I am new to BP guns and was wondering about Soft lead versa hard lead. I have been told to use only soft lead in my model 1858 handgun and I have some but only about 15 pounds of it but I do have a large quantity of wheel weight lead. My question is can I mix half and half of soft lead with wheel weight lead together. will this work in my gun is this safe and why do BP guns use soft rather than hard lead.
question about lead soft vs hard
- Thread starter kgs
- Start date
The 1858 gun I am presuming to be a percussion revolver; if so then the reason for soft lead is that you use oversize balls and force them into the chambers, shaving a ring of excess lead off the ball. If the ball is too hard, that may be difficult. Best answer is to try a few and see if a 50-50 mix is excessively difficult to load.
In cartridge rifles, many use a mixture of roughly 5% alloy which permits cleaner, sharper casting while keeping the bullet soft enough to obturate during firing. In a muzzle loading rifle shooting round ball, for ordinary target shooting, the ball never touches the bore and you could shoot marbles figuratively speaking
cheers mooncoon
In cartridge rifles, many use a mixture of roughly 5% alloy which permits cleaner, sharper casting while keeping the bullet soft enough to obturate during firing. In a muzzle loading rifle shooting round ball, for ordinary target shooting, the ball never touches the bore and you could shoot marbles figuratively speaking
cheers mooncoon
Is your 1858 Remington a repro or an original gun?
There can be HUGE differences in dimensions, the new ones generally being a lot more consistent; they really didn't have that much of a handle on tolerances in the States yet. The FIRST industrial product to be made with PRECISION and with 100% interchangeable parts was the 1858 Enfield rifle. EVEN Colt handfitted parts for best function although the parts were machine-made.
If your gun is an original, don't even think about hard lead. Save that for your modern rifles; it works fine at higher velocities. I use wheelweight metal in Tokarev, Steyr and Luger pistols, also in my SMLEs, but my Martini and Sniders get only the softest, buttery metal I can find.
BTW you CAN de-alloy your wheelweight metal to a great extent by melting it and NOT fluxing it. Let it remain molten at heat and skim the Antimony off the top, then pour off the bottom, melt another batch. Stuff you pour off the bottom will be much softer.
For an OLD gun, you need stuff that you can groove with your thumbnail.
Hope this helps.
There can be HUGE differences in dimensions, the new ones generally being a lot more consistent; they really didn't have that much of a handle on tolerances in the States yet. The FIRST industrial product to be made with PRECISION and with 100% interchangeable parts was the 1858 Enfield rifle. EVEN Colt handfitted parts for best function although the parts were machine-made.
If your gun is an original, don't even think about hard lead. Save that for your modern rifles; it works fine at higher velocities. I use wheelweight metal in Tokarev, Steyr and Luger pistols, also in my SMLEs, but my Martini and Sniders get only the softest, buttery metal I can find.
BTW you CAN de-alloy your wheelweight metal to a great extent by melting it and NOT fluxing it. Let it remain molten at heat and skim the Antimony off the top, then pour off the bottom, melt another batch. Stuff you pour off the bottom will be much softer.
For an OLD gun, you need stuff that you can groove with your thumbnail.
Hope this helps.
Thanks guys for the info I appreciate it. The gun is a replica made by pietta.
I will experiment with a half and half mix and will seek out soft lead.
Skinny 1950 I may take you up on your offer to send some lead up to me and thanks for offering. I will look around PG first.
Another question is how do you get a stuck ball out. I assume you remove the nipple and tap it out but is there other ways to do it.
I will experiment with a half and half mix and will seek out soft lead.
Skinny 1950 I may take you up on your offer to send some lead up to me and thanks for offering. I will look around PG first.
Another question is how do you get a stuck ball out. I assume you remove the nipple and tap it out but is there other ways to do it.
Yep - if you have a nipple wrench, undo the nipple, trickle a little powder in, replace nipple, put gun back together, fire - making sure the original load didn't burn and create an excessive gap for the powder to blow up in, by reseating the ball on the new powdercharge. I think this is more of an issue in muzzle loading rifles where there's a lot more room for the ball to go, but still, better safe than sorry! 
Another option is compressed air.
Another option is compressed air.
