.50 Caliber Maxi Balls..........

[ETipp]

I will preface this by stating that I have shot hand cast Maxie Balls with some pretty darn good accuracy out of a TC Hawken and a New Englander. No complaints whatsoever on accuracy and they have killed every big game critter I have ever shot at. Never had one expand but they are lethal all the same. The hand cast Maxi Balls I have been using over the years are cast out of wheel weights. They are not soft lead. So, this begs the question of, do those hard cast Maxie Balls put additional wear on the rifling in the barrel? One thing I have noticed is they appear to be a little oversize when compared to the very few TC Maxi Balls I purchased and tried years ago. They also appeared to be more accurate.

I really like shooting these hand cast Maxie Balls and I have a fair amount of them made up. But I would hate to damage the barrel of my old smoke pole. I do not shoot a lot, mostly for hunting and of course, to empty the rifle. Its a flat out hunting tool and I would like to keep it that way, especially since the old sidelock ML are not nearly as available as they used to be.

I would like to own another ML rifle that will shoot a RB accurately that I can tinker with, but that's another story for another thread.

 

[eekjellander]

I will preface this by stating that I have shot hand cast Maxie Balls with some pretty darn good accuracy out of a TC Hawken and a New Englander. No complaints whatsoever on accuracy and they have killed every big game critter I have ever shot at. Never had one expand but they are lethal all the same. The hand cast Maxi Balls I have been using over the years are cast out of wheel weights. They are not soft lead. So, this begs the question of, do those hard cast Maxie Balls put additional wear on the rifling in the barrel? One thing I have noticed is they appear to be a little oversize when compared to the very few TC Maxi Balls I purchased and tried years ago. They also appeared to be more accurate.

I really like shooting these hand cast Maxie Balls and I have a fair amount of them made up. But I would hate to damage the barrel of my old smoke pole. I do not shoot a lot, mostly for hunting and of course, to empty the rifle. Its a flat out hunting tool.

I would like to own another ML rifle that will shoot a RB accurately that I can tinker with, but that's another story for another thread.

No wear but get some soft and recast that hard stuff into something else ! Most conicals are designed to engrave upon loading ,hence the hard starting with alloyed lead and also expands the diameter over pure . Start with what the mold was designed for (PURE) and maybe get some expansion (again ) what it was supposed to do /Ed

 

[ETipp]

No wear but get some soft and recast that hard stuff into something else ! Most conicals are designed to engrave upon loading ,hence the hard starting with alloyed lead and also expands the diameter over pure . Start with what the mold was designed for (PURE) and maybe get some expansion (again ) what it was supposed to do /Ed

So the pure lead and the harder impurity lead will mix well when put into the furnace?

 

[HC]

I cast mine from sheet lead (X-ray room) with an ounce of tin per 20#.

 

[ETipp]

I cast mine from sheet lead (X-ray room) with an ounce of tin per 20#. View attachment 28291

Those are purdy. Much prettier than mine. No doubt more pure lead and perhaps the tin that makes them so shiny.

I have heard of the X-Ray room lead but have never tried it.

Wheel weight lead is drying up nowadays.

 

[eekjellander]

I cast mine from sheet lead (X-ray room) with an ounce of tin per 20#. View attachment 28291

Nice (BUT) they are designed for (PURE) ,as cast their (fault) is penciling thru with little expansion as Lyman Plains/ Lee REAL/Gould /S+W 501 and others cast with pure including Maxis expand reliably with pure as intended/Ed

 

[HC]

The ratio is 1-320, any difference in hardness isn’t noticeable. They cut easily with the thumbnail. If one is accidentally dropped on cement floor it has a flat spot and goes back into the melt.

 

[ETipp]

Nice (BUT) they are designed for (PURE) ,as cast their (fault) is penciling thru with little expansion as Lyman Plains/ Lee REAL/Gould /S+W 501 and others cast with pure including Maxis expand reliably with pure as intended/Ed

Well that splains a lot. I have retrieved a couple of hard cast, 370 grain Maxi Balls from critters and they didn't expand much, if any. One from a deer that was shot about 30 yards out, and one from a mature elk I shot at 150 yards +. Found that one just about to go through the off side hide. Looks like it could be shot again. It does have one small notch out of one side near the top. Its amazing that as hard as those are, they still put critters down about as fast as any other ML projectile.

 

[morehops]

I just cast several hundred maxis this years. Used pure lead from Rotometals (?) . I bought the smaller ingots that fit my furnace and melted quicker. They shoot very well.
PS I also weighed them and put them into +,-1 grain groups.

 

[eekjellander]

I just cast several hundred maxis this years. Used pure lead from Rotometals (?) . I bought the smaller ingots that fit my furnace and melted quicker. They shoot very well.
PS I also weighed them and put them into +,-1 grain groups.

