One of my hobbies besides fishing is to shoot targets with a shotgun. I got a pretty nice club with 10 Fields so it gets a lot of use.  One day I went out there after it closed, put a tarp down in a friends pickup truck, and shoveled it full of the snow/lead shot.  He left it in his garage over night and let the snow melt and got a good amount of lead.

Cool, free is always good. I've often wondered if people went out and did that exact thing.

We went right after a light freezing rain so the snow was really crusty and the shot didn't penetrate the snow that much.

Very creative and resourceful.

Good job  

Thats an awesome idea. Do you get a lot of clay mixed in though?

Not really, Shot travels a lot further than the broken(hopefully) pigeons do.

Not all shot leads are the same.  Some like the AA trap and skeet loads contain antimony.  That makes a better shooting load because it is harder and retains more of its original shape when fired.  It also makes for a bit harder to pour lead, unlike the cheap dove and quail loads.  The trap and skeet loads are somewhat lighter weight because of the antimony.

Well I guess if your looking for quality lead then shot isn't the way to go.  But hey its free, you get what you pay for.