wheel wieghts cast as round balls

[balfouche]

has anyone ever cast straight wheel wieghts for patched round balls? they would be harder and lighter than lead, and since they do not engrave into rifling
there should not be difficulty in loading the harder ball..... should hit harder and faster and shoot flatter... anyone tried this???

 

[GreyWhiskers]

There was another thread on this subject that I read a few days ago. Can't seem to find it now but I don't think they came to any conclusion about pure lead vs w/weights. I'm interested though, because I have a continuous supply of w/weights and usually have to hunt for pure lead.

Then, how do you know its pure? I suppose if it casts a bullet the same weight as a known pure lead ball would be one way to know.

 

[paulvallandigham]

because the Wheel Weights contain a lot more tin, they will weigh much less, and require a hotter melting temperature to cast correctly. Otherwise you get ball with lots of wrinkles, and variations in weight.

You can cast wheel weights. Just segregate them, and measure the diameters when they come out of the mold. This will also differ, often being somewhat under bore in size. That can have an effect on your patching material choices. Also, because they are harder, they are much more difficult to upset in the chamber, so you can't rely on the ball upsetting to drive the patch into the grooves and seal the bore. Use a over powder wad, or filler of corn meal under the PRB, to seal the gases, and then go ahead and shoot them. Just sort them for diameter and weight, and keep them within 2 grains of each other. For target work, you will want to use even tougher standards, if they prove as accurate as lead balls shoot in your gun. Expect the balls to shoot to a different POI, than your lead balls, and you may have to add or subtract powder from the charge to get the POI back to where your sights are set for POA. Even hard cast bullets will upset to some extent with large enough powder charges. It will depend on your individual gun, how deep the rifling is cut in it, and then your ball and patch combinations to determine just what kind of accuracy you can get using wheel weight round ball.

 

[GreyWhiskers]

Just segregate them, and measure the diameters when they come out of the mold. This will also differ, often being somewhat under bore in size.

Wouldn't the w/weight balls be larger than pure lead balls due to less shrinkage?

 

[Russianblood]

Yes, wheel weight balls will be a larger diameter than pure lead.

 

[BS]

Wheel weights cast big.............and the best way to shoot them is with a paper cartridge:
Link to Paper Cartidges

 

[FTW]

Wheel weight bullets also tend to be brittle.Espeiecaly after they age a little.

 

[CoyoteJoe]

Actually, wheel weights vary a great deal in composition since there are no set standards they may contain a variety of contaminates. They generally contain only a trace of tin because tin is a rather expensive metal. The hardness comes from the much less expensive antimony. Casting qualities can be improved by the addition of some tin. Wheel weights melt at a lower temperature than pure lead and fill out the mold much better with fewer wrinkles and voids compared to lead. The difference in casting quality is most noticeable when casting maxi-balls. The bands and grooves show much sharper corners in wheel weight compared to pure lead.
The now-hard-to-find Linotype metal is the best casting and hardest lead alloy but wheel weights with a bit of tin added is not far behind.
It is generally agreed that best accuracy comes with dead soft pure lead but wheel weights are OK for plinking. At black powder velocities you probably will find increased penetration due to very little deformation on impact. Whether or not that is a good thing would depend on the situation. Some expansion adds shock and enlarges the wound, less expansion and deeper penetration assures an exit, take your choice. :grin:

 

[paulvallandigham]

I have to admit my interest in wheel weights is rather dated, but the ones I used then were made a little differently. I suspect that explains my different observations about the size after casting. Ii was casting bullets mainly, and we got some wheel weights to try. They did not work out, and we tried them for casting some .62 cal. round ball. Fought through the wrinkles and finally got enough balls to take to the range for a shooting session. They were harder, and shinier, but larger in diameter than the lead balls we had cast, but not enough to cause a problem with a PRB. When we used them for bullets, they made sizing and lubricating them very difficult, and we abandoned using them very quickly. Now, what exactly was the composition of those wheeel weights back then were, I can't say. I was told that they were basically 30/70 plumber's lead by the man who gave them to us.

 

[Landngroove]

According to Thompson/Center's Firearms book, projectiles cast from alloys will be hard, oversized, and lighter than ones cast from pure lead. T/C reccomends pure lead only. You could try casting from wheel weights, and judge for yourself. Pure lead can be obtained at plumbing suppliers.

 

[TANSTAAFL]

Your are right, the WW will cast slightly larger.

I have been casting WW for decades, first for CF cartridges, then as round balls, I use a over powder wad and thinner patch for the RB. Rifle accuracy has always been good for WW RB, One thing I don't do, is quench WW RB in cold water (makes them harder yet) like I do the bullets.

For hunting I still go for the pure lead balls, the WW balls really shine in the smoothies.

 

[bulletman]

I used ww for a year or so, getting pretty good groups but nevr consistent..they were about 3 inches at 50 yards,,So I went to pure lead, now I have a clover leaf shape every single time at 50.

 

[mbw907]

I had heard somewhere that if you added a little beeswax to melted alloy, you could separate the harder metals because they would clump together on top so you could skim them off. I never saw it done or tried it. Maybe someone out there knows the secret.There is some solution, I'm sure, but all applications are different and I use pure lead when I find it and recycle it when I can.

 

[gmww]

The bees wax it to help clean up the nasty impurities from the molten lead. Works good. Doesn't do what your suggesting though. Isn't that cruddy stuff called dross?

 

[TANSTAAFL]

Beeswax, paraffin and such acts as a flux to clean up impurities to be skimmed off.

 

[TANSTAAFL]

gmww said it before I did.

 

[gooddw]

They do not weigh "much" less. I cast 44 cal round balls. I cast some ww and pure lead. Took them to the plant machining department and weighed them on a scale capable of weighing grams/grains. The ww ball weighed 136.5 grains and the pure lead weighed 138.5. The problem as I see it is the hardness, not the weight. If they are patched in a rifle the hardness shouldn't matter unless you are hunting. It seems they probably would not expand as well on impact. Just my 2 grains worth.

 

[CoyoteJoe]

No, once alloyed there is no simple home workshop method to separate the ingredients. Melting, fluxing and skimming will remove light impurities such as dirt and steel clips but continued fluxing and skimming only removes the oxide which forms on the surface. You'll never get back to pure lead.
It seems odd but a lead-tin alloy melts at a lower temperature than either metal alone. Some tin in the mix really helps the mold fill out with sharp bands and grooves and will cast a couple of thousandths larger than pure lead. A touch of tin doesn't add much hardness but there are other things in wheelweights, antimony and who-knows-what else. They generally contain only about one percent tin, just enough to help alloy the antimony.

 

[BillinOregon]

There's a big bore shooter in Canada that likes WW balls for heavy game, but his rifle is bored with slow-twist Forsythe rifling cut shallow.

 

[TN.Frank]

Just stay away from any shinny WW's, they contain Zinc which will not let the metal fill out in the mold properly. If the WW is dull(like lead) then I'd use it if for nothing else a cheap source of plinkin' lead. I've used em' for years in both ctg. and muzzle loading guns without any problems but like I said, only use the dull weights. I'm sure for top notch accuracy you'd want to use pure lead but for just fun or short range hunting they'll be fine. Also, I've heard that a little bit of Borax will help to "de-alloy" your lead. I've tried it a few times and if nothing else it does work real good as a flux but watch out, it expands quite a bit when you put it into the hot metal, just use a teaspoon or a bit less and be carefull. :v