I've Been Collecting Range Scrap Lead Wrong! 255LBS./30MIN. 

so it's not that you've been doing it wrong, you've just been going to the wrong range

Step 1: Find a range filthy with lead.

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

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.

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.

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.

Please wear at least a dust mask. The amount of lead dust re introduced during sifting is significant. Thanks for cleaning the earth.

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.

nice haul! just think, all those pebbles you take home won't be there next time...

Exactly the way I do it. People saying it looks like mostly rocks have never done this. I promise a 1/2 full Homer bucket will weigh at least 50-60 pounds and you will net about 40 pounds usable lead ingots.

Research drywashing for gold and the gear they use, it may be to your benefit.

Walmart or academy sells these foldable carts you need to get one and you need to make a shaker holder with large wheels and you can just shake it. and if you make it level with your truck sell there you go just slide the buckets off your table to your truck. if you make the table with a screen then you will need a 3/4 inch bottom for your table! Great video thanks for sharing!!

probably a hand dolly at the range office for loading ammo... hope you tried that. save your back! great vid.

Looks like that range has never been cleaned before. You guys got a great deal being able to retrieve the lead for free!

awesome job, but knowing u just had torn ACL SURGERY, your son should of helped u get it into the truck alittle easier

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

haha the ad that came on before this video was an anti-gun commercial. FYI to the page owner.

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 are the range scrap king bro !

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.

If you have water you can use a sluice like gold mining...and you'll get every tiny bit and the dirt comes out clean...you can use a recirculating sluice too if water is short supply.

Nail on the head Brother. "Don't be stupid"... Can you imagine how harmoniously we could all get along? Well, a dose of forgiveness helps to I reckon...

luke: *recording the vid* youtuber: alright im gonna hand the cam over to luke me: wait wtf

Archaeologists use big sifters hanging from a a-frame crossbar held up by four legs. No lifting! The soil can land on a tarp; the waste can be tossed where you won't have to deal with it again. I wonder if hay bales would stop enough to be worthwhile... hay burns!

I've done this at the range i belonged to, and yeah, it was an efficient collection method. But then i found the silhouette range, with the steel bullet traps. The entire width of the traps had a huge buildup of lead in tbe vertex, with practically no jackets, dirt, or rocks. Just some ants, which made smelting interesting😊. I had to leave the area shortly after i found this, so most of it remained untapped.

Truffle shuffle!!!!!!

Get a skid steer with a "Flip Screen" with a 1/4" screen you could get brass and lead really easier.

You can use a pan that is used for panning for gold at the other ranges and get better results also. Dry panning.

Glad to see you guys recycling, just be careful of harmful dust etc. Plus do not hurt yourself again!

not only that but you're also helping to make sure that the lead doesn't get leeched back into the ground :)

09:45 I would recommend you have a 2-wheel cart and use a tie down strap to secure your bucket to the cart - maybe even make it so it'll haul 2 buckets, then mount you a couple PVC tubes to also carry your shovel and a dirt rake for when you're done - so you can easily and quickly rake out your excavation area - wouldn't even look like you've been there when done - and far as the 2-wheel cart; have you a small ramp to be able to wheel it up into the back of your truck!

Country boy prepper sounds like he is prepping for a heart attack. Cardio will serve you better than lead in an emergency situation.

Just wash the lead before melting. Otherwise you're likely to pick up impurities from the soil, even though it will float to the surface. Be sure to dry the lead in the sun for a while if you're going to add it to molten lead, you don't want a steam explosion.

I'm glad ur doing this is good 4u cuz u get ur lead and it isn't in the ground. I don't know if ranges in West Tennessee can be outside like that though because we have artesian wells and that's how about half the state gets its water.... And if they DO let ranges fire lead in the dirt they're not being smart. (I shoot on the military range)

id recommend panning it works well and you'll use less energy for pretty much the same result once you get the hang of panning, and it doesn't really matter what the dirt is like panning just works it's​ very effective

Those shoulder pads sitting outside match perfectly with the style of this video

"When I go to melt it in my melting pot"

Your son is great. love that he is in the vid!

ahhh, a sieve, good idea. I would consider washing the lead, I'm sure the dirt will dissolve, and the sticks and leaves will float to the top, and can be poured off. I imagine giving it a good wash should result in far less dross and scum to get rid of.

They make these thing called wagons. You can get one at your local home depot that can carry that weight.

Great job and sweet haul of lead , unlimited supply cause you got a gun you shoot lead. I'm a fan.

A tip I can give you for lifting that stuff so you dont actually break your back. Lift with your legs if you can. Squat down and pick it up dont just use your back. yeah you'll look goofy as hell but would you rather tear a back or neck muscle or keep yourself safe

might i suggest taking something to try and break down the clumps of dirt while in your sifter 2X4 should work just be aware that if you go pounding on that grate and their is nothing to absorb the impact it will tear your grate out safe travels

If you wanted to be thorough you should take shovel fulls of dirt and a rake and dig a good hole, spread it out, and then run over it with a 40” shop magnet on wheels with a handle. You just run it over it until you picked it all up and then shovel the dirt back up on the mound and move down the dirt berm. You did pickup a lot of lead with your sifter though.

Rather than a flat sifter, use a u shaped shifter on a pole, closed ends, and pull up the hill a few feet at a time, sift and dump. No shovel needed.

Maybe make or get a cart, or a trolley to move it back to the car. Always be careful lifting, preferrably use two people, lift with straight back/bent knees, bad things can happen to your spine or can cause a hernia lifting even what you might consider low weight.

taking the rocks is doing damage to the hill. Now make a second screen with a larger mess and maybe a third with even larger mesh. This way rocks stay and you end up with just more of what your want.

