Most ranges in my area dont alow this as they use the lead as revenue. Every decade or so there is a company that comes out and mines the berms. Last take I remember hearing was over 300k.
Some lbs will be lost because of scrap, dirt, and rocks, but if it was pure then 255 lbs of pure lead translates to 14,395 9mm 124 grain bullets. Totally worth it.
I love how excited you guys are. Take what you need for a year and do it in one run. OThers will eventually see what you're doing if you do it too often.
Gun Range Owner: "Um sir, why are you taking our rocks?" CountryBoyPrepper: *heavy breathing* "Dis here be pure lead." Gun Range Owner: "Sir I'm going to have to ask you to stop stealing dirt from the traps, we need those to catch the bullets. Thats how gun ranges work." CountryBoyPrepper: *slightly increases speed towards truck perspiring heavily* Gun Range Owner: "Sir?.. Si-" CountryBoyPrepper: "I GON BE READY! YALL SEE! YALL ALL SEE!"
+mage7206 yea, youtube comments continually challenge my belief that 'nobody could be that stupid' but.....then someone else comes along and proves me wrong. So i can see how you weren't sure if he was just another dummy.
kalikasurf :P that and its so hard to tell some jokes through writing due to how we as people talk when telling jokes xD "lost in translation" I guess :3
I'm the last one to be a safety ninny, but lead oxide dust scares me more than smelting. I bet that dry soil is loaded with oxide dust. You really should wear a respirator and gloves.
Theres an air rifle range near where i live in the uk. Each week they clean the range and they usually get 4-500kg of scrap lead. It fills 3-4 wheelbarrows. They sell each for £250 to a company that turns them back into pellets. I cant get any from there however i live near a place named yorkshire where there are hundreds of old lead mines and if you go near them you can find lead ore rocks that weigh close to 100kg. I want to go all around my country one day and get all the metals from different regions. Such as copper from wales, silver from scotland, tin from cornwall, lead from yorkshire, gold from wales and scotland, iron from lancashire and iron from the lake district. Great video man
When you get that lead home, grab a large gold pan and you can get the rocks out ridiculously easy while also washing the lead of dirt. It'll reduce your slag and improve the purity.
Try using a plastic leaf rake first to rake the surface lead into small piles; makes it even quicker! Also a small hand truck for moving the buckets off the range.
Hello: The one thing I got from you video was how you respect the range back stop as a life long bullseye shooter I do the same but never dig out the back stop. Good job for passing it along, sadly I wish more reloaders were like you. Keep up the good work and you have made me proud Thanks
the best solution I've seen for this is using a gold pan, just scratch into the berm with the pan, fill the pan and shake the pan, the heavy lead falls out of the dirt into the bottom of the pan and the lighter rocks and dirt fly out keep doing it until you're full.
just a little bit of quick math... 5 gallon bucket approximately 3/4 full is 3.75 gallons. if you had 75% lead, that would be about 2.8 gallons worth of lead. lead weighs 94.8 lbs per gallon. your bucket would weigh 266 lbs in lead alone. I think you may be overestimating the lead content.
TheKingnathan98 Remember the shape of the lead. It's in deformed bullets, so there's going to be plenty of pore space between them. There's also maybe 10-15% detritus they further reduces the lead content. It's still a good haul.
Buy some scuba weight brick molds. Melt the scrap down and cast scuba weights, then sell to scuba shops. Lead retails about $5 a pound. You can get about $3 a pound.
Compare that to what he'd get out of it if he made bullets and balance the value. I'll bet he'd get quite a bit more than just scrap price for the scuba weights too.
Im just wondering why it took you that long to figure it out? When I read this title I thought your were going to have a better way than the way everyone does it.
CountryBoyPrepper go to Sam's club and buy a collapsible wagon, they hold like 200 lbs I think. Or buy the metal one at home depot, it probably holds more. You'll find them in the gardening section.
Dude.... So awesome! I can't stop watching these. Looks like you're truly having fun and that's what matter man. Who cares if you're aren't a master reloader, keep it up!
Awesome. I would suggest to anyone doing this to wear a decent dust mask, you do not want to be inhaling lead dust. Also face downwind so the dust blows away from you when possible.
Have you tried collecting lead from indoor ranges? That's what I used to do, would walk out with 50-100lb of lead in about 2 minutes. Only lead and paper (from the targets) which I would separate by floating the paper off with a water filled bucket.
No, it actually looked VERY clean. Sure, there are some rocks, but still. Most of the lead will be deformed (depending on hit or miss) and these look EXACTLY like smooth rocks, until you pick one up and feel the weight. They also have a distinct color. New lead is silverish/light gray, old stuff is darker and really old stuff even has a green tint/coating to it.
@@andreyzagoruyko5390 plus, it wouldnt really matter if some are rocks anyway right? Wouldnt they also melt just the same, and be decent enough bullet material?
If you don't mind the suggestions, you're doing it the hard way. Panning, or sleuthing is the best way, but you need to set up tow or three filters, to get rocks and junk. Start with a large wire at the top on a 45' degree angle, then the lead catcher on a 15' decline, then a fine mesh warped form set up on a deeper 45' degree. Attach four legs to hold it all in place. Then attach an orbital sander to the structure. Plug it in. Use a brush to clear away debris.
