Good day to you all gentlemen. Just thought I’d go ahead and ask a dumb question I probably already know the answer to. I have seen hard clay with ceramic coating slingshot ammo in a lot of the common muzzleloader calibers and thought to myself I wonder if I could patch that and shoot it with a low power charge out of a 10 in. pistol without turning it to powder and just dirtying the bore. What are your thoughts on this matter?
Hard clay slingshot ammo?
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That's a good question. I have molds to make lead slingshot ammo from 1/4" to 1/2". When I reloaded shotgun shells for goose hunting I loaded the 1/4" size and it was remarkably accurate and grouped really well. Up in northern Minnesota where there are iron mines and taconite plants a guy can pick up taconite pellets [iron ore pellets] at rail crossings when the track leads to a shipping harbor. These are about 1/2" but are really inconsistent in shape, probably not so good in a muzzleloader but they make super slingshot ammo for keeping deer and other critters out of feeders and gardens.
Have you tried swatting one of the ceramic coated pellets with a hammer lightly to see what threshold they have for being knocked around a bit? If patched fairly loose and slip down the barrel without a ton of force they would likely work but then your next issue, like the taconite, will be how consistent they are in being round enough to shoot accurately.
Have you tried swatting one of the ceramic coated pellets with a hammer lightly to see what threshold they have for being knocked around a bit? If patched fairly loose and slip down the barrel without a ton of force they would likely work but then your next issue, like the taconite, will be how consistent they are in being round enough to shoot accurately.
Thanks for the input MrTom, and to your question no I haven’t taken a hammer to any yet I haven’t got my hands on them yet. My local sporting goods store was out of lead round ball and the thought just came to me. I will say that I do have a traditions old Ironsides cannon in .50 (I think the bore is actually .49) and for that I actually have been firing 12mm steel slingshot ammo. Haven’t tried them in my Kentucky Pistol yet but I assume I’d need the thickest patch I could find or perhaps double patch, but for plinking around I can get 1320+ or - a few of them for $50 so about 4 cents a pop. And if using a bullet trap I’m sure a fella could reuse them over and over again. But they are only about 7 grams each using a jewelry scale. But hey could be a muzzleloader “armor piercing” round 
That’s a fair point, I had considered something along the lines of the possibility that steel ball wouldn’t be so forgiving on a steel barrel as lead would be. But wouldn’t the ball remain isolated from the barrel via the patch? Also didn’t cannons shoot cast iron ball in a cast iron bore back in the day? I legitimately am just purposing what if’s to see if there is some aspect of knowledge I would be missing, more experienced input would appreciated, as I don’t know a whole lot, but the experienced people probably just stick with what works
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Back in the day the cannons were not rifled, so smooth on smooth got by. I just personally would not do the steel ball in a steel barrel, rifled or not. I don't like to leave anything for chance when gunpowder is involved.
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I think you’d find that the steel ball would cut right through the patch in the same way that steel shot cuts through wads designed for lead. Steel shot wads are much tougher.
Why not get a mold and just cast your own lead balls?
True, casting my own lead would be an interesting experience. On the comment about steel shot, I guess I don’t fully understand. I always kinda thought that what was happening was similar to the science experiment we probably all have done where a toilet paper roll is filled with salt and one covered with paper wrapped around the roll with a rubber band, my science teacher dared anyone to try and break the paper using a wooden dowel plunging it into the salt. The force is transferring to the walls of the paper roll through the grains of salt so no matter how hard you pushed it wouldn’t get to the paper. I assume a similar situation could be happening when dealing with multiple projectiles like steel shot. But would this happen with a single ball?
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