Recovering lead by shooting into a wood log

[Andy]

Was talking with a friend recently and discussing ways to recover fired lead rounds. We were looking for something of low value that wouldn't be taken if left at the range, and that didn't cost much to put together.

He came up with the idea to shoot into the end grain of a large-ish log and then split and burn that wood over a piece of metal to recover the lead.

I took a 16" long 12" dia. semi-decayed pine round up the range last week and put about 100 9mm lead loads, 30 .45 acp and a few .380 into it, as well as a couple boxes of .22. Had the log at an angle and nothing penetrated more than 6" by the looks of it. In any case, this size round is easy to move around/set up and I already have it back home.

Any problems with burning it to recover the lead? From what I can gather, wood burns at 550-900 degrees in an open fire without a directed air source, so the lead would likely be melting out, not just dropping out as a solid when the wood burns. There is moisture in the wood and at this time of year there is snow blowing around, is this is recipe for a problem due to water contact?

If water is the problem, let's say you picked up a junked weber kettle grill pot, got the fire going, covered it with the lid and just let the lead pop around in there and drain into a pan in the bottom...

Would you lose the tin/antimony due to uncontrolled temperatures?

Any ideas or recommendations on trying this? I'll wait to do anything until hearing back what you guys think.

[Hickory]

I would first split the log into kindling and extract the lead as you go.
If you burn the wood, I don't think you would get as much lead as some of it will be lost using that method.
But it is worth a try.

[dondiego]

I wouldn't worry about the moisture. The fire will take care of it.

[dudel]

I think you'd have a bunch of wood ash mixed with the lead puddle. If the lead can drop through the grate, then the ash will as well. I don't think that's a major problem (think of it as a prefluxed ingot). Bigger question is how to get the lead puddle broken up so you can clean all the impurities out. Sounds like you could end up with several pounds of lead puddle to deal with. Make sure the container that's receiving the lead puddle can handle the weight. I doubt the Weber grease catcher will do; not even sure the grill could take the load of the log plus lead.

I'd split the wood up into kindling sized pieces (try a wood grenade). Some of the lead may drop out at this point. Then burn the pieces in a dutch oven. When cool, blow off or vacuum up the ash. Smelt the remaining puddle, flux again, strain off dross, and pour your ingots. I don't think moisture will be a problem since you are bringing the whole thing up to heat at the same time.

[btroj]

How many of those log hunks do you have? Not gonna take too long before they have a big hole in the center.

[Harter66]

For several years I was a care taker on a range and I built trap boxes 18x24x8 with 4x material with an 1/8 in crs plate in the back . I had/have lots of scrap wood . It allowed me to pull the front off and take out the shot up center and replace it while recovering several pounds sometimes 20 or more . A plywood box is not the right answer nor is stacked plywood inside . The best part is that you get kindling out of the box the lead is all in 1 place and it's pretty easy to add wheels and make it pickup bed tip in height . You also don't have to split up a whole log and the lead is pre fluxed. I successfully used 1/2 in plywood for the front and rear faces with 2x8 sides and bottom to capture up to some very heavy 45 ,460 S&W or maybe a 500,and when fresh even 308/06' at 30 yd . Yes the plate got beat up some but it was a public range and I was getting 50-100 lbs of J-cores a month and being paid to do it . That range was closed so I have 1 for my own use now and have trapped a few 100 7mm 130s zipping along out the muzzle around 2300 fps with no issues.
I may build a couple more for an upcoming social event.....

[milrifle]

I'm not sure I'm following you, here. Could you post a drawing or photo? What is inside the box? I used to use a 24 x 24 x 8 box made from 2 x 8" with plywood faces and filled with sand. It works for a while but a lot of the bullet turns to fine dust and cannot be separated from the sand.

[Andy]

Sorry, forgot to mention I would be splitting it up into small pieces of course. I figure I would get a good deal of the bullets to fall out as I'm splitting and then burn it for whatever is left. I was going to do this one log for proof of concept before putting too much time into it. Log isn't too shot up for 100 rounds, so I imagine I firewood chunk lasts me for 500 pistol rounds unless the round happens to split. Pine doesn't leave any coals, just a little ash and if I let the thing cool I'm thinking I can just blow the ash off of it with an air hose.