You need to make yourself a little combination shovel / sifter. Cut out 60% of the blade of a shovel toward the back of the shovel and cover it with hardware cloth. Then just get one shovelful, sift it right in place, and dump the shovelful of lead right into the bucket. Might need to make little "walls" around the back end of the shovel to allow shaking it and sifting the lead.
I was about to say the range I used to work at the guy that would mine the lead and sell it used the grating from a car grill and used a snow shovel he would mine anywhere from 100-200 pounds of lead per day and that was just from the public pistol line that he worked
CountryBoyPrepper Hey, my career in water distribution finally pays off! What you need, and what the above commenter described, is called a "Mud Release Shovel". They're used in trenching for water and sewer lines to remove debris WITHOUT taking water with it. Here is a great example, and you can see how it may really help: www.amazon.com/Mud-Sifting-Square-Shovel-Handle/dp/B006ERODTW Best of luck.
How much does lead sell for? I am surprised the range will let you go to the end of a shooting range, even if it is closed due to insurance and what not.
How much copper do you typically get out of that from the jackets and do you have a method for taking the copper out of your mixture? I know the copper fragments where as the lead just kind of misshapes so it's probably harder to get those smaller pieces but I'm sure you're probably picking a lot of copper up too. I'm not sure how it is where you live but here people go as far as to steal the telephone pole wires just to harvest the copper...lol. I live in the coal fields of West Virginia and it seems like once a month you hear about someone either getting lost of getting killed in abandoned coal mines looking for scrap copper.
You honestly telling me you never once thought of using a sieve to collect small objects from dirt in the two years you were picking the bits up by hand?
Uhh, listen to him. He made that originally but the other 2 ranges he was at were not sifter friendly, probably because the ground was flat and packed and the lead was laying on top.
+Chris Murff and all for about $120 once you take off all your costs smelting ect. Based on 0.40cent a pound. this is waste of the mans effort and determination of witch he clearly has plenty.
+Chris Murff casting it back into bullets is just as big a waste of time when you think how cheap and plentiful they are. The guy should use his time more productively. Yes everyone should no how to do it but no one needs to make 5000+ rounds.
one it is fun, I enjoy it, and 2 why don't I need 5,000 rounds? if I shoot a lot [I have dreams of going to the Olympics as a shooter one day] then having thousands of rounds extra will be nice
Did you consider the variables: >The new range is untapped by you or other scrap collectors, >The new range may have more frequent shooters, >Easy to sift dirt just increases speed, not yield, >The steel targets account for a higher yield, >The type and amount of rocks between ranges can directly affect the gross weight being measured, >The range you visit is specifically a pistol range, with limited spread of lead, and the steel targets help force general directions for collection. THIS IS NOT HATE IN ANY WAY!!! I appreciate the video, and I have liked and subscribed! Just wondering how strictly "Scientific Method" you guys went, or if it was just a direct comparison of gross yield at different ranges. Thank you for the video!
That is great, the old range I shot at as a kid would have a company come on Sundays and collect buckets of the stuff. It was an indoor range so it was a lot easier.....this is a very smart idea.
I used to pick up range scrap in sacramento ca. at several indoor ranges. in the 80's. the company I worked for added linotype and made bullets. alot of the scrap we picked up were our own cast bullets, so once in a while we would have to add less type.
+Specter0420 I know I want him to see if there's a way he can select not to show their ads. I'm Very pro gun and I'm sure the page owner is as well trying to help him get rid of a bad ad
Quick question: when you melt down the scrap bullets, do you throw in the jacketed bullets as well? I guess as long as the base is exposed lead, it will melt out too, right? Then you can separate the copper?
It is a lot cheaper. Dollar per dollar, you can have 5-10x more ammo by handloading versus buying it at the store. Not to mention for some calibers like 40&W, they are underloaded from the factory far below pressure limits. You can get almost 20% more energy loading a full power with handloads, and better accuracy and reliability. The only way handloading will not be worth your time, is if you are paid $30 per hour or more at your job and you could be working during that time.
I agree. It’s nice to have the option, but isn’t scrap lead under $1/lb? Several hours digging, sifting, sorting, melting, cleaning, etc just to save even $2/lb (Cabelas prices) seems crazy to me.
Damien Gregory It takes about 10min to collect 100lb of lead. It takes $1-3 in propane to melt it and 3 hours of actual time (the melt time you can leave to do other stuff) to sift out the jackets and pour the ingots. You would have to be paid basically $30 per hour to make it worth buying over processing scrap. The more involved your processing setup is, you can even get to the point of processing 1 ton of scrap at a time at industrial level efficiency (I haven't gotten to that point but I'm getting close to considering it) The copper scrap can also be sold for about $3-6 per pound to metal working hobbyists on ebay as well, or melted down for your own projects. So there is savings/profit to be had there too.
I'm thinking of spending a few hours, in the good summer evenings, in an old disused army butt stop, that I helped build, in 1977, to salvage the range lead. I'm wondering, how much lead is to be found in my old Bn range, which has been used since the Boer war, there's an awful lot of lead and copper there.
