Type of lead.

[Thejeepster]

In my cap and ball revolvers we are suppose to use pure lead as if it has additives it will not shave right and be too hard on my revolver.

If I started to mold balls for my .54 cal rifle do I also use pure lead or do I find lead to make a hard cast ball?

 

[cynthialee]

soft lead for both

 

[mooman76]

Hard lead will work in a rifle. Just adjust your patch/ball combo for what works best. Soft is better but if you don't have it harder will work.

 

[bubba.50]

soft lead would be preferable but as long as it's for roundballs hard lead will work. just maybe not as good. it will drop slightly bigger due to the alloy & require a thinner patch. it also may not engrave the riflin' as well leadin' to some loss of accuracy. but any deer ya hit with it won't know it wasn't a soft lead ball :grin: .

 

[AZbpBurner]

In a revolver, as you already know, it's imperative you use soft lead, since you are seating an oversized ball into a smaller diameter chamber, plus the ball reduces in diameter a little more while passing thru the forcing cone.

In a rifle you could use steel bearings if you have a thick enough patch to fill the rifling grooves to get a good seal. Soft lead will flatten out, sometimes dramatically when hitting hide, meat and bone, resulting in more shock and damage. A harder ball will not deform, and can easier pass thru entirely while doing less tissue damage, resulting in the need to use your enhanced tracking skills to locate a deer intent in burying itself' in dense brush.

Hard lead or other hard materials are less dense than soft lead, and will tend to lose energy quicker, and can have a dramatically different point of impact.

A couple of years ago, while playing mighty grapefruit slayer, I decided to load up some .50 cal. balls cast with wheelweights. POI at 50 yards was nearly indistinguishable from soft lead, but at the 100 yard grapefruit distance, POI was at least 3" lower than with soft lead, and many grapefruit temporarily escaped with their lives, until i reloaded with soft lead balls.

 

[ccmountainman]

1 to 5% antimony or such in BP C&B revolvers
is ok.
In your rifle depends what you are shooting.
PRB or conical
Conical you again will want to stay with pure or near pure soft lead.
PRB you can go somewhat harder as the softness of the patch will cushion it during loading and coming back out. And the patch will still do the sealing.
However, getting too hard, can cause the rifling to cut the patch during loading.
I buy both new and used lead. My local supplier reads it with an electric scanner.
I never accept lead that is not at least 97% pure.
So mine is usually plenty soft.
Really pure lead will develop a rainbow hue dross when melted. gold, blue coloring.

 

[Billnpatti]

Whenever casting for muzzleloading, it is best to always use pure lead. For revolvers and for conical rifle bullets it is essential. But, for patched round balls it is not absolutely necessary. You can use wheel weights to cast balls that you are going to shoot with a patch because it is the patch that grips the rifling not the ball.

Conical bullets for rifles must be made of soft lead because the lead has to engrave into the rifling when you load it. Hard lead is very hard to get started into the bore and does not grip the rifling nearly as well as soft lead. Pistols require soft lead because the ball will be slightly oversize and will need to shave off a ring of lead when it is seated into the chamber in order for it to seal properly. If you can get enough leverage, you can force a hard lead ball into the chamber but getting that leverage without damaging something is the trick. Well, that and the fact that hard lead will not seal as well as soft lead.

So, soft lead for revolvers and conical bullets but you can get away with hard lead for patched round balls.

 

[William O.]

Pure lead is best, stick with securing only that and you'll never have to keep track of which lead pile to use for which gun. I went through that when I was shooting both CAS and muzzle loaders and ended up casting about 100 round balls that weren't giving me the best accuracy because they weren't the same size as the ones I has used to work up a target load with. Melted them all into an ingot and gave it to my friends who still shoot CAS.