Wheelweight is the hardest lead I'd use, but only if it were all I had.
Pure, dead-soft lead is much preferred.
Don't equate your cap and ball revolver's consumption with a modern firearm. You'll shoot far fewer projectiles with a cap and ball revolver because of the time involved loading it.
It will take a few hours to shoot 100 balls; in a modern pistol you can go through that many rounds in a few minutes.
A "seed stock" of 500 .454-inch balls will provide plenty of shooting fun.
The loading process is as involved and time-consuming as you want to make it. Myself, because I strive for accuracy, I take my time. Takes me anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes to load six chambers in my Remington, depending on how meticulous I get.
I use greased, wool felt wads I punch myself. Wool felt is hard to find anymore, most felt nowadays is polyester. I buy wool felt in 1/8-inch thick sheets from Durofelt, in Little Rock, Arkansas.
I use a .45-caliber punch from Buffalo Arms to punch them out, with a small log as backing.
Or, you can buy Ox-Yoke "Wonder Wads" in .45 caliber. These contain a dry lubricant I'm not fond of. Black powder fouling is best kept soft, and therefore more easily removed, with moist lubricants.
The best lubricant I've found is homemade. It was named after me as "Gatofeo No. 1 Bullet Lubricant" but I didn't wholly invent the recipe.
I found the recipe in a 1943 gun magazine, where its ingredients were simply listed as tallow, paraffin and beeswax.
Striving for the purest and finest ingredients, I mixed mutton tallow, canning paraffin (because it's pure paraffin and who knows what's in old candles, especially the scented variety) and real beeswax.
Real beeswax is another item sometimes difficult to find. Toilet seals used to be made of it, but have gone synthetic. Search Renaissance Fairs, Mountain Man Rendezvous and crafts expositions for real beeswax. Or you may find a local beekeeper who'll sell you a pound.
Mutton tallow is sold by Dixie Gun Works; it's the only source I've found.
Canning paraffin, the kind used to seal the mouths of jars of preserves, is sold in 1-pound bricks in grocery stores.
Measure the ingredients on a kitchen scale. I use grams because it's easy to measure weights. Amounts in this following recipe are based on weight, not volume.
To nearly fill a quart Mason jar, use 200/200/100 grams of ingredients:
1 part paraffin (200 grams)
1 part mutton tallow (200 grams)
1/2 part beeswax (100 grams)
Place the ingredients in a glass, widemouth Mason jar. Place the jar in a pan with 3 or inches of boiling water. When all ingredients are melted, stir well with a clean stick or disposable chopstick.
Allow to harden at room temperature. Hastening hardening by placing the jar in the fridge may cause the ingredients to separate.
The result is a lubricant with the consistency of lard, neither overly hard or soft.
Now, get a clean tuna or cat food can. Melt about 2 Tablespoons of lubricant in the can at very low heat over the stove. Add 50-100 wads and stir them around so they are thoroughly soaked. Remove from heat and allow to harden at room temperature. Snap a plastic pet-food lid over the can and you're ready to go.
As you run out of greased wads, just add more, more lubricant, and remelt as needed.
I've never experienced this lubricant going rancid, and I live in the remote Utah desert where it can get so hot that the Devil carries a fan.
In use, place a measured amount of FFFG black powder in the chamber. Thumb in a greased wad. Seat the wad firmly on the powder. Seat the .454 or 457 inch ball. Cap the revolver and you're ready to shoot. There is no need to put lubricant over the ball if you use a greased wad twixt ball and powder.
The wool wad, especially when used with Gatofeo No. 1 lubricant, will keep the bore clean shot after shot. This lubricant is also good for lead bullets used with black powder, patches for round ball rifles and pistols, and felt or fiber shotgun wads used with black powder.
I find that using wads is slightly cleaner and easier than squeezing lubricant over the revolver's seated ball. I believe that the wad actually scrapes black powder fouling from the bore with each shot, though it seems counterintuitive since it's in front of the black powder.
I've recovered many wool felt wads with a negative impression of the rifling around their edges. This tells me that the wad gets down deep into the grooves.
Cap size is dictated by the nipples in your revolver. Buy both No. 10 and 11 so you can determine which is best. The ill-suited caps can still be used to snap on the nipples before loading, to clear the ignition path.
One last note: Don't buy .451 inch balls for your Remington, unless it's all you can find. Best accuracy will be found with slightly larger balls. I use .454 and .457 inch balls in mine. Gave up on .451 balls long ago.
Hope all of this helps. If you search "Gatofeo cap and ball" on the internet you'll find other posts of mine with even more information.
Have fun with that Remington. I'm sure you'll end up hooked like the rest of us.
Welcome to the Realm of the Brimstone Blasters, my friend!
