Alloy

[George Mabry]

The roddoc's thread on pure lead brought this to mind. Have any of you ever tried casting lead alloy for use in your muzzleloaders?

I read where that was a common practice in the past (The Muzzleloading Caplock Rifle by Ned Roberts, published 1944). I've tried it and was impressed. I had a lot of recovered lead from the range almost all of which was some degree of alloyed lead.

I cast two batches. One in .445 for my .45 flinter and the other in a .575 mini ball for my .58 Zouave. Both shot very well but after only one or two shots, getting the ball seated all the way down became more difficult. No problem when I swabbed the barrel between shots but if I tried to run a string without swabbing, I'd end up having to pound the ball or mini down the barrel after just a couple of shots.

I don't routinely cast that hard lead for use in my flinter but the majority of the shooting I do with the .58 minis is done with hard lead.

George

 

[junkman_01]

I can't see how it would be of any consequence in a patched RB gun, as the ball never touches the rifling, only the patch does. I shoot .440 RBs cast from wheel weight alloy in my CVA .45 cal Kentucky rifle ALL the time. I shoot .662 RBs from wheel weight alloy from my .69 cal Charleville musket too.
I also shoot .451 RBs from the same alloy in my cap & ball revolvers. The only gun it doesn't work in is my 1863 Springfield Rifle-musket shooting minies. For that one I use soft lead. Go figure!

 

[George Mabry]

Junkman, I don't have a .440 mould but I can see where that would work better than a .445. Or I guess I could use a thinner patch. Right now I use cotton drill and that is fairly thick material.

I'm surprised that the minis work as well as they do. The reason I used the harder lead in my minis is because it didn't cost me anything and my stock of the hard stuff is about 10 times greater than my supply of soft lead. That .58 caliber mini is a big hunk of lead. And in my Zouave, it's as accurate as the soft lead mini.

You're the first person I know of that uses hard lead in their revolver. I was curious how that would work out...but not curious enough to try it myself. I might have to reconsider that.

George

 

[Jaymo]

So far, I've only shot pure lead balls in my .44 cap/ball revolver. I do cast .61 caliber round balls for my 20 gauge Howdah Pistol from wheel weights. They work fine in the smooth bore and penetrate very well.

 

[George Mabry]

My .457 dies came in today and I've already cast some lead alloy. I've never used wheel weights so I don't know how they would measure out on the hardness scale. I have a SAECO lead hardness tester and this batch of lead I worked with this afternoon tested out as an 8. For reference, pure lead is a 0 and linotype is a 10. I'm going on a camping trip this weekend so I'll let you know next week how the alloy performed in the ROA.

 

[Bluehawk]

I've used everything from pure lead to linotype, patched, round balls in my percussion rifles...never a problem. I'm sure you could use steel ball bearings if you were inclined to!
Never tried it in my revolvers.