roundball

[sr500]

I wonder, why dont mold roundballs in pure tin? Than you could use your Lee molds.

 

[d.thomson]

You can use lee moulds for casting round balls in lead, I would gess tin would be to hard to properly seat a round ball. Just my 2 cents. Regards Fisher King.

 

[Blizzard of '93]

Suppose tin would work but why use if lead is available?

 

[sr500]

I have heard people talking about that lead is going to be forbidden. Just what i have heard.

 

[CrackStock]

Tin is easy to cast, but is very light and is therefore a poor projectile for shooting.

Pewter was used in battle when lead was not available, but lead was far better for using.

Lead is not the problem that some people want to make it out to be. Much ado over nothing.

CS

 

[George Holton]

Stock up on lead now! start a run on it , drive the government nuts. Flintlocks forever.

 

[Twisted_1in66]

I wonder, why dont mold roundballs in pure tin? Than you could use your Lee molds.

Tin is really hard. It's used a lot in "non-toxic" split shot for fishing and besides being much lighter, it is night and day different than lead. I've always been cautioned against using anything but 100% lead for roundballs.

With shotguns, when the "no lead shot for waterfowl" rule first came out, a lot of reloaders just used BB's. They were steel and worked OK, but the harder steel shot blew out the chokes in short order. They had to switch to chrome-lined barrels and stay away from full chokes to make it work and have the barrels live.

Tin is certainly not as hard as steel, but it's a lot harder than lead. Perhaps I'm over-cautious, but I certainly don't want to take a chance on turning my rifle into a "smooth rifle". I'll stick with the 100% pure lead.

Twisted_1in66 :thumbsup:

 

[CrackStock]

Hardness is only one issue. The real problem is the weight of the material. Lead is the ideal projectile material. Do not look for other material options. Fight on this ground and do not accept any loss here. This is all based on :bull: Treat is as such.

CS

 

[PreglerD]

I think there is a bit misunderstanding. Tin is the thing cars are made of. But what is meant is the thing which soldiers are made from and this is pewter. I think pewter is nearly as heavy as lead and can be cast as good as lead.

 

[Joel Boyles]

Older pewter had a higher percentage of lead than modern stuff, some of which has little or no lead in it. Compared to pure lead, pewter is much lighter, and much harder, due to the higher percentage of tin in it. It was used to make musket balls during the AWI, where it worked OK in smoothbore muskets.

Some years back, a modern gunwriter (Massad Ayoob, I think) did a test with pewter bullets in a .357 revolver. The bullets were cast from a mold that threw a nominal 125gr. bullet. The pewter projectiles weighed around 80gr., and could be pushed much faster, (over 1800fps, if memory serves) and were devastating on blocks of ballistic gelatin. Don't recall what the disqualifying factors were, I'll see if I can dig up the article.

Joel

 

[markinstettler]

Lead is worth some concern. I could see, and would probably support/defend, regulations obligating ranges to clean up their lead regularly. But I would much ratOther than that, I really can't see any area where regulation would make sense.

At this point, that includes the no lead waterfowl regulation. It seems unlikely to me that a couple of dozen 12-guage shell fired annually over an area are of any concern at all.

 

[CrackStock]

Without going too far down the political road, I will say that these regs have nothing to do with reality. They are attempts to destroy the shooting sports and we must resist them.

I have shot a wide variety of projectiles for special purposes and some that are supposedly so environmentally friendly. None provided the ballistic benefits of lead or lead filled projectiles.

Pewter is too light and lead is the only reasonable option. Stand and fight on this ground.

CS