Am I being Lead in the wrong direction?

[Rusty Old Gunns]

I have decided that making my own round ball and shot would be much easier than constantly shopping price for .65, .69 and .715 round ball.

I molded my own miniballs back about 25 years ago, but had steady access to pure lead, so this question never came up.

Obviously damage to rifling is not a problem, and a small amount of alloy would make shot a bit harder.

My question to the more educated members of this forum is:

So ... is lead from wheel weights alright for round ball used in a smooth bore?

What about linotype, etc.

note: I also decided to shoot straighter, but this seemed a more "Reachable Goal".

 

[GreyWhiskers]

Rusty,

I have read where others have used wheel weights with success. They are not a lot harder than pure lead. But linotype is darned hard and should be used for centerfire stuff. Do a search on finding sources for pure lead. GW

 

[MikeChapin]

Wheelweight lead should be fine for a smoothbore. On a smoothbore the patch does not have to both grip the ball and the rifleing. To do this the lead has to be soft enough to let the cloth inbed itself in the lead for a good grip.

The patch on a smoothbore acts more like a gasket rather than a sabot. It just needs to make a decent seal and keep the ball snug in the barrel.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Wheelweights are very hard alloy lead, and they are not likely to expand very much. I would mix 1 part wheelweight to about 20 parts pure lead to have a hard cast ball. Not much more wheelweight than that. :hmm:

As to linotype, if you can still get it, its very heavy with antimony, which makes lead brittle. That's fine for a frangible copper jacketed bullet, but not for a RB. You are giving up the unique characteristic of pure lead when used in lead RB casting, when you alloy it. :nono: Pure lead will not only upset in the barrel to fill grooves, but it also flatten in thin tissue, making a massively WIDE wound channel inside the deer or other animal you hunt.

The only reason for any kind of hard alloy RB is when hunting thick skinned or heavy boned animals, like Elk, Moose, Bear, and Caribou, where you want better penetration and will sacrifice a little of the width of the wound channel to get it. :shocked2: :thumbsup: Then you use a larger caliber gun to compensate for that smaller wound channel, and everything works the same, relatively speaking. At least the bull elk will never know the difference. :grin:

 

[flintlockmdj]

Rusty, All the information that you reciever is correct. I have used wheel weight metal for R. B. in my 12 guage (.687 diameter) flintlock for years. The only problem that I have had is that the harder metals don't shrink as much as pure lead so you may need a smaller ball or a thinner patch. On the subject of expansion, with a ball as big as I shoot expansion is not a big issue to me. Lots of expansion is good but with a ball almost 3/4 fo an inch to start with it becomes less necessary. :yakyak:

 

[JWP]

I know people that use wheel weight lead - personally, I don't.
If you can get in touch with someone at the phone company - ask if they are digging up any lead cable. They'll most likely give it to you - it's pure lead :thumbsup:

 

[Johnny Tremain]

Tried them, didnt like them, use only battery post lead now.

 

[Va.Manuf.06]

Any plumbing supply shop has pure lead, it is sold in 5 pound ingots. Not cheap but it is available and it will be cheaper than buying pre-cast balls, especially when you figure in shipping. :shocked2: Also, try scrap metal supply places.

 

[mmahlock]

I'd be careful with wheel weights. There is a move a-foot to replace all lead wheel weights with weights made out of zinc or steel. (The lead weights fall off and contaminate the sides of the roads.)

 

[bwhoffman]

i have cast and shot wheel weight a bunch.
I find they cast about .001 larger than the mold, versus pure lead. they shoot fine, start hard because they dont engage the patch or rifling as easy. Its all blanket wrapped so I dont worry too much about leading.
batch to batch consistancy can vary because you do not know what the ww is made from lot to lot.....antimony, tin, zinc, and a lot of other stuff.
If I was to take say a bunch of boy scouts out sjhooting, I would cast up ww and savce may soft lead for myself, but I prefer consistancy and use pure lead for myself. I save my ww for my handguns(357/44/45)
all the posts above hold water, good info.

 

[Stumpkiller]

It's fine in smoothbores. OK in rifles, too. Alloys weigh less, are hard to control batch to batch, and are much harded to load in a rifle. The beauty of muzzleloaders is that anything you can get down by hand with a wood rammer is almost guaranteed to be safe to shoot. Accuracy is another matter and will depend on the load and individual firearm.

Results with hammer, short starter and metal rammer void this warranty. ;-)

I use the old "If you can scratch it with a thumbnail it's good enough" test. And I can work at it pretty hard with my thumbnail if required when I need lead. You'd be surprised what a thumbnail can mark if you're low on lead.

 

[rebel727]

In my experience the stick on weights are close to pure lead and work fine. Clip on weights are harder and don't shrink much when cooling.

 

[Many Klatch]

I occasionally shoot a ball bearing out of my smoothbores, I don't know why you would have a problem shooting ball made out of wheel weights.

Many Klatch

 

[sidelock]

Must be whats killin all them WT deers along thu roads thes dys :youcrazy:

 

[Ole]

Hey Rusty, I just cast balls from several ingots of lead that I made from my wife's scrap bucket from her stained glass business. I spent a whole day melting it down into ingots. Lots of skimming and dipping. I have a Lyman 20# pot that works like a dream. I made 58 ingots, mostly by skimming and pouring with a Lyman ladle. When I go to cast balls (54 cal) I use the ingots since they are pretty clean. I've been using generic, unscented candle wax and it fluxes up pretty good. Once it gets plenty hot I use a Lee 2 baller. Takes some time to get the knack but once you do you can smoke a lot of balls pretty darn quick. Call around to the stained glass companies in your town and they may just give it to you to haul off. Good Casting, Ole

 

[Walks Alone]

I'm with Brett and Stumpy... never had a problem shooting wheel weights in any of my ML's from 32-54 caliber. Have about 200#'s of them in ingots right now. When I run ball for the Woods Walks, I keep them in "lots" from the well mixed full pot of lead and they shoot just fine and consistent enough for the matches. Save my pure lead for hunting.

 

[paulvallandigham]

As long as you sort the alloy balls by weight, staying within 5 grains, you should not experience much problems with accuracy at the usual woods walk ranges and targets. The balls may shoot to a different POI, so you will have to sight in the different balls, but once you know where to hold to adjust for the different POI you should not have any problem.

 

[xxgrampa]

greetings rusty,

yep, for a smooth bore ww are just fine. howsomever, they are lacking in tin. if you have linotype, add about 25% to the ww's and you will have the pretty'st balls you ever saw.

to improne the accuracy of said balls, seat a patch down on the powder, then seat the patched ball. it will act as a seal making the ball fly as if guided by angels. :grin:

..ttfn..grampa..

 

[shmrck1]

making the ball fly as if guided by angels.

xxgrampa,
"Guided by Angels."I like that....Do these angels
come in 2ff and 3ff?:hmm:
snake-eyes:surrender: