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Shooting Range Lead Recovery


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Our shooting club's outdoor range is planning on recovery/recycling of the lead/copper bullet residue in our berms. We don't have a shotgun range so no lead shot recovery possible. We are looking for any experience or advice with contractors who do this work. 

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Brother-in-law and I showed up at a gunclub at the break of dawn. We went to pistol range and dug up several hundred pounds of scrap.  We used a frame with expanded metal (gutter leaf guards,  as I remember) We got a wash tub and buckets full.  I melted it down in a large cast iron kittle.  Still have most of it. 

 

I still clean out my bullet traps. And I can't help picking up wheel weights.  Been know to pick up lead at cowboy shooting ranges when we went over to setup.

 

5aa7fe6457038_Lead3March2018.jpg.92e64191920711dc10961e2b74647087.jpg

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47 minutes ago, Warden Callaway said:

Brother-in-law and I showed up at a gunclub at the break of dawn. We went to pistol range and dug up several hundred pounds of scrap.  We used a frame with expanded metal (gutter leaf guards,  as I remember) We got a wash tub and buckets full.  I melted it down in a large cast iron kittle.  Still have most of it. 

 

I still clean out my bullet traps. And I can't help picking up wheel weights.  Been know to pick up lead at cowboy shooting ranges when we went over to setup.

 

5aa7fe6457038_Lead3March2018.jpg.92e64191920711dc10961e2b74647087.jpg

 

 

Ya' just never know what's been 'cooked' in that bargain cast iron skillet you just picked up at a local garage sale do you. 

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5 hours ago, Warden Callaway said:

Brother-in-law and I showed up at a gunclub at the break of dawn. We went to pistol range and dug up several hundred pounds of scrap.  We used a frame with expanded metal (gutter leaf guards,  as I remember) We got a wash tub and buckets full.  I melted it down in a large cast iron kittle.  Still have most of it. 

 

I still clean out my bullet traps. And I can't help picking up wheel weights.  Been know to pick up lead at cowboy shooting ranges when we went over to setup.

 

5aa7fe6457038_Lead3March2018.jpg.92e64191920711dc10961e2b74647087.jpg

When I first started shooting, I met a guy who did a LOT of reloading. He would go to the local outdoor range with a rake about once a month and just rake out hundreds of fired bullets. He's melt them down, cast his bullets, load them up, and sell them at the range. 

And to answer Father Kit Cool Gun Garth's question, most bullets, at least handgun bullets, penetrate about a foot into plain dirt.  

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our experience here was that you can hire cheap or you can hire experienced , the latter is more costly but way more efficient and in the end quicker , we removed over a million pounds of lead from our trap/skeet range , we have not touched the rifle pistol range yet , the cost of removal and handling is a bit over half the value but you can do the math - even if it would be 3.4 of the value it probably is worth removing all liability from your club , just my 2 bits and having lived through it , i stand by it , 

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A fellow I know claimed he did it, but he still had sand in the mix after he melted it.

I thought that was unlikely, as I always skimmed off impurities when I used to cast my own, but I've never tried to process range salvaged lead myself.

Comments anyone??

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Our range had lead abatement done several years ago.

Company

https://mt2.com/outdoor-shooting-range-services/

 

The company did an excellent job. I have asked the president to send me info on project so I could send it out.

They also arrange for sale of reclaimed lead splitting sale price with range.

Full tracking uncase EPA ever gets involved with your range.

Also berms were fully restored at completion of job- we only had to reinstall our backstops for targets.

 

 

Jim Brown

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