Casting 490 rb

[bernieg]

How do you make hard lead soft? I've been told to stay away from wheel weights! :?

 

[pwbrasky]

The short answer is that you can't make wheel weights (lead, tin, antimony) as soft as pure lead. However, on the recommendation of a very knowledgeable friend, I tried casting both .490" and .495" RB's from WW's instead of pure lead. Other than being slightly lighter, there was no difference in starting and seating them and certainly no difference that I could detect on the target. If you've a surplus of WW's, by all means use it to cast RB's.-

 

[cayuga]

Pure lead has a BHN of 5 while wheel weights have up to 11. I stay away from wheel weights when at all possible. I like pure lead. If all I had were wheel weights, I would use them. Just make sure to use a good solvent that removes lead and a good nylon brush and scub the bore from time to time. Wheel weights, being harder will not react to the rifling in the same manner as soft lead, and is more adapt to leave lead trace behind (I was told by an old caster).

 

[pwbrasky]

cayuga, I got zero leading when testing patched WW RB's in 3 rifles. Indeed, I don't get leading when using patched Pb RB's in those same rifles. (Neither do I get blown patches.) Although I didn't mention it before, one of my RB moulds, a Shiloh, actually casts better with WW's than it does with pure Pb.

 

[cayuga]

Many years ago (and we are talking 30 years) I had a buddy that worked at a garage and did tire changes, balancing, etc. He'd bring home buckets full of old wheel weights. I had molds for the .54 caliber, so we casted up a couple hundred ball one day.

I shot them WW balls for a few match shoots, and they did real well. Then I was swabbing the barrel and I would get little silver metal flakes on the patches. All we could determine was, it was from the Wheel Weights. So we swabbed the barrels with brake cleaner, and scrubbed them clean.

That was the last time I used them. Like I said, an old man who taught me muzzleloaders and casting told me not to use them. Although if that was all I had, you can bet I would be casting ball out of them. I was lucky and got my hands on a lot of pure lead, so I am still casting off of that.

 

[pwbrasky]

cayuga, My WW RB's test was just that: An attempt to see whether their use was feasible and maybe stretch my supply of Pb. Their use may be a simple way of gaining a bit more diameter from a mold that casts a wee bit small too. 99% of the time I use Pb RB's and wouldn't even think of using WW's for conical bullets as they'd be a bear to shove down the bbl.

 

[Morris]

Cast RB

I use pure lead for conicles I use either ww or pure lead for RB the patch prevents leading as a rule. They are a 1or 2 1000's larger.

 

[Bucker]

cayuga

Wheel weights, being harder will not react to the rifling in the same manner as soft lead, and is more adapt to leave lead trace behind (I was told by an old caster).
Cayuga, would not the patch catch the rifling instead of the lead? I am not in your experience level here so don't get mad at me for asking this, but i would think the patch covering the RB would catch it???

 

[cayuga]

Cayuga, would not the patch catch the rifling instead of the lead? I am not in your experience level here so don't get mad at me for asking this, but i would think the patch covering the RB would catch it???

I go by a lot of what I was taught, so many years ago. One of them was that WW were not as good as pure lead, as they leaded the bore. The times I used them, I did observe metal flake on the swab patch. It had to come from somewhere. What the gray speckles consisted of was anyones guess. I suspected it was lead fragments.

And yes, I agree that the patch should pick up and catch some of that. But if the ball was harder, would that also not force more pressure on the patch itself against the edges of the rifling? Could this not cause a patch that was not failing, to suddenly fail? Also (I never tested it) would a WW ball engage the rifling better. I would guess it would not form as deep into the rifling. How should that effect accuray.

As I said, I shot them WW ball. George and I casted some .530 once and they were tight but shot well. We (George and I) casted up a bunch of .535 round balls once out of wheel weights. When we were trying to shoot them, they were so hard to load, we were literally ramming the ramrod against a tree to get them seated. It was something to see actually. So they do cast bigger I believe then a pure lead ball. I just recently sold that mold. The new mold owner loves the mold, as it might be twenty five years old, but hardly cast a couple hundred ball. All the ball we casted from that WW batch, turned into the best wrist rocket (sling shot) ammo I ever used.

We also casted pure lead ball out of that .535 mold. They were still a little hard to load, but we did not need a tree to load, or a hawk to drive them down. As long as we swabbed between shots, they could be loaded and were very accurate. These were in Thompson Center Rifles (as that was all we would even shoot back then) I casted some pure lead ball just before I sold the mold. They load beautiful in my Lyman Trade Rifle. So I suspect the bore of the rifle is more .535 friendly.

My casting experience is probably no more then anyone else who casts for them selves. And I never get mad at a question. I love to see discussion. Its how you AND I learn things.

I have casted for about thirty years. In that time I'd hate to think how many roundball I have cast. I was taught (by George) that WW were not as good as pure lead. My flake sighting, and that halirious day of ramming ramrods against trees, and pounding them down the bore to get a ball loaded, just kind of enforced that, which George taught me about casting. Pure lead good, WW's bad. Also since I have pure lead, I do not worry about WW ball anymore. Although like I said, if I did not have pure lead, any lead would do.

If you cast WW ball and after you shoot say.. 100 rounds of them. Just for kick, solvent the barrel, brush it, then dry patch it and see what you find on the patchs. I would be interested in your findings.

Something else to think.. if you wanted a bone busting ball that would not flatten out like a pure lead, say .. hunting elk or moose. Wouldn't a WW ball give you better penetration? Although I don't think a pure lead would have any problems.

 

[swoter]

If you're looking for lead, there's a guy on ebay who sells pure lead ingots, 60 lbs for 70 dollars shipped. He's somewhere here in Ohio. Not a bad price for clean lead. I think his store name is Junkateer Jerry. Sometimes recycling centers have lead they will sell you, just have to check hardness with your thumbnail before you buy. I bought a bunch of lead pipe a few years ago, and it was very dirty.