I really feel as a reloader and gun enthusiast over the year or two my range trips come to me bringing more and more gear instead of just ammo, gun, mags, and safety equipment. What size poultry wire/gardening mesh did you use?
@countryboyprepper I have watch your reloading videos about 300 times all of them. I have like them all and I am subscribed to your channel, and Today I decided to go out to my public range and started to collect shells,. anything that I could find and I will start making my wooden grill like yours to start picking up some led. Thank you for all the work and the kindness of yours to share your methods of reloading.
If you use a square point shovel and a hard tooth rake and level out after you finish it'll look better than when you started. Just take a couple of inches of dirt and replace it after you sift it and you'll get nearly all of what is in that soil.
Saving money and recycling. Thanks for sharing... might want to watch inhaling any of that that dust though. Disposable gloves might not be a bad idea either. Heh, good exercise too.
Build a frame for your tray to lift it off the ground. That way a lot of dirt will sift through as you shovel it in. Then you can just shovel it back to the berm, which is easier work than shaking a heavy tray. I'm fortunate enough that the range I collect from in my part of Australia has been open since before WWI. On the older berms you have to dig through the lead to find dirt. And no one collects it here. Pistol ranges are best, as you've discovered. The projectiles don't penetrate into the soil like rifles do. I only use range scrap for my .45-70 and I have more than I could probably ever shoot in my life time. I'm more interested in getting pure lead which I'll use to cast for muzzle loading and perhaps a subsonic .300 Blackout down the track. Jacketed .30 cals that expand at low velocity are few and far between, and pricey. A local company here makes a 235gn mould specifically for the Blackout. It has a flat nose which I'll drill out and make into hollowpoints. Anyways, not sure if you still use lead flashing for roof construction over there, but I get a heap of pure lead from roofers. Off cuts, mostly, but when they do replacements, you can get entire sheets that roll up nicely. I've had them so long that the finished diameter of the roll wouldn't fit in one of your buckets. It's a source worth checking out. Anyways, great vid and good to see you having such success. I love smelting and casting as much as I love shooting the finished product.
+CountryBoyPrepper you're doing the range a service by removing. it lowers the cleanup cost. it reduces the chances of ricochet. Just get with the owner(s) and do a scheduling of small area shut down. you could try getting a larger vibratory table with progressively larger sifting surfaces.
Put the sieve on blocks when shoveling in the dirt, and a lot the dirt will drop through as you shovel. Saves your back from lifting and shaking. You should have some water to settle the dust. I would suggest a respirator, and a rain suit or coveralls you can remove and toss into the back of the truck to reduce exposure to lead dust. Washing the scrap with water to remove the clay will save a lot of skimming when you melt it.
Not trying to be a troll or safety Nazi but are you concerned about lead exposure? Not just picking through it and handling it with your bare hands but the thing I would be most concerned with is breathing lead dust. Shooting those steel targets surely pulverizes some of the lead. When you're sifting it, you're breathing some of the lead dust. I'm the farthest thing from an expert but it can't be good to breath lead-contaminated dust. Like I said, not trying to ruffle feathers just one dude looking out for another.
touching it will do nothing. and pulverized lead when shooting steal won't make it into a powered enough to be inhaled but the dirt shifting lead could probably do harm due to lead contaminating the dirt around it when it rains.
fall22123 lead oxide is what you need to be afraid of, and lead vapor when smelting, elemental lead isnt going get you. ive been shooting and casting for years, handling lead with my bare hands. and my lead levels were nill
ever tried "dry panning"? like panning for good except with led and your doing it without water. But anything smaller than a buck shot may or may be lost unless you decide to use water.
could you use a magnet and get them? i read that lead doesnt react that much but if you got a strong enough one...just wave it over and you get the lead only?
you could make the sifter as a slanted table , shovel the dirt on at the top and while it rolls down the dirt sifts out automaticly , prolly can set it up over the bern while shoveling in the dirt from next to it put a flat funnel on the bottom and set a bucket under it to catch whats rolling of the screen the big blocks of dirt still be in it but you only be lifting the bucket at the end and the weight of the dirt by the shovelload , you prolly can sift that by using a screen that is the size of the bullets but smaller than the clumps of dirt takes a bit to set up but you prolly need to take a hand drawn wagon with you anyway to move the lead off the range think the amound of lead you get out of the range will drop after the first few sifts as the lead prolly been sitting in the berm from a few years of target practice
Everything is magnetic to some degree. For an electromagnet you need a power source all the time, otherwise it is not a magnet. And given how weakly lead interacts with magnetic fields, you would need close to MW power. Those kinds of electromagnets you seen in particle accelerators etc. I bet it would not be a viable option to use something like that to pick up lead scraps.
Put a ramp leading up to the flatbed of the truck. 1. Shovel the lead on a wheelbarrow. 2. Drive the wheelbarrow on top of the flatbed. 3. Empty the contents of the wheelbarrow onto the tarp covered flatbed. 4. Rinse and repeat. Test how much lead you can safely transport with the wheelbarrow up the ramp and adjust your trips as needed.
