round ball alloy hardness?

[El Lobo]

Hey Guys,


Okay, suppose you've got a muzzleloader that's set up specifically to shoot round ball.  How hard can the ball be and still be accurate?    I've got access to backstop lead from a local indoor pistol range .... would this recycled lead be soft enough?


Lobo in West Virginia

[captchee]

 that would depend on  a few things .
mould size , patch material  and such . Myself i dont follow the  thought of soft lead  shoot most all alloys.
  For best results however I find the ball must be soft enough to scratch with your thumbnail .
 This ensures that the patch material will properly grip the ball . Thus  correctly imparting the twist of the barrel onto the ball 

[Will Bison]

Never turn down free lead. As to hardness, there is but one way to find out--- cast some balls. I cast mine about 2% tin as pure lead won't cast well.

[Slamfire]

Never turn down free lead. As to hardness, there is but one way to find out--- cast some balls. I cast mine about 2% tin as pure lead won't cast well.

40 to 1 alloy (2.5% tin) has a BNH of 8.5, or a little more'n twice that of "pure" lead.  I'd guess 1% tin might be enough, but I don't know where you can find 80 to 1 alloy.

[Will Bison]

Slamfire;

I buy lead cable sheathing and do a BNH on it, the same scrap yard also has 50-50 in bars. I have been buying from this outfit for 35 years and I load up (several tons at a time) every few years. It's easy to make whatever alloy I want.

Bill

[crow_feather]

twill be nice ta do yer testin, but there are more facters than jest havin sumpin round and hard inside da patch.  Pure lead or as near to it as possible is best.  Ifn backstop lead is mixed, one pot twil be differn from the next.  The weave of the patch needs to grip the ball, actually impress on it in order to get accuracy.  Otherwise the ball will not spin with the patch and there is no accuracy.  Best of luck.

[Ironwood]

The lead has to be soft enough for the patch material to engrave the ball.  Also the lead needs to be soft enough to be loaded without distortion.   Here's what a CO2 discharged, near pure lead, ball looks like.

 

[El Lobo]

Hey Guys,

Yes, I'm aware that soft lead ball will work best.....just wondering exactly how soft.  I mark my ingots as to content so I won't get them mixed.  If I'd have to "soften" my back stop scrap by adding pure lead to it, I'd go with the pure lead and skip the trouble.  Just wondering if any of you all had done this before.....not much in shooting sports that hasn't been tried!!!

Lobo in West Virginia

[crow_feather]

I tried wheel weights once. got terrible accuracy. balls kept goin flat.

[Woodbutcher]

 Crowfeather, you're a dangerous man! 
                                                             Woodbutcher

[captchee]

mmMM?  you dint put any old lead roofing nails in the melt did ya ?

[crow_feather]

Oh Heck!!!!!!!    Roofing nails, knew I shoulda left them out.  But I'm not the only one has that problem.  I have seen a bunch a guys at the range blowing down the barrel of their front stuffers tryin ta blow them flat wheel weight balls back round again.                         -                                     really!

[Rickk]

Saeco makes a hardness tester that will help you out... althought a calibrated fingernail isn't bad either.

Depending on your local range clientel and range rules you may have some combination of jacketed and unjacketed bullets in the scrap.

Jacketed bullets are generally 99+ percent pure lead.

non-jacketed could be just about anything, but will probably average out to something close to Lyman #2 alloy.

If you can separate jacketed from non-jacketed, and only use the jacketed scrap for front-loaders you will be fine.

If not, well... softer is generally better. If the accuracy is adequate and you are able to get the ball down the barrel without hurting yourself I guess all is well. It is hard to turn down lead if it is free and meets your needs.

[El Lobo]

Thanks for the jacketed/non jacketed tip  Rick,

The range is an indoor pistol range.....lots of 9mm and 45 ACP.  It would help if I took my dutch oven  did a melt, and checked the hardness of the resulting ingots!!

Lobo in West Virginia

[Slamfire]

Mixed wheel weights work pretty good in my smoothbore, but I don't patch them, just put in an over shot wad.