Wheel weight vs. pure lead

[bigmike]

Is it o.k. to use wheel weights for cast round balls,since the ball actually never touches the barrel? What about buffalo,maxi,or conical bullets. The cost of lead is outrageous!!!!!!!!

 

[cynthialee]

I am new to this but I was told that pure lead is the way to go. Wheel weights have to much zinc and are to hard.

Although I am kinda with you here on the PRB. I do not understand why it needs to be soft lead. I understand why conicals need to be fairly soft, but if the ball is patched and doesn't actually come in contact with the barrel why does it matter?

However:
I am sticking with pure lead. It is what I was taught to use by the guys here.

 

[jethro224]

I use wheel weights for balls for my smoothbore Bess. I have a whole lot of wheel weight lead and they work just fine in the smoothbore.

For my rifles I use pure lead. The rifling and patch weave can be seen imprinted in the balls that I have pulled for one reason or another and I think I probably get a better seal with the pure lead balls. That said, I have not tried wheel weights in my rifle. There are some folks who do and say they work fine.

All the advice I can give on conicals is just what I have heard from others. I only shoot ball. They tell me the conicals need to be pure lead so they will expand on firing to seal the bore. Might work with a wad/s. :idunno:

 

[rabjr]

Same as Jethro, save the pure lead for rifle and all other is used in the smoothbores. :thumbsup:

 

[ohio ramrod]

Many people use ww lead for round ball in both rifles and smoothbore and outshoot me!. Myself I save any "unknown" leads for the smoothbore and use only pure for rifles. Pure lead is especially important for hollow beased mini's. I cast some once using unknown lead and the "skirts" broke off leaving a "ring" in the barrel which was difficult to remove. :idunno: :idunno:

 

[cynthialee]

thanks for shareing that

given me yet anouther reason to be sure I use only soft lead

 

[mooman76]

I originally used WWs and range lead because that is all I could find at the time (for free) and it worked fine especially for roundballs. The harder lead was a little more difficult to get down the barrel as Lee REALs but still worked, I just got a sore palm. I now have soft and pure(near) lead and I use that for MLs and the other for centerfire.

 

[Sam86]

Here in Wichita ks we have a iron and steel company and they sell pure lead at $1 per pound and it's pretty much a endless supply. First time I bought from them I said I wanted a lot of lead and they replieded with 1,000 lbs? Lol they laughed when I said I only wanted 30 lbs

Oh yeah, Wheel weights... Yeah you can use them but pure (it's never really pure) lead is better

 

[Stumpkiller]

Is it o.k. to use wheel weights for cast round balls,since the ball actually never touches the barrel? What about buffalo,maxi,or conical bullets. The cost of lead is outrageous!!!!!!!!

If you can get it down the barrel there is no problem with wheel-weight lead other than it will not conforn to the rifling geography as well as soft or expand on impact. It's also a hair lighter than pure lead.

Beats not shooting at all.

Conicals? I'm no help there as I avoid them.

 

[bob308]

use pure lead in rifles and cap and ball pistols. you can get away with w-w in a smothebore. i use the w-w for my smokeless guns.

 

[silly goose]

I remember talking with a farmer once about feeding his cows less than the best hay as it wasn't a good haymaking year at the time. He replied "its better than feeding them snowballs", and that made all the sense in the world to me.

I think that fits perfect here, if wheel weights are all you have, and I don't think there is anything wrong with them, they are surely better than shooting snowballs. FWIW.

 

[Zonie]

The following is as I remember it so those who read about it feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Several years ago a pair of guy's who wrote a monthly column for "Muzzle Blasts", the monthly magazine the members of the National Muzzleloading Rifle Association receives, tested balls cast from pure lead against wheel weights.

The reason for their testing is their monthly column was usually to answer questions sent in to them and someone asked the same question that this topic is about.

Anyway, they are avid target shooters so they know a thing or two about accuracy and they really expected to see a big difference between the pure lead and the lead alloy balls.

At first, they found that loading the hard alloy balls was very hard to do. Obviously the balls were not deforming like soft lead would do.

Their shooting seemed to say the hard lead didn't shoot as well either until they changed their ball/patch combination.

They found that by decreasing the patch thickness so the ball didn't have to deform as much improved the accuracy a lot.
In fact, it was close enough to their regular soft ball load that it wasn't worth worrying about unless a side of beef or a similar prize was up for grabs.

Now, I must point out that the Bevel Brothers use barrels with slow twists and deep rifling made for shooting roundballs.

They did not test the faster twist shallower grooved barrels that are found on TC's, Traditions and CVA's so their findings might not apply to those guns.

I will say that although the harder alloy balls seemed to work for target shooting, some thought needs to be given to using it for hunting.

Our pure lead roundballs start out big and expand even bigger when they hit an animal and I'm sure the hard alloy like wheel weights would not do nearly as well at this.
That, to me, makes the hard alloys rather questionable for a choice when hunting big game. :hmm:

 

[hanshi]

I shoot prb only and prefer soft lead for rifles. WW is what I prefer in my smoothbore. For small game and small calibers WW prb should do just fine.

 

[necchi]

I remember talking with a farmer once about feeding his cows less than the best hay as it wasn't a good haymaking year at the time. He replied "its better than feeding them snowballs", and that made all the sense in the world to me.

I think that fits perfect here, if wheel weights are all you have, and I don't think there is anything wrong with them, they are surely better than shooting snowballs. FWIW.

Great analogy, if WW is what you can get, use it.
Is soft better for Ball? I think so, easier to cast too, pure isn't as fussy about temp as alot of WW.
But if all I could get is WW, I'd rather shoot than not, :wink:
I actually have a bunch of Wheel Weight lead stashed over in the corner of the garage.

 

[russecv58]

i use it in my rifles with no loading problems and no difference in accuracy. just a word of advice, when casting do not drop them in water to cool, just drop them on an old towel or something soft and let them air cool. :v

 

[TFoley]

Over here in Yoorup wheelweights have not been made of any recognisable substance for many years, especially lead, so as far as we are concerned it's a never mind.

However, seeing the general tone of the thread seems to be 50/50, I'll make a deal. Right now I shoot the best and purest lead that I can locate, usually plumbing lead from older houses - our own house in Chester yielded me enough to last me for the previous 20-something years and there is still some left.

I'll start to use wheelweights in my old ML guns when I can find any reference to either Lewis and Clark or Daniel Boone using wheelweights.

I can't be fairer than that, now can I?

tac

 

[jethro224]

Did L & C or Dan'l use lead from the plumbing in their old houses? :hmm:
:haha: :stir:

 

[Rat Trapper]

Is it o.k. to use wheel weights for cast round balls,since the ball actually never touches the barrel? What about buffalo,maxi,or conical bullets. The cost of lead is outrageous!!!!!!!!

They will work, but you will have to use a smaller patch. If you do not change the patch you will have lots of trouble getting them down the bore. Once you find the correct size patch they will shoot very well.

 

[Roguedog]

It would seem that with the harder consistency of WW lead, penetration would be improved due to less expansion and deformation, if that is something that you are desiring or needing. As for me, with the game I normally hunt, being whitetail deer, obtaining adequate penetration with my pure lead roundballs has never been a problem.

 

[vern faulkner]

Never preformed any experiments, Don't know squat about ballistics, am not a metallurgist and don't have a hardness tester. I have been using the wheel weights in my .32 and .36 rifles for squirrels for many years (don't need any expansion there). I've seen no noticeable negative effect in either of the rifles or their accuracy, and I've shot a whole lot of squirrels (plus lots of range time). I do use a higher quality lead ball for deer in my .50 though for there I do want some expansion.

Vern