Im a member of a local gun club and the treasurer kept asking me for a couple weeks to mine the lead so i went in and got 121 pounds in 2 hours. The only reason it took 2 hours is because i stopped for a little bit then went back and i was trying to clean the pit and be thorough about removing the lead. They want me to keep doing it but buying respirators gets a little expensive because i buy the ones that use cartridges and specifically the ones rated for lead dust. They expire after 40 hours of use or 30 days after opening What do you do with the jackets?
Copper jackets that float to the top are skimmed off and washed with garden hose in a strainer. I lay it out on a towel to air dry in the sun. With the lead removed and the dirt washed off you get good money selling back the copper jackets to the scrapyard. It pays for my LP and makes it free along with extra money to buy more reloading and casting equipment and supplies.
so it's not that you've been doing it wrong, you've just been going to the wrong range
yup
True
I was gonna say the same
There's lead in them there hills.
What about oil? 🦅🇺🇸
Step 1: Find a range filthy with lead.
Any state job range will do
Problem 1: Guns are banned in my country.
I say ban people.
MoPro Uploads That doesn't sound too good.
No, Step 1 is find a range where nobody's shooting!
1 minute in - "why am I watching this?"
5 minutes in - "why am I still watching this?"
Why watch it???? U bought ammo lately??
@@therealrobbdee672 it’s getting worse
@@tavindehart1941 ur telling me! I've been strapped as is... can't even afford to procure any overpriced mutions rn
Most ranges in my area dont alow this as they use the lead as revenue. Every decade or so there is a company that comes out and mines the berms. Last take I remember hearing was over 300k.
Doesn't want to hurt himself, lifts with back.
Some lbs will be lost because of scrap, dirt, and rocks, but if it was pure then 255 lbs of pure lead translates to 14,395 9mm 124 grain bullets. Totally worth it.
I love how excited you guys are. Take what you need for a year and do it in one run. OThers will eventually see what you're doing if you do it too often.
Gun Range Owner: "Um sir, why are you taking our rocks?"
CountryBoyPrepper: *heavy breathing* "Dis here be pure lead."
Gun Range Owner: "Sir I'm going to have to ask you to stop stealing dirt from the traps, we need those to catch the bullets. Thats how gun ranges work."
CountryBoyPrepper: *slightly increases speed towards truck perspiring heavily*
Gun Range Owner: "Sir?.. Si-"
CountryBoyPrepper: "I GON BE READY! YALL SEE! YALL ALL SEE!"
You forgot to add in "I KNOW MY RIGHTS!"
'MERICA its a free country boyy
Jacob Myler I just bout choked on my biskits and musterd.ummmhmmm
Jacob Myler fuck off
Connor Lenhardt issa joke
I use a a strong magnet. Haven't found anything yet but it's easy to use.
Well lead doesn't stick to magnets so you won't find any lead doing that.
+mage7206 you took the bait on that? I guess his magnet DOES work!!
kalikasurf After reading more than 30+ comments of people saying to use a magnet its hard to tell who is actually serious anymore.
+mage7206 yea, youtube comments continually challenge my belief that 'nobody could be that stupid' but.....then someone else comes along and proves me wrong. So i can see how you weren't sure if he was just another dummy.
kalikasurf :P that and its so hard to tell some jokes through writing due to how we as people talk when telling jokes xD "lost in translation" I guess :3
I'm the last one to be a safety ninny, but lead oxide dust scares me more than smelting. I bet that dry soil is loaded with oxide dust. You really should wear a respirator and gloves.
Theres an air rifle range near where i live in the uk. Each week they clean the range and they usually get 4-500kg of scrap lead. It fills 3-4 wheelbarrows. They sell each for £250 to a company that turns them back into pellets. I cant get any from there however i live near a place named yorkshire where there are hundreds of old lead mines and if you go near them you can find lead ore rocks that weigh close to 100kg. I want to go all around my country one day and get all the metals from different regions. Such as copper from wales, silver from scotland, tin from cornwall, lead from yorkshire, gold from wales and scotland, iron from lancashire and iron from the lake district. Great video man
Having never done it, naturally I feel entitled to give instruction: I’d use a flat nose shovel.
One of those big barn shitty hay shovels!
Metal snow shovel lol
You ever tried digging with a flat nosed shovel? Don’t work out that well!
Me , never done it but have advise. Bring a rake to resurface the berm face so you are certain not to leave any divots .
@@Dryphu"he gone done break his back doin that"
~ somebody
Lead is heavy!
When you get that lead home, grab a large gold pan and you can get the rocks out ridiculously easy while also washing the lead of dirt. It'll reduce your slag and improve the purity.
You might try directly under the steel targets. They deflect the lead straight down. Good vid.
True but it’s usually dust at that point
Try using a plastic leaf rake first to rake the surface lead into small piles; makes it even quicker! Also a small hand truck for moving the buckets off the range.
Hello: The one thing I got from you video was how you respect the range back stop as a life long bullseye shooter I do the same but never dig out the back stop. Good job for passing it along, sadly I wish more reloaders were like you. Keep up the good work and you have made me proud Thanks
remember kids for maximum lifting power, always exclusively use your back
Couldn't you scoop with the sifter?
the best solution I've seen for this is using a gold pan, just scratch into the berm with the pan, fill the pan and shake the pan, the heavy lead falls out of the dirt into the bottom of the pan and the lighter rocks and dirt fly out keep doing it until you're full.
