You're mistaken on one thing, I do NOT rely on commercial sources for minies and have quite the pile of molds from years of testing and competitive shooting. I'll often look through the tables at Nationals for used stuff to see what might be available for another test that might work better than something I already have. I've found a couple good molds for cheap that way. One is a mold I use in working with the Scouts. It's an RCBS steel round ball mold, 2 cavity that I purchased for $20USD. I've made many, many round ball for the Scouts to shoot during the summer camps with that mold.
I've been casting for years. I don't think any N-SSA competitor buys bullets except as a trial before buying a mold or they'll get someone who has the mold they want to try make a batch for testing. That said, Lodgewood has a N-SSA member who supplies their commercial supply and that's why I recommend anyone getting into the rabbit hole of minies buy their test bullets from Lodgewood before buying a mold. One item that does often come up in conversations with N-SSA members is a source for lead. Many of us are quite fortunate to be able to purchase lead from scrap yards and the "gold standard" is X Ray room lead used in the walls of medical offices for shielding. Any time a medical office that has an X Ray machine is remodeled, or altered, that shielding goes into the scrap yard where we purchase it at spot market prices. The other really good source is used medical reactor shielding. Since lead does not absorb radioactivity, it just blocks it, this type is perfectly safe and comes in convenient 30lb bricks that are shaped in a manner to block any possibility of radioactivity escaping past them in a medical reactor. Understand that we're not talking nuclear power, just a small unit for producing isotopes for medical procedures. The next most desirable sources are roof flashing, old plumbing shower pans or telephone transmission line couplings. All of the aforementioned sources of lead are darn near pure and you can't distinguish between them by doing a hardness test.
As for 2 v 3 band PH muskets, they do have different rifling and very different shooting characteristics. The 3 band is, generally speaking, less accurate. One of the reasons N-SSA competitors tend to shy away from 3 bands is they're slower to load and on a windy range, that extra barrel makes for less sure aim. The 2 band has different rifling and, when barrel wall thickness is taken into account, the barrel is stiffer and less prone to zero wandering due to heat build up during a match.
Folks who've never been to Ft Shenandoah, the N-SSA home range in Winchester VA, have a hard time believing how large the range is. In the N-SSA, each competitor in a unit/team match is allotted 3ft. Each unit/team consists of 8 shooters, so one firing position on the range is about 24ft. The range in Winchester can hold up to 70 units/teams in one relay meaning the firing line is about 3/8 mile long. It's controlled from 4 towers and the backstop is a mountain ridge. If you ever get to the US, make it a point to come to a N-SSA National, it's quite the event for black powder shooting.
Here's an old aerial view of the range. Camping areas are on the left, the treeline that separates them is where Back Creek flows and the heavy woods on the right is the mountain ridge backstop. The revolver range is the "crook" at the top of the main range.
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This is the Main Control Tower, tower 2. It's positioned at the main range entrance at Position 23.
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This is the view from the main control tower (#2) looking left towards the "crook" in the background where the revolver range is located. In the distance, you can see Tower 1 with a banner on it.
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This view is from the Main Tower (#2) looking to the right, you can just make out the roof of tower 3 and waaay off in the distance is the end of the firing line and tower 4.
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In these photos, you'll see guys holding green flags, they're the safety monitors for each position. The bottom of each staff has a red flag. If there is a safety problem at any time, they will immediately raise the red flag and all firing will halt until the issue is resolved. Here's a view of how this works. I'm doing Time/Scoring for Position 17 and my son is holding the green flag up while watching Position 17 for a safety issue. Note you'll see the same functions at each position all the way into the background. Yeah, I wear a glengarry and it is authentic to the period and there were more than a couple Scots on either side.
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Sorry for the thread drift, but we do have more fun with muskets than anyone would believe if they weren't on this range.
. I use round balls out of my PH58; the .562 and .570 balls shoot well with light charges and appropriate patch. And I know how to get a minie going well in this beauty too. Some of us round ball guys understand what it takes to get a minie rifle to be accurate: a not overly heavy charge, real black (I prefer FFFG), correct sized minie, just enough quality lube, and a skirt of the correct dimensions to grip the rifling nicely with the given charge
. I'm sure the original poster, 
A big thanks for that 
