Casting 69 calibre lead slugs

L

lalunette

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Good day !!

I found out that my local gun range is having a black powder only event on June 15

http://www.selkirkgameandfish.ca/wp-content/files/2014-SELKIRK__MUZZLE_LOADING_SHOOTS.pdf

It falls on Father's Day and I thought to myself, what better way to spend part of the day than burning black powder with other enthusiasts !!

So... I decided to recycle some lead and cast some fresh slugs so me and my replica 1728 St-Étienne black powder flintlock could share in the fun.

I started by breaking up some old cast iron pipes I removed from a house I am renovating.


Here you can see the horsehair and lead used to seal the pipes.


I ended up with quite a bit of lead.


Then I set up our historical group's old (purchased 21 years ago) smelting pot under the carport and let the smelting begin.


I'm using Lyman dies.


The lead was full of impurities to I got quite a bit of smoking.


And lots of impurities.


I was dropping the slugs into a bucket of water at my feet.


So I had to dry them after I was done. I ended up with about 100 slugs !!
 
Try to do your first melt/smelt in an old pot, that way you don't get all the crap in your good pot.
That pile of ball's will have some weight to them.
 
I understand lead you are using is pure-why did you drop hot slugs into a bucket of water?

That method worked perfectly fine for me when quenching WW casts to harden them.

Do you need hardened alloy for your muzzle loader or this is just a convenience thing?
 
I use the water quench with all of my castings.

BTW. They are not slugs. They are round balls. But either way, nice to see someone else spending their time casting.
 
Quenching in cold water will harden the lead, but for RB it's no big deal unless you're going to hunt with them. Minie balls should not be quenched though. In any case this does not harden the metal permanently as it will return to it's original hardness.
 
lyman54 said:
Quenching in cold water will harden the lead, but for RB it's no big deal unless you're going to hunt with them. Minie balls should not be quenched though. In any case this does not harden the metal permanently as it will return to it's original hardness.
Click to expand...

I don't think that quenching pure lead will harden it. I am not sure because I have never tried it although I have quench hardened lots of elongate slugs cast from roughly 50% wheel weights. Also while not an issue with the OP, the subject of casting minis was mentioned. People should be aware that there are two major patterns of minis; the british mini had a thick edge about .1" thick at the bottom while american mini skirts come to a knife edge. I am sure that is significant in terms of optimum powder charge when shooting them. Also I found that casting mini style slugs from pure lead usually gave me poorly formed skirts and often cavities at the top of the hollow base. By using about 5% alloy in my lead, shrinkage was greatly reduced and the problems went away. The skirt wrinkles were caused because pure lead freezes around 600 F vs some where around 450 F for lead alloys

cheers mooncoon
 
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