Looks like somebody needs to go to Lowe's, Home Depot or Menards and buy a 2-wheel dolly. I already have one for when I go to the scrapyards to buy lead. I park outside the gate along the road with the truck and go inside with the dolly and buckets. You don't get blocked or boxed in and can get in and right out that way.

you should use a garden rake upside down and scrape it down to bottom then shovel it up

This tells me 2 things. First the previous range isn't making as much money as the one you're going to in this video. Think about the math. The range in this video has to work hard everywhere else to make sure people are happy going there. Therefore, more people go to that range more frequently. They likely don't have the man hours to get excess lead out from the pits. Because more people go to this range, they fire more rounds into the backstops which in turn loosens the dirt and yields more lead. The previous range has hard dirt because few go to it in the first place, the dirt settles in place due to inactivity. This means the previous range has less lead per capita.

I worked at a indoor range, and we pulled a couple tons (no shit like 10000 pounds every 2 or 3 weeks) in our traps, just go find a indoor range and offer them some cash.

You all see how he's bending at the waist to pick up the sifter? That is going to break your back. The only way anyone should lift something is to bend at the knees, keeping their back straight.

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.

Have you tried a metal bucket with drilled to screen bottom on a pole, you can then drag sift... :)

if you look on you tube gardening vids guys have made dollys to haul 2 - 5 gallon buckets it has forks on it just the size of the rim on the 5 gal bucket in your case you might want to make a single bucket sized one useing wheel barrow tires and handles I used one to carry 10 gallon of water to a garden bed 86 pounds of water

just found your channel and this vid! thanks for putting this together. i've been collecting range brass for awhile, but have (like in the past day or two) been starting to collect range lead-- the way you and your son had been doing-- one... piece...at...a...time... i was already thinking about getting/putting together some kind of sifter, but this confirms it! my range has A LOT of sizable rocks, but with a solid shovel i should be able to dig past that to the dirt, then dump the rocks back. two quick questions for you: what size wire mesh did you use for your sifter? and, in your mishap vid, you mentioned selling your 1lb ingots. are you still selling those, and if so, how are you doing it? do you charge the daily spot price for lead? fixed price per pound? either of those + factoring in your labor? -- thanks in advance from Montana!

Went to a local range and used a tennis racket as a sitter. Got 68 lb in 30 min Sweet!

half of a five gallon bucket of range lead is 100lbs approximately give or take a few pounds.

Just a stupid story but.. one day out at the range there was a brush fire and that caught the backstops on fire and they fell down into piles where the targets were... They saved the range buildings. What happened is all the heat melted out all the led into puddles. So later there were pools of led. They had to go out there with an axe to chop it up into movable scraps. DO NOT SET YOUR RANGE ON FIRE TO COLLECT THE LED.. just to cover my ass.. lol

Just here watching the truck start squatting

Couldn't you use a broom and sweep the lead on top into a pile first? (broom for concrete) Then use the process your using second. (i have no clue im just suggesting)

Use a grounds keeper rake so you can get it all in a pile

Anyone else get lead in there pencle like this guy when filling a bucket full of rocks.

That area was a nice find.

Respirator, gloves and proper protective clothing are overrated when you work in a dusty environment loaded with lead fragments 😳😳😳

I know that range!! Been there a few times.

What about the cost of melting the lead? How much does that eat into your margin?

Would it be worth your effort to build a rocker like fossil hunters use to sift dirt?

Subbed, keep America awesome! Thank you!

I'll stick to academy sales adds lol

Good video !Might I give yall a safety tip?Wear some gloves and maybe at least a dust mask if not better....Just saying Peace

350lbs of range scrap. Guesstimate 300lbs of processed lead. Added to the 200lbs of ingots you have on hand. That translates to 63,500, 55gr boolits. Damn, that's a good payoff for what effort you put into your scrap collection.

Good haul! Could you get anything if you sold the lead to a bullet mfg company? Don't know if that would be worthwhile or not. Thanks for the video!

Beautiful man not worth hurting yourself

I been doing this at a recreational shooting spot and everyone is just looking at me like I'm crazy haha (probably due to the fact I'm wearing a respirator and white overalls in temperatures reaching over 100degrees)

A flat straight edged (squared) shovel may work better.

Great video! Subbing your channel. Thanks for your insightful information. I do a lot of black powder shooting. Do you have any special way of removing antimony from over hardened lead?

Its only 10:00 and im here. Its gonna be a long night

As bullets are weighed in grains. How many bullets does that work out to? I started to do the maths and, life is too short, I'm away to watch the BBQ PIT BOYS

Aren't you taking all their stones though?

"This is probably the nicest gun club in my area; it's called *BCKGKEEOCKEBWKJCNRL* "

Bruv, try a metal detecting sand shovel, It's even faster

What size screen did you use to make your sifter?? 1/4' ?? Appreciate the info.

I was wondering what the chances are that you could expose yourself to lead dust and or air born fumes from melting the lead?

They don't let us do this in New York. The range keeps the scrap.

255 pounds converts to about 1.785 million grains. In terms of 150 grain bullets you collected enough to make 11,900 bullets, wow have fun.

Don't fill a 5 gallon bucket, you will regret it.

You should use like a hoe or a cement/gravel rake and just pull it all down into a pile that way you don’t put your siftings back on top of where you want to be scooping from

You have another bucket. Go get it, and split the load.

I need to find a mesh that will capture .22 bullets

What size screen mesh did you use?

You struck lead!

Where is his range located?

They won't let you do that around here

Great video mate

Haha, that's awesome. You need a wagon

You should get your blood checked for lead positioning.

need a hand cranked rotary sifter =p

Just got to be smarter than the thing your working with . hahahaha