OH FOR FUCK SAKE LIFT WITH YOUR KNEES!!
NO!!! GET SOMEONE TO LIFT IT FOR YOU lol jk
This video personally taught me how to dig! Thanks again buddy!👍Because of you I got 900 lbs of usable ingots from that method!
just a little bit of quick math... 5 gallon bucket approximately 3/4 full is 3.75 gallons. if you had 75% lead, that would be about 2.8 gallons worth of lead. lead weighs 94.8 lbs per gallon. your bucket would weigh 266 lbs in lead alone. I think you may be overestimating the lead content.
TheKingnathan98 Remember the shape of the lead. It's in deformed bullets, so there's going to be plenty of pore space between them. There's also maybe 10-15% detritus they further reduces the lead content.
It's still a good haul.
I’d say maybe about 50% lead per bucket max
TheKingnathan98 2+2 is 4 - 1 thats 3 quick maths
your nans toaster Sauce?
who gives a crap,,,, least he is recycling so who gives a rats azz exactly how much it really weights,,, he is doing a great thing
Use a dolley with air up tires. I moved 350 pound stuff in dirt before and it moved quite nicely.
Buy some scuba weight brick molds. Melt the scrap down and cast scuba weights, then sell to scuba shops. Lead retails about $5 a pound. You can get about $3 a pound.
Compare that to what he'd get out of it if he made bullets and balance the value. I'll bet he'd get quite a bit more than just scrap price for the scuba weights too.
Im just wondering why it took you that long to figure it out? When I read this title I thought your were going to have a better way than the way everyone does it.
marko2118 im just wondering why you ignored him say he's had the sifter but but wasn't able to use it before
you should get a utility cart to hold the buckets
+imthatsmell7 That is a great idea! I need a dolly.
CountryBoyPrepper go to Sam's club and buy a collapsible wagon, they hold like 200 lbs I think. Or buy the metal one at home depot, it probably holds more. You'll find them in the gardening section.
25 dollar dolly from harbor freight will haul a bucket all day
Dude.... So awesome! I can't stop watching these. Looks like you're truly having fun and that's what matter man. Who cares if you're aren't a master reloader, keep it up!
Awesome. I would suggest to anyone doing this to wear a decent dust mask, you do not want to be inhaling lead dust. Also face downwind so the dust blows away from you when possible.
and other people and there kids...
Have you tried collecting lead from indoor ranges? That's what I used to do, would walk out with 50-100lb of lead in about 2 minutes. Only lead and paper (from the targets) which I would separate by floating the paper off with a water filled bucket.
i just bought mine from an indoor gun range for 25 cents/pound. theres no outdoor ranges like that near me
I highly recommend wearing a DUST MASK when digging around lead or any heavy metals. thanks for all your videos.
Bubba doesn’t care …. Cleans up the gene pool
that second load looked more like 80-90 percent rocks
WCGwkf It probably is, but some of the lead is deformed from hitting the steel
No, it actually looked VERY clean. Sure, there are some rocks, but still. Most of the lead will be deformed (depending on hit or miss) and these look EXACTLY like smooth rocks, until you pick one up and feel the weight. They also have a distinct color. New lead is silverish/light gray, old stuff is darker and really old stuff even has a green tint/coating to it.
@@andreyzagoruyko5390 plus, it wouldnt really matter if some are rocks anyway right? Wouldnt they also melt just the same, and be decent enough bullet material?
Stargun5502 No, the rocks would not melt if thats what you mean. They wouldnt melt and could be easily removed from the top of molten lead.
@@capper6100 ah gotcha, neat, i havent loaded any ammo in my life, but i plan to get into it, so i've been wondering on it.
If you don't mind the suggestions, you're doing it the hard way.
Panning, or sleuthing is the best way, but you need to set up tow or three filters, to get rocks and junk. Start with a large wire at the top on a 45' degree angle, then the lead catcher on a 15' decline, then a fine mesh warped form set up on a deeper 45' degree. Attach four legs to hold it all in place. Then attach an orbital sander to the structure. Plug it in. Use a brush to clear away debris.
Glad you found a better range. Take care not to lift too much. You're helping wildlife and the environment too collecting all the lead!
What exactly are you prepping for?
Research drywashing for gold and the gear they use, it may be to your benefit.
In scrapping the casings, you have to separate the brass off. Is it worth it?
You need to make yourself a little combination shovel / sifter. Cut out 60% of the blade of a shovel toward the back of the shovel and cover it with hardware cloth. Then just get one shovelful, sift it right in place, and dump the shovelful of lead right into the bucket. Might need to make little "walls" around the back end of the shovel to allow shaking it and sifting the lead.
+J DeWitt DIY That's an interesting idea! Have you ever tried it?
+CountryBoyPrepper I've not tried it. The idea just came to me while watching your video. But I will definitely be trying it when I get a chance!
