I have a chance to get a couple hundred pounds of reclaimed shot and was wondering if anyone has melted this down for cast rifle and/or pistol bullets and if they did what were the results?

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Semper FI

It works pretty well but won't be the hardest alloy around. Most reclaimed shot is from the cheapest of shotshells fired on the skeet and trap ranges and they use the softest shot. Add in some harder shot courtesy of some handloaders and the higher priced shells used by some and you've got a fairly good mix that usually works well for target/mid range load pistol loads in my experience.,,Though that was more than a few years ago. I always dumped in some wheel weights to toughen up the alloy.

I did use it for casting bullets for a 30-06 (Lyman 311291) and didn't have any problems as I recall, but I didn't push the velocitys either.

You might get some steel shot floating to the surface of the lead as even some people use those for an occasional round of trap in practice for hunting season where I shoot. Some clubs limit the shot sizes to 7.5 and lead only though.

I thought I read that shot had a high % of arsenic. You might want to be careful.

1. use a magnet to separate out the steel shot

2. for every 5 pounds of soft lead, add 2 pounds of solder that is 50-50 lead and tin. melt it all up and you will have a harder alloy.

3. let your cast bullets sit for a year or two. they will get harder with time.

Throw it all in the pot and skim the steel shot off the top. Do this only AFTER you have fluxed it well. You don't want to skim off any of that beautiful arsenic or antimony. Mix it 50/50 with extra hard magnum shot and add 1% of tin by weight for fillout. This will get you 3%+ antimony, 1% tin and trace arsenic which helps out in heat treating for hardness (if you so desire)

The value of the reclaimed lead is much greater than scrap lead. Many trapshooters would gladly pay you for this lead shot to use as is or mixed with a little powdered graphite for reloading shotshells. New lead shot is selling for over $28.00 per 25 pound bag. You should be able to sell the reclaimed shot and buy a larger amount of lead alloy or "real" scrap lead. Just a thought. If you don't mind my asking, how much is your reclaimed shot per pound?

Slinkster is right. However, reclaimed shot that is not melted and re-dropped is worth substantially less than new shot (which is selling for $25 per bag in my neck of the woods), due to the heterogeneity of shot size and quality, and the likelihood of contaminants.

It will work good just the way it is. Is better for bullets than to reuse. If it is clean {no dirt} there will not be any steel in it. It does have a little arsnic so be warned If you want to trade for a WW mix I would do it.rick

I have used shot in my mixture several times. I have found that it is "dirty" when smelting. There is a lot of stuff to scrape off of the top of the pot, at least in the reclaimed stuff I have gotten. I suppose it could be any number of things including some of the non-lead environmentally safe shot put out nowadays.

The shot works well as an additive to an all wheel weight mixture. It has enough arsenic to make the alloy a good candidate for heat treating.

Not my first choice for casting bullets, but it will work!

I just have to know...How do the skeet/trap ranges collect the lead shot? How do they pick it up?

Big vacuum cleaner I suppose.

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Lost it all in a boat accident

I was thinking the same thing....illegal immigrants perhaps?

I am so glad somebody asked that question! Figured I was the only one who didn't know.

Last time they done it at the club I belong to, they scrape off about 3/4 of an inch of the top soil and separate it, and put the dirt back.

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John

Tweezers.

The guys that mined the trap club I used to belong to just took shovels and went to the "gravy" band where most of the shot falls and shoveled the shot and whatever else came along into a wheel barrow. They then put it in a cement mixer that had water running to it. The shot being heavier settled to the bottom while the dirt and any vegetation floated to the top and was washed out.

The resulting shot was split 50/50 with the club which sold our half back to memebers. Recycled shot loads just fine, the patterns open up a bit as many of the shot is deformed and the sizes while mostly 7-1/ or 8's also had a mix of larger sized shot in it.

In those days steel shot wasn't an issue as it didn't exist in any shotgun loads.

This is how they do it.
http://mcneeleyenterprises.com/page.php?2

This is amazing American ingenuity at work. Although, I was hoping for somehing a little more exotic like elves, at night.

Twenty eight bucks for a bag of shot? I'd buy it all day at that price. Here in my neck of the woods a bag will set you back $45 to $50. That's IF you can find it. Most stores here have simply stopped stocking it due to the high price.

http://conniescomponents.com/n...est_magnum_shot.html

Here's #30.00/bag delivered,,2 bag (50#) minimum order. Only 7.5's thru 9's availble now.

There's other places on the web that you can order the stuff from. They ship it in a Flat Rate USPO box w alot of tape on it.