Making my own bullets etc

[leapfrog]

I am considering the possibility of casting my own bullets for my new inline..Is it better to cast them of pure lead or is it possible to make them from old wheel weights..I have toyed with the idea of a 50 50 alloy mix of wheel weights and pure lead..Any thoughts on this. Thank you, John

 

[Anonymous]

Pure lead all the way

If you go 50/50 they are going to be to hard and won't expand wright. :nono:

Wheel w. you have to make sure you have all the dirt and everything else out of them. :twisted:

 

[cayuga]

The rule of thumb I was taught was when casting for a muzzleloader use as pure a lead as possible. Pure lead has a Brinell Hardness Number (BHN or also known as BN) of about 5-6 depending one who rates it. Wheel weights can run from 11-18 BHN according to some.

Mixing the two would if possible reduce you to 8-12 BHN depending on your wheel weights and purity of lead. That might be all right, but could also produce a very hard bullet. This might constrict the expansion properties of the projectile when velocities are as low as commonly found in muzzleloaders, especially at long ranges.

I have casted roundball with wheel weights. When I was younger and wanted to shoot, there was no telling what I would have been willing to cast. If the ball is too hard, it does not form to the grooves of the rifling as it should. Some also claim with the harder ball you get more lead fowling in the barrel.

The other school of thought especially when hunting large thick skinned or hard to penetrate game is, a harder ball is a better thing because of the chance of better penetration. I guess it boils down to you cast with what you have at hand...

Be careful casting..

 

[leapfrog]

When casting for my 45-70 and 50-70 I use a 50--50 mix and according to my Saeco hardness tester they are close to 1-20 alloy which is pretty soft..And when I am shooting them my muzzle velocity is only 1010 FPS..And this is pretty slow for a 537 grain bullet(45-70) that is..I have always thought that the depth of the rifling had a lot to do with the accuracy as well..

My sharps has only about a .004 depth in the rifling..I am not sure what the Lyman Mustang rifle has in it..

I used to make my round balls for my CVA out of wheel weights and they seemed to shoot pretty well and I have taken deer with them as well..

And they lead I have is supposed to be something like 97% pure..Well so much for my rambling...I will post the test results as they become available..

Got the scope rings so I will be putting the scope on the Lyman tomorrow..

 

[Underclocked]

Mixing wheel weights with pure lead is sort of risky - in as much as you might just ruin the pure lead. Wheel weights are sort of an unknown quantity. I would stick to pure.

 

[leapfrog]

I fail to see any risk in it...But maybe I am over looking something here..You are correct about them having different alloys in them..I only use the ones with the metal clips on them..Darn I have to do something with them.I have around 50 to 75 gallons of them..I know they seen to work pretty good in the cartridge rifles..And if I am using the right lube,they don't seem to lead any or if so very little,just tiny flakes..

 

[cayuga]

I fail to see any risk in it...But maybe I am over looking something here..You are correct about them having different alloys in them..I only use the ones with the metal clips on them..Darn I have to do something with them.I have around 50 to 75 gallons of them..I know they seen to work pretty good in the cartridge rifles..And if I am using the right lube,they don't seem to lead any or if so very little,just tiny flakes..

Well cast some up and try them. You can always clean the lead out of the barrel..