I was about to say the range I used to work at the guy that would mine the lead and sell it used the grating from a car grill and used a snow shovel he would mine anywhere from 100-200 pounds of lead per day and that was just from the public pistol line that he worked
CountryBoyPrepper Hey, my career in water distribution finally pays off! What you need, and what the above commenter described, is called a "Mud Release Shovel". They're used in trenching for water and sewer lines to remove debris WITHOUT taking water with it.
Here is a great example, and you can see how it may really help:
www.amazon.com/Mud-Sifting-Square-Shovel-Handle/dp/B006ERODTW
Best of luck.
How much does lead sell for?
I am surprised the range will let you go to the end of a shooting range, even if it is closed due to insurance and what not.
Please wear at least a dust mask. The amount of lead dust re introduced during sifting is significant. Thanks for cleaning the earth.
William Dawson it’s actually going right back into the earth at sometime lol, he’s not getting the lead to keep in a jar he’s remaking bullets
How much copper do you typically get out of that from the jackets and do you have a method for taking the copper out of your mixture? I know the copper fragments where as the lead just kind of misshapes so it's probably harder to get those smaller pieces but I'm sure you're probably picking a lot of copper up too. I'm not sure how it is where you live but here people go as far as to steal the telephone pole wires just to harvest the copper...lol. I live in the coal fields of West Virginia and it seems like once a month you hear about someone either getting lost of getting killed in abandoned coal mines looking for scrap copper.
You honestly telling me you never once thought of using a sieve to collect small objects from dirt in the two years you were picking the bits up by hand?
Uhh, listen to him. He made that originally but the other 2 ranges he was at were not sifter friendly, probably because the ground was flat and packed and the lead was laying on top.
+Chris Murff and all for about $120 once you take off all your costs smelting ect. Based on 0.40cent a pound. this is waste of the mans effort and determination of witch he clearly has plenty.
+Aaron Jay was he trying to make money? i thought he was using it to make stuff and eventually his own ammo
+Chris Murff casting it back into bullets is just as big a waste of time when you think how cheap and plentiful they are. The guy should use his time more productively. Yes everyone should no how to do it but no one needs to make 5000+ rounds.
one it is fun, I enjoy it, and 2 why don't I need 5,000 rounds? if I shoot a lot [I have dreams of going to the Olympics as a shooter one day] then having thousands of rounds extra will be nice
Great idea! Have you thought of putting a couple legs on the long sides to support the weight while sifting?
You are the range scrap king bro !
+Theredneck Prepper LOL!
hey man i couldn't hear the club name someone in the back round was taking a line of coke.
Did you consider the variables:
>The new range is untapped by you or other scrap collectors,
>The new range may have more frequent shooters,
>Easy to sift dirt just increases speed, not yield,
>The steel targets account for a higher yield,
>The type and amount of rocks between ranges can directly affect the gross weight being measured,
>The range you visit is specifically a pistol range, with limited spread of lead,
and the steel targets help force general directions for collection.
THIS IS NOT HATE IN ANY WAY!!! I appreciate the video, and I have liked and subscribed! Just wondering how strictly "Scientific Method" you guys went, or if it was just a direct comparison of gross yield at different ranges. Thank you for the video!
That is great, the old range I shot at as a kid would have a company come on Sundays and collect buckets of the stuff.
It was an indoor range so it was a lot easier.....this is a very smart idea.
same as you would pan for gold rocker little shift it out for you to have these go to the bottom just wear a dust mask
I used to pick up range scrap in sacramento ca. at several indoor ranges. in the 80's. the company I worked for added linotype and made bullets. alot of the scrap we picked up were our own cast bullets, so once in a while we would have to add less type.
Man, oh man!,you got some lead out today brother,love your video's on saving ton's of cash on reloading too!,keep up the great work,I love it!!!...
haha the ad that came on before this video was an anti-gun commercial. FYI to the page owner.
adblock will stop all that add watching bullshit
The more people you tell about that the faster it won't work anymore.
+Specter0420 I know I want him to see if there's a way he can select not to show their ads. I'm
Very pro gun and I'm sure the page owner is as well trying to help him get rid of a bad ad
Do you know what FYI means?
+NoWinIntended For Your Information.
I was letting him know. For his information
Quick question: when you melt down the scrap bullets, do you throw in the jacketed bullets as well? I guess as long as the base is exposed lead, it will melt out too, right? Then you can separate the copper?
Never understood doing this. I always just buy more ammo because I'm very very lazy
It is a lot cheaper. Dollar per dollar, you can have 5-10x more ammo by handloading versus buying it at the store. Not to mention for some calibers like 40&W, they are underloaded from the factory far below pressure limits. You can get almost 20% more energy loading a full power with handloads, and better accuracy and reliability. The only way handloading will not be worth your time, is if you are paid $30 per hour or more at your job and you could be working during that time.
I agree. It’s nice to have the option, but isn’t scrap lead under $1/lb? Several hours digging, sifting, sorting, melting, cleaning, etc just to save even $2/lb (Cabelas prices) seems crazy to me.
Damien Gregory It takes about 10min to collect 100lb of lead. It takes $1-3 in propane to melt it and 3 hours of actual time (the melt time you can leave to do other stuff) to sift out the jackets and pour the ingots.