Good to hear I should not have a problem with the moisture/water, I may go give it a shot this a shot this afternoon. I'll report back with what I find.

[Janoosh]

I used to maintain a range that used logs as a backstop. Pine is best, oak/ash is worst. This was a busy range, we stacked logs and rotated out the shot up ones once a year. Log backstop at 100 yds. Shot into ends, not side. Lead and jaxketed easily reclaimed, we gave the shot up logs to members.

[Scharfschuetze]

I can't offer any advice, but I once read that on the Kentucky frontier, they used a log as a backstop at turkey shoots for their muzzle loaders. The winner got to take the log home and keep the lead.

[dnotarianni]

Why not just burn in woodstove for heat and recover the lead when cleaning out the ash

[EMC45]

I've done it for years down my brother's place. Dug out what I could with my pocket knife and my Dad burned all the log/stump remnants and then I scraped all the lead drips and drops out of the ash heap. Got all kinds of lead that way. Pounds at a time.

[country gent]

Pine is soft and burns quickl and hot. The lead will be molten. Water boils at 212* and vaporizes just above that so any moisture will be gone before lead is molten. A sheet metal plate with a vee formed in it and running down hill build a smaller fire under the plate and the shot logs on top of the plate burning. Set an ingot mould under the vee to catch lead as it runs off. The fire under neath will help to keep the plate hot and lead flowing. Ashes should stay on plate and lead flow thru. Splitting the logs first will speed the process up alot.

[rockrat]

Harter66-------------Pics or a drawing would be great

[labradigger1]

Wood will definetly burn hot enough to melt the lead. Revolutionary and civil war soldiers melted countless boolits over wood fires in camps. A a die hard metal detector fanatic I have recovered many many pounds of camp lead where they were casting at camp sites.
Put the wood on a sloped piece of metal and burn it. The lead will run down the incline of the steel.
I have poplar logs at my personal range and it works well.
Lab

[Harter66]

Being a very rough idea this would be looking down at the top and is depicted with 2x6 instead of 2x8 which allows either another 2x or 2 pieces of x4s the metal plate lays in the gap at the top which is generally a 1/4 inch or less . At the time the facility had changed out several dozen signs that were on 24x24 and 16x24 1/8 inch crs and had sent most to salvage. So the inside of the box was cut to fit the plates/signs . Outside finished dimensions being roughly 27 1/2 x 19 1/2 x 8 3/4 with 1/2 inch plywood. It isn't really a cheap way if you have to buy material . It takes 14 4x4 blocks to fill the box so 28 2x4s and at best if you did 16x24 finished 6 boxes from a full sheet just 4 at 24x24 . It was cost effective for me because the jobs running at that time were yielding scrap that fit in the dimensions. I used 48" 2x8 for the sides of the last 1 to make it tall enough to tip into and out of the pickup.


Attachment 128948

[scottfire1957]

Hmmmm. I might take a log or two to the range, leave 'em, let other people shoot them for a while, then recover the log.


If they get taken, I'll just be out the logs and a little lead.

[JohnH]

I've done this in past and it just ain't as efficient as just digging out the berm. Works fair enough, but lots of lead is sheared off into tiny pits as one tends to bore a hole into the log over time. I simply burned mine right on the ground and picked up the lead after the fact. Still had to run it thru the smelter as it had lots of charcoal bits in it. Worked ell enough, but as soon as I could I just had a load of dirt dumped at the back of my shooting lane and just dig it out once in a while. Best idea for a backstop for easy lead recovery is a box roughly 3x3 filled with rubber mulch. DO a search here, been several posts in past about this method.

[Geezer in NH]

Why not just burn in woodstove for heat and recover the lead when cleaning out the ash

Bingo!

[Wolfer]

Here at home I have half of a 55 gallon plastic barrel full of sand. When it gets pretty shot up I shovel it into a 1/4" screen on top of my wheel barrow. Once the lead is screened out I rotate the barrel half and cover the back shot up portion with whatever scrap I have laying around.

Here barrels cost about 12 bucks and will take an amazing amount of handgun shots before needing to be replaced.

My rifle range is stacked car tires full of sand.

Most every boolit I shoot has been shot several times already.