45-70 BP casting mix?

[Will52100]

I have a Uberti high wall in 45-70 and was wondering what the best mix of lead would be for a 500 grain bullet backed by black powder?  The rifling is fairly shallow compared to some black powder rifling I've seen but is very smooth.

I have wheel wieghts and pure lead(or least dead soft, may have a little tin, not much)

The rifle with a BP load chrono's at just under 1200 fps.  Would pure lead be too soft for this?

I have my ignots cast into 1lb. blocks, so any mixing would be 3 parts lead to 1 part WW, something like that.

This is not a competition rifle, nor a hunting rifle, just a "fun gun".  Or least it will be when I get a recoil pad on mule kicking thing!

Any suggestions would be greatly apreciated.

[powderburner]

a lot of people have a lot of different ideas .that said , my experiances has been if you shoot a softer alloy you can size a bit smaller . ie if your sizing die isnt exactly right , and the bullets will bump up to seal off the gasses . when I use WW I find I need to size the bullets a bit largeet 1 to 2 thousands over size as they will not seal as well unless I do .the most important thing is to get a good black powder lube and be sure it is bp lube and even try a few different ones ,other than that all lead will shoot with what you are going to do with your gun .almost always the leading is caused bu a poor lube, and smokeless lubes do not work well with black.

 these rifles are all individual and all have their likes and dislikes shoot it a lot and as a couple good shooters say let the rifle tell you what it likes .................... Dean

[Will52100]

Thanks, I think next I'll try pure lead and see what happens.

[Leftoverdj]

Will, my accuracy improved when I went to 50/50 lead/ww in the .45-70. Haven't gotten around to trying straight lead yet.

[dodd3]

for hunting i cast pure lead when shooting black powder and low smokeless loads you have to use a good lube that will stop leading .
bernie :-)

[hdj2520]

try a 1/20  tin to lead  with s.p.g. lube.