The ultimate range lead machine

B

beagle

Well-Known Member
Saw a guy at our range one morning scavenging lead. Had the most sophisticated lead sifter I’ve ever encountered.
He’d taken an old push power lawn mower. Attached a sifter with 4” side rails with the stainless steel small slats like they use to sift out coal dust here in the mines. Below was a metal chute for the dirt and trash. He’d move along the berm and shovel it in the shifter and the vibration did the sifting. Sifted dirt went back on berm. Big trash pulled off by hand. Worked best in dry weather. Said he shortened one blade a bit to get better vibration. We was really pulling out the fired bullets. Had 4-5 5 gallon buckets when I left. Wish I had taken a picture./beagle
 
This was the one I built. As fast as you could shovel it spit the bullets out the other end.

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Man, that’s production. Hit a range one time and in a morning got about three 5 gallon buckets full. Then, I realized I couldn’t get my pickup to the 50 yard berm.
Lucky I had extra empty buckets to spread the weight of the wealth. 5 gallons oh range lead is beyond my capability./beagle
 
At some point, I will mine my berm at the house, been shooting into it ten years now, I'm sure there's 500 pounds in it easily. I'd planned to build a big sifter of some type close to it along with a smelting operation so as to not have to move raw range salvage very far. I wouldn't mind seeing some plans for something like this.
 
Would be nice to have one of those. But don't know if it would save me that much work.
In our area, it's glaciated. So I would still have to lay out what it sifted out, and pick thru stuff anyway.
As we get about 4 times the amount of bullet sized rocks, shale, and coal then bullets, in every shovel full.
 
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1/4" wire mesh. Build a frame and screw it over the frame. Make the frame into a table so you can shake the dirt out. All of the dirt will not sift out so you need a pair of heavy leather gloves to break up the clumps. The one I made a long time ago was on hinges so I could lift the top to dump it onto a tarp to collect the bullets. Just don't make it too high or big to tip.
 
See dry shaker or dry wash mining . It catches the heavy metal nuggets and course sand and "runs off" the sand ,dirt ,and lighter rocks .
 
Brad said:
I use these. I picked up 1300 pounds that way in a year.

My feeling is that if I bring home more lead than I took the. I will never run out.

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I sifted and shoveled when I first started till I got about 200 lbs.

But hand picking, is pretty much what I do any more. Our banks at the club are so laden with lead. It is not funny.
I am the only one that claims it. Because it is also full of rocks. No one who tried it has ever came back because they got more rocks then lead.
So people don't want to sort.
The bank is pretty dense and always slightly damp. So the bullets don't go that deep.

So when I go shooting alone.
I just sit down in the bank in the shade. With a pair of old work gloves on, with a planting spade. Pecking at the dirt, and pick up twice the bullets I shot. Takes about 10 min.
Then 20 min or so to look around for brass I use- want. Just part of my routine. Of course I always leave with less then I came with in the hard to get calibers, like 10 mm. My eyes and back are just not that good anymore.
And I don't like playing around with brass catchers and spreading tarps.

I have pretty much tripled my supply of range scrap over the last three years.
And thanks to the local LE, I will never need to buy or hunt for 9 mm or .556 brass, or pick any up when I don't want to, the rest of my life.
Heck most of them are laying right in top where they have been pushed back out of the ground.
I keep telling myself I'm going to mine that bank one last time then forget about it. But then I just never seam to get around to it.
Heck I can wash the whole mess then just melt the lead out of the rocks. But it is a lot of work.
 
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2 5 gallon buckets today just shoveled them full. 5 minutes with a water hose and I'll have it about as clean as I can get it till the heat Hits it. Each bucket will yield 7-10 lbs of lead. Usually 30+lbs of range scrap to a 60lb box of lead from RMR yealds 12-14 hardness if I water drop.
Used to be 15-20lbs per bucket but I guess my efforts over the last 2 years have work down the easy pickings.
 
I don’t use a shovel other than a 44 special or 45 ACP. Plink at some pop cans and the berm gives up its lead. Pick up what is on the surface.
I can get 20-30 pounds in a range session easily. Record is 130 pounds years ago when my daughter was home for the summer and went with me. We picked up over 1300 pounds that year.
 
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