You would have to be paid basically $30 per hour to make it worth buying over processing scrap. The more involved your processing setup is, you can even get to the point of processing 1 ton of scrap at a time at industrial level efficiency (I haven't gotten to that point but I'm getting close to considering it)
The copper scrap can also be sold for about $3-6 per pound to metal working hobbyists on ebay as well, or melted down for your own projects. So there is savings/profit to be had there too.
The calibers I shoot regularly are pretty cheap
It looks like you coukd use smaller buckets (2 1/2 or 3 gallon) and a wagon. Do you bring the rocks and dirt clods back?
nice haul! just think, all those pebbles you take home won't be there next time...
True, but the rocks in your head will be there forever.
@@RobertMorgan5 years later and I’m dying from this comment
so what happens to the copper jackets when u melt down the buckets of collected lead
That's cool. Do a video on processing this! Look into a sluice box.
What was the actual weight of lead you got out of that ~350lbs of range salvage? I'm very curious what ratio of gravel etc...
Curious as well looking into the buckets and shifter I see way more rocks then I do jacketed lead rounds or lead rounds themselves
was this not kind of obvious...
paxfullseller -skoldmf and he has a torn muscle too
Common sense is not something everyone has
I'm thinking of spending a few hours, in the good summer evenings, in an old disused army butt stop, that I helped build, in 1977, to salvage the range lead. I'm wondering, how much lead is to be found in my old Bn range, which has been used since the Boer war, there's an awful lot of lead and copper there.
i do hope you guys got one of those radio flyer wagons after this video.
I need to get a dolly.
wagon with bottom cut out and screen put in, sifter on wheels
I really feel as a reloader and gun enthusiast over the year or two my range trips come to me bringing more and more gear instead of just ammo, gun, mags, and safety equipment. What size poultry wire/gardening mesh did you use?
awesome job, but knowing u just had torn ACL SURGERY, your son should of helped u get it into the truck alittle easier
@countryboyprepper I have watch your reloading videos about 300 times all of them. I have like them all and I am subscribed to your channel, and Today I decided to go out to my public range and started to collect shells,. anything that I could find and I will start making my wooden grill like yours to start picking up some led. Thank you for all the work and the kindness of yours to share your methods of reloading.
probably a hand dolly at the range office for loading ammo... hope you tried that. save your back!
great vid.
If you use a square point shovel and a hard tooth rake and level out after you finish it'll look better than when you started. Just take a couple of inches of dirt and replace it after you sift it and you'll get nearly all of what is in that soil.
listening to him breath makes me feel heavy lol
75-80% led! no way! atleast half that shit is rocks!
Saving money and recycling. Thanks for sharing... might want to watch inhaling any of that that dust though. Disposable gloves might not be a bad idea either. Heh, good exercise too.
I've called 4 or 5 ranges in my area. Non will allow me to gather range scrap?? How did you get them to let you do it? What can I do differently?
Can you make a video melting down buckets like that, I think its at least 60% rock
Build a frame for your tray to lift it off the ground. That way a lot of dirt will sift through as you shovel it in. Then you can just shovel it back to the berm, which is easier work than shaking a heavy tray.
I'm fortunate enough that the range I collect from in my part of Australia has been open since before WWI. On the older berms you have to dig through the lead to find dirt. And no one collects it here.
Pistol ranges are best, as you've discovered. The projectiles don't penetrate into the soil like rifles do.
I only use range scrap for my .45-70 and I have more than I could probably ever shoot in my life time. I'm more interested in getting pure lead which I'll use to cast for muzzle loading and perhaps a subsonic .300 Blackout down the track.
Jacketed .30 cals that expand at low velocity are few and far between, and pricey. A local company here makes a 235gn mould specifically for the Blackout. It has a flat nose which I'll drill out and make into hollowpoints.
Anyways, not sure if you still use lead flashing for roof construction over there, but I get a heap of pure lead from roofers. Off cuts, mostly, but when they do replacements, you can get entire sheets that roll up nicely. I've had them so long that the finished diameter of the roll wouldn't fit in one of your buckets. It's a source worth checking out.
Anyways, great vid and good to see you having such success. I love smelting and casting as much as I love shooting the finished product.
You found the mother load! Awesome man!
+TRprepper Thanks!
+CountryBoyPrepper you're doing the range a service by removing. it lowers the cleanup cost. it reduces the chances of ricochet. Just get with the owner(s) and do a scheduling of small area shut down. you could try getting a larger vibratory table with progressively larger sifting surfaces.
Quick question, what do you do with all of the copper that is left over?
Work smarter not harder..good thinking..
Need a dolly.
Put the sieve on blocks when shoveling in the dirt, and a lot the dirt will drop through as you shovel. Saves your back from lifting and shaking. You should have some water to settle the dust. I would suggest a respirator, and a rain suit or coveralls you can remove and toss into the back of the truck to reduce exposure to lead dust. Washing the scrap with water to remove the clay will save a lot of skimming when you melt it.
