, kidney function is good too.
No Casting now anyway. My back is so bad I don't think I could get setup without giving up before I was done setting up.
Besides, I never cast when anyone else is home. My Daughter has been working from home since end of March. No end in sight.
And the HEAT has finally come with a Vengeance. over 90degrees today.

 

[RBHarter]

Levels mean little without an original base line .

I tested high once . After being off work about 7 months out of a year and doing a lot of casting , loading , and shooting the levels were down several points from the high 11.4 to 8.6 . It made me much more aware about where I put my hands at work . Lots of oxidized lead paint and 50-1970 leaded galvanized steel to handle and crawl through .

I think I'll I get it checked this year for good measure .

 

[Mowgli Terry]

For Revolvers: We went scrounging range scrap several weeks ago. There was an unusually large number of cast bullets in the mix. The batch was smelted outside in the Harbor Freight Dutch oven. The mix came out very hard. I don't have any way to test alloy other than the pencil test. To me, with no way to verify, that test it's no more than a rough estimate.. Adding unalloyed lead made the mix came out like water quenched wheel weights. This mix made some nice bullets but too hard for revolvers. I'm gonna give it a try, but expect heartaches. Kinda like life.

 

[JWFilips]

Every time I see a thread like this I can't but help to post these two great articles!
They have completely made me in to a confident Smelter caster of Very clean Alloy bullets!

 

[Mitty38]

@larry7293 ,
Too much tin can get you in trouble too.
Things here are pretty well explained, but just figured I would throw in my 2 cents worth.
My range scrap can vary, so before I started testing it and putting it into batches. .. Here is what I did.
I had picked a couple Known alloys that have tin. one hard and one soft.
Because my two casting options were for 30-06 and .38 special. I picked 40 to one at the first, then settled on 30-1 which I made with pure lead and pewter, and some Coww+tin that a member here sent me and I melted down into 1 pounders. Your choices may vary from mine according to what you may cast, your loads etc.

If I was casting using range scrap and things just are not flowing good, or looking a little funky. I will add a pound or two of Known to cast and work good, alloy that is closest to what I am going for.
Kind of pulls you into a good medium that works with out worrying about percentages, or getting out a calculator.
Just My Humble opinion of an easy way to deal with a close but not sure alloy.
It has worked for me.

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

I was able to get some range scrap recently. Planning a smelting day before the snow flies here too. Mine is indoor range and mostly rimfire bullets so Im expecting quite soft.

Ill harden some with tin in my prefers 16:1 & 20:1. Then other with lino for rifle stuff.

But as Im a powder Coater Im not overly worried about hardnesses. I like 12-15 for far rifles 10-12 for average rifles and mag pistols. And my tin mixes for most hand gun calibers.

CW

 

[Ole_270]

Melted another 60 lb batch of range scrap yesterday. Mine mostly runs jacketed pistol rounds with some cast and once in a while some cast large caliber rifle rounds like 45-70 or so. Testing has averaged .4 Sn, 1.5 Sb, one batch I had tested for copper and it came out 0.25%. I usually mix a little tin and ww to get around 1%Sn and 2% Sb, but usually end up with 12-14 Bhn after casting. Had one alloyed batch tested and it was .9% Sn,2.1%Sb and cast pistol bullets checked at 13 Bhn with my Cabin Tree tester. Either I'm getting more copper than I thought or the Bhn tester is off some.

 

[JonB]

I recently acquired enough pistol range scrap for a smelting session.
Our Club's pistol pit has a railroad tie back stop. Part of that fell down this summer. Two weeks ago, we rebuilt it. Since then, I have found lots of bullets to recover in that area...it's fun to see my own spent casts mixed in with all the jacketed pistol bullets. I think I have collected about 35 to 40 lbs, just about a full batch for my Coleman stove, but I'll throw in all my metal rich dross also...maybe I'll do that in the next week or two. I'll post some photos, I am curious to try out the new China made ingot molds that are currently available at the "other" forum.