Lead substitute

[gmww]

As many know lead is becoming the new item that is being the big bad environmental threat. For the sake of argument, what would be a practical lead substitute for traditional muzzle loaders? Any thought?

 

[jtmattison]

Here's one... Here

WARNING: This is a NON-TRADITIONAL projectile. ENTER AT OWN RISK!

This projectile is by no means endorsed or supported by this forum.

If you click the link DO NOT blame me for what you see.

:v

HD

 

[roundball]

As many know lead is becoming the new item that is being the big bad environmental threat. For the sake of argument, what would be a practical lead substitute for traditional muzzle loaders? Any thought?

With this very concern in mind, and at no small personal expense to myself, I undertook quite a bit of research into this a couple years ago. My focus was to find alternative "practice balls" given the high volume normally used, compared to balls for hunting, figuring that even if faced with using expensive non-toxic balls for hunting, the expense would basically be limited to sighting in and actual shots for hunting...a comparatively small volume of balls and cost.

My attempts to share the results in the shooting accessories or hunting sections were discouraged as the substitute practice balls I discovered & tested were considered to be non-traditional...my posted results were sometimes deleted, sometimes moved out of sight down into the non-muzzleloading section where no one would look for shooting accessories so I stopped wasting my time posting them and can't go into details here of course.

So suffice it to say there are short range, low cost, accurate, alternative practice balls commercially available that work very well in the .40/.58/.62cals that would let someone continue to enjoy low cost weekend plinking. The projectiles in the .58/.62cals which gave single ragged hole accuracy at 25 yards could also be used for small game at typical small game distances if someone wanted to. It wouldn't surprise me if there are other sizes availble out there to fit other calibers waiting to be discovered.

As far as big game hunting, I can only assume as you probably have, that a non-toxic alternative ball would eventually be forthcoming, hopefully made out of EcoTungsten(Niceshot) which would be outstanding, but very expensive of course.

 

[gmww]

Thanks Huntin Dawg that was very interesting. Didn't realize they came up with that. I'm hoping someone has come up with something we can make at home (DIY) like lead.


Roundball, I enjoyed your research for the practice balls and thought it was pretty creative. They would be great for practice as you've pointed out.

Has anyone considered using that low temp. melting stuff (I'm having a senior momement) for casing balls or conicals?

 

[jtmattison]

Has anyone considered using that low temp. melting stuff (I'm having a senior momement) for casing balls or conicals?

Do you mean something like Cerrosafe Alloy?

I doubt anything like that or any other low-temp melting alloy would make for good bullets/balls.

How about an undersized steel ball-bearing? Used with a thick patch they might be o.k. as long as you take scapula shots.

HD

 

[jmforge]

Unfortunately, I'm not sure if the current watefowl shot materials are going to work well in ML'ers. Steel is, well, steel. Although tungsten is probably closer in weight to lead thanany of the others, it isn't going to etch the rifling, now way, no how. I have heard that bismuth, while pretty good for small shot, may be way too brittle when compared to lead. Unfortunately, the evil Barnes copper or naval bronze alloy bullet may be the wave of the future, but that says you will probably have to go with even faster twist barrels and patched roundball hunting may REALLY be a thing of the past.
One non-traditional option might be a tungsten based bullet with some kind of polymer sleeve or "driving band" .

 

[Joel/Calgary]

For the sake of argument, what would be a practical lead substitute for traditional muzzle loaders?
...
I'm hoping someone has come up with something we can make at home (DIY) like lead.

The only thing I'm aware of that would likely be suitable is bismuth alloyed with at least 5% tin, as is used in shot. It would be somewhat lighter than lead and behave like a HARD lead alloy, more brittle than ductile/malleable. As with a hard lead ball, one would probably have to use the combination of a smaller ball and thicker patch. Pure bismuth is very brittle. The early-production shot was supposed to be 3% tin, but analyses I've seen often showed only ~2% and some only ~1%. Improving quality control helped reduce brittleness, and going to 5% tin reduced it further, but with a parallel decrease in the bulk density.

Some other tin-based alloys might also be usable, but the ones I'm familiar with, as pewter, brittania metal, etc., are notably lower density and would require larger calibers for the same performance, rather like using "steel" shot compared to lead.

The material used for Ecotungsten/NiceShot cannot be melted and molded - it has to be swadged. It is an iron/tungsten powder suspended in a tin matrix and covered in tin. The inventor said he is looking into producing round ball, but I've heard nothing about actual availability yet.

Most are probably too hard to use for a conical, except for a subcaliber one carried in a sabot (see early Prussian muzzleloader experiments with sort-of-teardrop-shaped conicals in paper maché sabots from the 1820s & 30s that lead to the ammunition used in the breech-loading Dryse needle gun).

Joel