Copper Plating Lead Bullets

I found some stuff by Googling your thread title. To do this in any quantity, you'll need a drum plating set-up. I didn't see any on the DIY sites.

Not to rain on your parade, but a .0005 flash isn't going to give you anything but a copper appearance. I don't see it helping reduce lead in the air very much.

If you have access to a water tank, I'd do some weighing and visuals of flashed and un-flashed bullets after firing. I think you'll still see plenty of erosion of the tail of the bullet that is exposed to the hot gasses, depending how hard you push the load.

And maybe even a complete loss of copper in the area where the bullet contacts the lands and grooves of your barrel.

Used to do a little reloading myself. Have a Dillon RL 550 around here somewhere.

Hope I'm wrong about the Cu flash. Let me know.

I was afraid that might be the answer, but hope springs eternal.... I guess I'll have to use the hard cast stuff at the outdoor range and buy the good stuff for the indoor one...

I figured I'd still need to swage some copper gas checks onto the butt of the bullet during sizing to prevent hot gasses from eroding the bullet but you do that for cast bullets anyway.

You interested in selling that Dillon?

Gas checks aren't enough to satisfy the indoor range policy? I'd think most of the problem would be from gas erosion. I'd think then also, that your copper flash would get you in the door just fine. Give it a try.

But, I haven't been in an indoor range in 20 years.

You interested in selling that Dillon? Sorry, no.

Some day, if I live long enough, I plan to set it up in the red barn that is occasionaly my avatar. I don't have room (or time) in Arizona any more.

Be Safe.

Will the range allow or consider Bismith bullets?

Pretty expensive. Search shows a price index of about 12-1 against lead. Slug recovery for recasting will help a little bit.

Yes bismuth is allowed, slug recovery impossible (the range uses a big pile of ground up tires as the backstop. periodically they come out and shovel it all out and replace it with new, and they separate out the slugs from the rubber crumbs and recycle the lead and copper.) But there is the issue of density. a slug of a given volume will weigh less than a slug of lead. the result is that powder charges must be reduced and recalculated. The reloading manuals generally give data for lead or copper jacketed bullets. Working up new loads experimentally is not for the faint of heart. they sell lead free copper jacketed bullets for some calibers but the point of the exercise is to make this as cheap as possible. The caliber I use (.380 ACP) is anywhere between 1.5 to 2 times the price of it's big brother (9mm x 19) even though the materials are less, assuming you can find it at all, hence the reloading bit.

I haven't shot much in a few decades, but it sounds like the indoor backstop is something similar to a metal plate at a 45 degree angle down into a sand pit. If so, does the copper jacket really prevent the lead from getting into the air? I suspect it reduces it but does not eliminate it.

It would seem like a sand pile in front of the backstop would slow down (or stop) the bullets with much less lead in the air. Also, some sort of a membrane between the backstop and the targets would dramatically reduce the movement of air from the backstop to the shooters. There would, after a while, be rather large holes in the membrane at each target location (and a few stray holes in other places) but this should reduce airflow dramatically.

It is interesting to consider what the copper jacket policy does to the range's bottom line. The ammunition costs more and some of it is purchased in the range's shop. Also, the copper in the spent bullets probably makes the recycle much more valuable to them. Thus, by placing the air quality responsibility on the shooter the range is off the hook for the cancer risk and has greater profits due to the copper.

Another approach to your problem might be to shoot at an outdoor range or locate an indoor range with no bullet material restrictions. Our indoor ranges in the Northeast have air handling and filtering equipment to permit shooting any type of bullet (except magnums).

Outdoor ranges in the spring and fall are fine. But in the summer and the winter, eh not so much. The indoor range I use has the best HVAC system I have ever seen for an indoor range, but I'm sure their insurance company requires the lead restriction. Frankly I'm surprised anyone would insure a range anyway since insurance companies are so risk adverse.