Not trying to be a troll or safety Nazi but are you concerned about lead exposure? Not just picking through it and handling it with your bare hands but the thing I would be most concerned with is breathing lead dust. Shooting those steel targets surely pulverizes some of the lead. When you're sifting it, you're breathing some of the lead dust. I'm the farthest thing from an expert but it can't be good to breath lead-contaminated dust. Like I said, not trying to ruffle feathers just one dude looking out for another.
kinda makes sense, right ?
fall22123 and getting it all over his clothes, in his car, back home.... get your lead levels checked.
This. "Preps" for the future. Ignores the present. Doesn't look like he values his health anyway though.
touching it will do nothing. and pulverized lead when shooting steal won't make it into a powered enough to be inhaled but the dirt shifting lead could probably do harm due to lead contaminating the dirt around it when it rains.
fall22123 lead oxide is what you need to be afraid of, and lead vapor when smelting, elemental lead isnt going get you. ive been shooting and casting for years, handling lead with my bare hands. and my lead levels were nill
ever tried "dry panning"? like panning for good except with led and your doing it without water. But anything smaller than a buck shot may or may be lost unless you decide to use water.
I like how you are a hero to your son! It's a great thing when this happens!
could you use a magnet and get them? i read that lead doesnt react that much but if you got a strong enough one...just wave it over and you get the lead only?
🤡
"When I go to melt it in my melting pot"
Crazyhogrider 195 MuH
DICK
Do you recycle the copper portion as well?
still doing it wrong. Get a rake, and rake the top 1 inch of dirt down off that bank.... then shovel up your pile.
you could make the sifter as a slanted table , shovel the dirt on at the top and while it rolls down the dirt sifts out automaticly , prolly can set it up over the bern while shoveling in the dirt from next to it
put a flat funnel on the bottom and set a bucket under it to catch whats rolling of the screen
the big blocks of dirt still be in it but you only be lifting the bucket at the end and the weight of the dirt by the shovelload , you prolly can sift that by using a screen that is the size of the bullets but smaller than the clumps of dirt
takes a bit to set up but you prolly need to take a hand drawn wagon with you anyway to move the lead off the range
think the amound of lead you get out of the range will drop after the first few sifts as the lead prolly been sitting in the berm from a few years of target practice
Use an wide flat electro magnet powered by an atv's alternator/battery while mounted. it'll take you five minutes
You use a magnet to pick up lead?
+Kainen Mattison lead isn't magnetic lol
it is weakly magnetic, but still magnetic, which is why you need a power source
Everything is magnetic to some degree. For an electromagnet you need a power source all the time, otherwise it is not a magnet. And given how weakly lead interacts with magnetic fields, you would need close to MW power. Those kinds of electromagnets you seen in particle accelerators etc. I bet it would not be a viable option to use something like that to pick up lead scraps.
Yup,get a lead magnet,the greenies will sell you one
Nice set up..what's the size of the mesh on your hardware cloth
Panning it is more efficient than sieving it.
Sieve it first then pan it.
You've obviously never done this and yes I've seen Cody's video.
what value is it to collect range led? i get to recycle it, but what about $$
I think you should ware a mask to protect yourself from the lead dust.
How do you separate rocks from the lead?
lol he bleeps out the name, but he's wearing there shirt....
That looked like a 4H Rifle Team shirt.
It is lol. I'm a volunteer.
Put a ramp leading up to the flatbed of the truck.
1. Shovel the lead on a wheelbarrow.
2. Drive the wheelbarrow on top of the flatbed.
3. Empty the contents of the wheelbarrow onto the tarp covered flatbed.
4. Rinse and repeat.
Test how much lead you can safely transport with the wheelbarrow up the ramp and adjust your trips as needed.
Preppers gold!!!
What size screen did you use to make your sifter?? 1/4' ?? Appreciate the info.
That's pretty neat. Does the range care if you do that?>
I have permission. He's a friend.
cool
CountryBoyPrepper Do you think that if I asked to do that at a range they would let me?
Dragonspeaks just keep asking, you'll probably find one that'll let you.
***** First range I asked let me and my buddies do this....
what do you do with the led?
First rule of gun club... :-)
Im a member of a local gun club and the treasurer kept asking me for a couple weeks to mine the lead so i went in and got 121 pounds in 2 hours. The only reason it took 2 hours is because i stopped for a little bit then went back and i was trying to clean the pit and be thorough about removing the lead. They want me to keep doing it but buying respirators gets a little expensive because i buy the ones that use cartridges and specifically the ones rated for lead dust. They expire after 40 hours of use or 30 days after opening What do you do with the jackets?
Copper jackets that float to the top are skimmed off and washed with garden hose in a strainer. I lay it out on a towel to air dry in the sun. With the lead removed and the dirt washed off you get good money selling back the copper jackets to the scrapyard. It pays for my LP and makes it free along with extra money to buy more reloading and casting equipment and supplies.
Truffle shuffle!!!!!!
Omg. Goonies!!
he better watch out for that lead dust.. its basically a Boobie Twap!
would there really be lead dust? I mean it has settled and I don't think bullets are really dusty
The Reeper Youre not a Goonie.. you wouldnt understand.
So do you sell the ingots? Or do you make bullets?
Need a particulate mask. There's loads of lead dust in that dirt....
What about the cost of melting the lead? How much does that eat into your margin?