Was thinking about cast my own balls for my repro 1851. I was going to use wheel weights to do this, however the composition of the metal caused me to pause. Do any of you BP shooters use WW for your bullets or should I actually look for a pure lead source or is WW close enough being 95% Lead. I am not a metalurgist by any strech of the imagination and finding any info on the subject is tough to say the least. Tons of info for making bullets for modern firearms and not so many for Muzzloaders from what I have found. What is your experience and or thoughts?
Casting Balls from Wheel Weights, good or not good?
- Thread starter PsyEx
- Start date
I recently ran into some free wheelweights at the same time my dad and his buddies ran out of pure lead for their muzzleloaders. They figured they'd give it a shot, and as far as i know with patched balls, have had no issues this far.
With patched balls in a smoothbore, WW will be fine. In a BP revolver where you need to shave a ring of lead so seat a bullet, forget it. You will break the rammer. Pure lead only.
With patched ball in a rifle, it depends on bore diameter at the lands and patch thickness to see if you can get away with it.
With patched ball in a rifle, it depends on bore diameter at the lands and patch thickness to see if you can get away with it.
I have a Uberti 1851 and cast .357 inch balls and conical bullets for it.soft lead is the best as mentioned. Soft lead can be found in scrap yards in the form of flashing for roof vents,it tends to be dirty so you get a lot of slag but it is soft and easy to cut into pot size chunks.
I have heard that wheel weights are no longer made from lead alloys so you might get some unknown alloy with them.
I have heard that wheel weights are no longer made from lead alloys so you might get some unknown alloy with them.
