Think I'm Crazy?

[JWFilips]

Every weekend my buddy & me meet at our publick rand very early to get the only 2 50 yd benches. Since we have 1 1/2 hours to kill before fire time ( State Range rules) we wall the berms and pick spent projectiles!
We Recently we have been competing with grubbers who get there in the dark and mine the berms. Needless to sy in the past 2 mounths I have not been able to recover the weight of what I shot per day ( my criteria).
Last weekend I sat down & made a deal with the grubbers ( you give me all the sorted commercial cast out of the berm & I will pay 10 Cents more then your scrape yard. Now the scrape yard pays 50 cents per pound for sorted boolit lead ( not jacketed) so i offered them 60 Cents per pound for the same. I know our range & the majority of cast boolits shot are commercial hard cast!
What do you fellows think of that deal...be honest. I'm out here in the east were 80 % of the wheel weights are zinc.

 

[Brad]

Hey, it gets you the lead you need and it beats what you would pay the scrap yard for the same.
I would have offered them 40 cents a pound, or even 35, for mixed bullets. They can grab the jacketed and cast all the same and trust me, the recovery rate is good
I figure on 75-80 percent recovery from my range scrap and that is including the dirt as I don't wash the bullets.

In short, a guy has to do what a guy has to do.

 

[yodogsandman]

I'd get there before them! Bet they have the shooters schedules all figured out. Do what you have to do but, get it first. Maybe get it just after the shooting stops for the day.

 

[Brad]

I have little competition but I also shoot at a private club. Twenty pounds a day is pretty easy. Got 150 pounds a few years back when the kid was home. She isn't always the best shot but she is great at collection spent bullets off the berm. Way better than her momma, just don't tell my wife!

 

[fiver]

I think it's a good deal.
you don't gotta dig all over in the dirt, you 'eliminated' the competition, and they come out.
which puts them solidly in your corner.
you won't be tired from digging and can expend the energy melting and cleaning and mixing good alloy.

plus the price is decent.

 

[KHornet]

If you do what works out to be the best thing for you, how can your loose. I mine also, and try depending on weather (hate to dig in muddy berms), want to come home with at least as much as I shot for the day. On nice dry days, I usually come home with at least 3-4 times that much. Need to get the grand daughter on the range with me to help pick sometime. Most I ever picked in a day was 22 Lbs, but that makes a nice full 20 lb. pot.

 

[Ian]

Once the "grubbers" figure out you'll pay, they might also hit you up to buy other useful stuff they might have scrounged like sewer pipe lead, roof lead, etc. Fiver has it right, let the young folks do the dirty work for you.

 

[smokeywolf]

JW, the grubbers are the crazy ones. I'd give them 70 cents a pound.

I've seen people spend 50 cents/lb for unsorted WW. At 60 cents/lb for usable, presorted lead with no clips or zinc, you're a winner.

 

[quicksylver]

+1 on Smokey
Jw........ I do the same thing, sort of a game.

Difference is my club cleans the burms, dumps it in a pile on a blue tarp.

After every shooting session I go and pick at least as many rounds as I fired
, usually about 3x.

Since the club has pretty much turned into a "Run and gun club" they get a kick out of watching me.

The good part is:
1. I am about the only cast bullet rifle shooter left.
2. I am the "Old Guy", with weird guns.
3. They get curious and usually come over to see what I am doing.
4. That curiosity leads to a bunch of them pitching in and having a gab session while they help !
5. I set a goal for them of one large Dunkin Doughnuts Ice Tea container per visit ( 8#).
6. They learned to spot the commercial cast pistol bullets.

Close to Heaven on Earth !

So is 60 cents a pound picked and sorted.

BTW I still add 1% pewter to my range lead.

 

[JWFilips]

Well sadly...I think I chased them away! It has been two weekends now (I shoot Saturday & Sunday mornings) so they should have been there all 4 days. My shooting buddies at the range told me Thanks! My wife seems to think that they think I was setting them up by offering to buy the range lead ( They have no shooting permit to be there at the range so they are doing it illegally) Funny though we are still noticing the berms are being dug before we arrive & We get there at sunrise so they have to be working in the dark!

 

[quicksylver]

Sounds like the Midnight brass magnates at one of my clubs. Not a piece to be found.

 

[quicksylver]

Has anyone got a game camera they can set up?

 

[JWFilips]

Has anyone got a game camera they can set up?

We were thinking that same thing but since it is a public range I'm sure it would get shot up before we saw any photos!

 

[KHornet]

Don't mind competing with other casters, but have less than a good taste about those who mine to sell, just me I guess, and a matter of perspective.

 

[Brad]

JW, I just looked in my garage. I have close to a 6th full five gallon bucket of range scrap to melt down.
Figure 200 pounds per bucket, I should get 150 pounds of ingots per bucket. Call it 900 pounds of alloy in the raw.
I shot a new pistol bay yesterday. It was good pickings, I need to revisit it soon.

 

[JWFilips]

Yeah Well I'm back to Pickin myself. I guess I really scared them off the range. It appears no one has seen them since that weekend i made my offer!
Anyway i don't have problems picking the lead myself ...now there is lead to pick. as for my range stash I'm probably up to 900 lbs in the past two years of casual picking off the berms ( No Mining!)
Problem is: with normal life / shooting /loading ...not much time to do the smelting!....& I just keep pickin!

 

[Brad]

Picking them up one at a time is what I do also. Our berms are clay and not suitable to using a screen and shovel. I also prefer a lower impact method.
I tend to pick some, shoot, pick some, shoot, and on and on. A handgun makes a good shovel, just pick what the bullets bring up.

 

[Rally Hess]

I got lucky last week. Had some time to kill in Ks., so was checking out farm implement and tire shops. Got eighty two pounds of real beefy wheel weights for two dozen of my coyote snares. Couldn't find any zinc nor steel in the whole lot. A win win. He'll have less coyotes and I'll have more bullets.