Mixing Lead & Alloys

[Muskeg Stomper]

I did a search on this and couldn't find my answers so I'll ask even though it has likely been discussed before.

I have pure, soft lead that I normally run roundball for my rifles with. I also have a lot of wheel weight lead alloy that I use to run roundball for my smoothbores with. What I am curious to hear from some of you with a better knowledge of metallurgy about is if there is a mix ratio of pure lead to WW lead that I can use to produce reasonably soft roundball for use in my rifles. I know some folks mold for their rifles all the time with only WW alloy but I'm just hoping some mix ratio exists that allows me to conserve the pure stuff a bit while getting rid of some of the alloy which I have plenty of. I would still like to preserve a degree of softness. Opinions folks?

 

[Stumpkiller]

No amount of antimony from wheel weights is the best for round balls. Pure lead would be preferable. And the tape-on wheel weights out now are zinc - even worse.

You can use wheel weight lead - but it will be hard to load. Supposedly the test is that you should be able to scratch the lead with your thumbnail.

A few years back lead was scarce and my thumbnail was sore from getting marks into whatever lead I could scrounge up . . . including wheel weights.

The good news is that with a muzzleloader if you can get it down the barrel it will come back out when fired just fine.

 

[Muskeg Stomper]

Yes but will a mix of say 75% pure lead and 25% WW alloy produce a reasonably soft RB or will the antimony in the alloy turn the whole mix hard?

 

[coloradoclyde]

Stumpy is right, pure lead is best.....
But if you are bound and determined...I would mold up some pure lead balls and some WW balls.
Then I would do some small casting and play with the ratios....One ball of this to two balls of that etc.........So I could do some testing...
Keep good records....
Using pre-molded balls is an easy way to calculate a ratio like 5:1, 10:1 or 15:1

 

[coloradoclyde]

Yes but will a mix of say 75% pure lead and 25% WW alloy produce a reasonably soft RB or will the antimony in the alloy turn the whole mix hard?

Anything harder than lead will add hardness to the entire mix.
It doesn't take much tin or antimony to make the whole batch 2,3, or 4 times harder than pure lead.

 

[necchi]

Here ya go,this is about the best info I've found available on-line. It's actually a good read and there's plenty of links to other pages.
Good luck;
http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletAlloy.htm#linotype
Oop's ya gotta scroll up/down a bit,,

 

[coloradoclyde]

:thumbsup:

 

[nkbj]

Muskeg,
You may find that balls too hard for the rifling to deform can be made to shoot fine and dead soft lead shoot fine but that balls in between don't always behave.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Maybe you can find a cartridge shooter with the opposite problem and trade him for some soft lead. :hmm:
But I wouldn't burn it up just to get rid of it.
The stuff may not be gold but it's value to shooters is ever increasing.

 

[Tom Compton]

As I recall from a friends experiments long ago, the balls cast from harder lead mix were larger and hard to load. I believe he got a .526 mold and thicker patching material (.024" ?) to use in his .54. He had been using .535s and .018".
TC

 

[Otter]

Maybe you can find a cartridge shooter with the opposite problem and trade him for some soft lead. :hmm:

Been doing just that with several members of my gun club. They are tickled to get some WW ingots and happy to be rid of their yucky pure lead :idunno: . Some people . . .

 

[hanshi]

I prefer WW for smoothbore ball. I have also used WW ball in rifles with the same accuracy as soft lead. WW is probably preferable for small game ball as it doesn't flatten out and tear the critters up.

WW ball doesn't shrink like soft lead but isn't that much larger, as many think. I've never had a problem seating WW ball with the wood underbarrel rod; and I shoot tight loads for accuracy and to keep the bore clean.

For example; WW ball for my smoothbore measures about .606". Cast from soft lead they measure a uniform .600". I shoot the .62 WW ball in a bare ball load and it's accurate. I thin patch the lead ball.

 

[Muskeg Stomper]

:thumbsup: Thanks Necchi

 

[Muskeg Stomper]

As I recall from a friends experiments long ago, the balls cast from harder lead mix were larger and hard to load. I believe he got a .526 mold and thicker patching material (.024" ?) to use in his .54. He had been using .535s and .018".
TC

That has been my experience with WW alloy as well.

 

[Idaho Ron]

I am glad that necchi posted that web page for you. I was involved in a lead hardness comparison study. It was to test the accuracy of hardness testers. Here it is http://www.lasc.us/Shay-BHN-Tester-Experiment.htm

I was one of the guys in the Cabine Tree Results.

I have been alloying lead and testing bullets for quite some time. Mixing lead like you are purposing is almost impossible to get quality, and repeatable results without a hardness tester. First just because someone says your lead is pure how do you know to what level? Is it 5 BHN or is it 6.5BHN? or is it 8BHN?
Is the wheel weight 12 BHN or 14BHN?
Those are questions that have to be answered.

I bought some lead off of Flebay a number of years ago. It was listed as PURE. What I got was lead that I could indeed scratch with a thumb nail but it was 18BHN. I later found out that it was melted down car batteries. After taking my whipping I decided to get a lead hardness tester.
For my bullets I make a paper patched bullet. They are 6.5 to 7 BHN.

To use what you have with pure you risk making the pure less valuable by over mixing in the hard. In my opinion it is not worth doing unless you have a tester.

If you have lead you want tested I would be happy to do it for you.

 

[Muskeg Stomper]

Thanks for the offer Ron. I think that I'm just going to reassess the situation.