Sorting conicals makes sense , it makes the shot closer to being the same every time you squeeze the trigger which makes for more accurate placement along with heavy pure FN conical (Lyman Plains) . Splat is what you hear along with ground shaking THUMP ( Food hitting ground) ,just shoot between the shoulders and hams

 

[V509]

I cast mine from sheet lead (X-ray room) with an ounce of tin per 20#. View attachment 28291

Great job!

 

[bronko220002]

I'm sure you will find that if you cast your Maxis with pure lead you will get expansion and likely be easier to load too. As for the wheel weight lead hurting your barrel - no chance.
Try pure lead. I think you'll be pleased..

 

[drpatton]

One thing I have noticed is they appear to be a little oversize when compared to the very few TC Maxi Balls I purchased and tried years ago. They also appeared to be more accurate.

I looked in to have a mold cut for me and the one driving question was, "do I intend to cast with an allow and if so, which alloy"? I was told the drop diameter of an alloy is different from pure lead and the mould would be cut differently to acheive the same dimensions. I don't know if an alloy bullet is naturally larger or smaller than with pure lead cast from the same mould.

 

[drpatton]

Great job!

V509, I like your signature at the bottom of your page.
"I am one gun away from happy"

 

[bronko220002]

Alloyed lead will cast a larger bullet.

 

[idahoron]

I looked in to have a mold cut for me and the one driving question was, "do I intend to cast with an allow and if so, which alloy"? I was told the drop diameter of an alloy is different from pure lead and the mould would be cut differently to acheive the same dimensions. I don't know if an alloy bullet is naturally larger or smaller than with pure lead cast from the same mould.

To determine which alloy to use you have to decide what is the intended purpose of the bullet? And what caliber? And how heavy/long is the bullet?

If a gun is a 45 used for target, long range and is over 475 grains with a pointed bullet I would go 1-20 or even 1-16.

If the gun is a hunting rifle and bullets are 350 to 400 grains I would use 1-30 or about 8 to 9 BHN.

If the gun is a 50 and is for hunting. I would use 1-40 or in my case about 6 to 7 bhn.

 

[eekjellander]

I looked in to have a mold cut for me and the one driving question was, "do I intend to cast with an allow and if so, which alloy"? I was told the drop diameter of an alloy is different from pure lead and the mould would be cut differently to acheive the same dimensions. I don't know if an alloy bullet is naturally larger or smaller than with pure lead cast from the same mould.

Alloy is bigger /lighter an lube only bottom groove ,top groove causes stability loss /Ed

 

[Hanshi]

Lead, pure and soft and even the hardest alloyed lead cannot do anything to a steel barrel except to possibly "lead" the bore. BUT! The propellant can, over time, cause damage. When a powder burns in the bore, including black powder, hot gases & fouling particles blow down the bore at high (relatively) pressures that can over time cause wear. For round ball shooters and even conical shooters it would be rare for someone to live long enough to wear out a barrel. Smokeless cartridge rifles are a different story. They operate with much higher pressures and hotter gases that often do ruin barrels after a few thousand shots.

 

[anonymouscowherd]

Well that splains a lot. I have retrieved a couple of hard cast, 370 grain Maxi Balls from critters and they didn't expand much, if any. One from a deer that was shot about 30 yards out, and one from a mature elk I shot at 150 yards +. Found that one just about to go through the off side hide. Looks like it could be shot again. It does have one small notch out of one side near the top. Its amazing that as hard as those are, they still put critters down about as fast as any other ML projectile.

Someone shooting a 24-27 caliber centerfire would be jealous of a load that expanded to .50 and plowed all the way through while somehow doubling or even tripling in weight while on the way...

Your .50 is already expanded. Big heavy hard cast bullets are known to plow through, penetrate, and do the job. One easy thing to do to increase the hammer effect is to have a wider metplat but then you start getting into custom mold territory I think...

The one caution on hardness would be loading and being soft enough to deform to the rifling as you shove it down the tube.

I looked in to have a mold cut for me and the one driving question was, "do I intend to cast with an allow and if so, which alloy"? I was told the drop diameter of an alloy is different from pure lead and the mould would be cut differently to acheive the same dimensions. I don't know if an alloy bullet is naturally larger or smaller than with pure lead cast from the same mould.

Unsure of how different a alloy would be size wise but you could aim to end up .001-2 over either which way and then run 'em thru a sizer to make 'em uniform and correct

 

[X-ring]

Alloy is bigger /lighter an lube only bottom groove ,top groove causes stability loss /Ed

To be clear. No cast bullet can come out of a mould and be bigger than the mould cavity it was cast in. Softer bullets shrink a teeny bit more than hard cast bullets. Hard cast bullets are indeed a little bit lighter than pure because of the alloy added. My measurements of harder and softer cast bullets from the same mould showed only a half thousandth difference in diameter. I have not found that lubeing all the grooves in a cast bullet causes instability at any distance from 200 out to 1000 yards. X