Question on lead?

Ace Lungger · July 10, 2008, 06:49:25 AM

Howdy Pards,
I have casted bullets for a long time, but allways for my 45acp, and 9mm. I have allways used wheel wieghts, but I was told that w.w. was to hard for C.& B. a friend of mine said he would bring me some (lead sheets) I have seen this kind of stuff many years ago! How do you come up with soft lead I assume this would be pure lead? so you could say I am in the DARK! I do have a friend that has a hardness tester but I didn't ask him about what or how it works?

If any one can help me out here I would great full, I went over to the casting bullet site and done some reading but after the second line

it was over my head! That doesn't take much anymore

As I stated, and I will be greatfull but please keep the explaintion to a 10 year old boys level !

Thanks
ACE

Pitspitr · July 10, 2008, 07:28:25 AM

Hi Ace

Yes, "soft" lead is pure or at least more pure than WW. WW has antimony mixed with it. Another way of "hardening" lead is by mixing tin with it. You can get lead from plumbing supply shops, out of hospital x-ray rooms i(if they remodel) or reloading suppliers.

I don't know if you could get a WW roundball pushed into a cylinder, but I kind of doubt it.

Dick Dastardly · July 10, 2008, 07:29:21 AM

That sheet lead was probably used for roof flashing. It's pure lead. So is plumbers lead. I got some pure lead from a beta ray counter shield. That's pure lead.

WW lead is too hard for C&B because they actually swage the ball to exact size by shaving a small lead ring off the bullet when you seat it. You need dead soft lead for your C&B guns.

If you look in the reference section that Cuts Crooked set up, you will find some posts on hardness testing. There's a good one in there on using different hardness lead pencils to test hardness. It's cheap, repeatable and it works.

Good luck,

DD-DLoS

P.S. I got your 5 bux and shipped my old round ball mold to you. I don't use it and it sounds like you can. Happy shooting.

hellgate · July 10, 2008, 09:50:56 AM

You are likely to bend the rammer trying to seat WW balls in the C&B. They're too hard. Most scrap lead is soft enough. Check out the pencil test hardness article i submitted. Otherwise if you can score the lead with your fingernail it is probably soft enough.

Ace Lungger · July 10, 2008, 11:31:43 AM

I will check that out Pards> Do you think a personn could go a 50%ww &50% pure and get buy?
Thanks ACE

Pitspitr · July 10, 2008, 12:06:50 PM

I don't think you could in a cap & ball revolver. If you have problems finding the lead, why not just go to Wally world and buy some swaged rb's?

Noz · July 10, 2008, 01:19:16 PM

Stay away from WW in round balls. They are too hard. One of the results is a theory of mine that the chain fires (4) I have had are primarily due to a hard round ball that did not swage sufficiently to seal the mouth of the chambers. Any casting flaw, ie sprue, that is in contact with the chamber wall is an open channel for flash to travel. Not a pleasant event. And no, before any one should respond, the flash did not come through the nipple from an unseated or improperly seated cap.
Since I went to exclusively using dead soft lead my chain fires have dropped to 0.

hellgate · July 10, 2008, 03:08:21 PM

Spend 8 bucks and get 100 .454 RBs at the local toy store. If you bend or break the rammer (or in a brass framed Colt) pull the cylinder pin loose you will wish you has softer lead. Set the WWs aside for the rifle. A 50/50 mix of soft lead and WWS is fine for CAS. That is what I do with them.

Ace Lungger · July 13, 2008, 08:36:02 PM

:)I have a friend that is to bring me some sheet lead, should be a nice size amount, I also tried to trade for some just a little bit ago on another forum! And that is funny, because I have never bought but $15.00 worth of lead for casting in my life, and that just a couple months ago! I would like to say that I would be shooting a lot, but that would be a lie! Without a miracle I will be shooting less and less, and when I saw those guns and I had to have them! Sold some stuff got my $300.00 from the feds and I got a mate coming soon! Going to make a spring steel cover the cyclinder D,S. Rig and play!

Thanks for all the help from everyone, i am going to try and find that thread that was mentioned, I have a lot of reading to do! I bought 100 felt wads yesterday and the sales person told me toput my powder in, then the ball and the patch last

That is not what I thought you were to do?

Thanks again
ACE

will52100 · July 13, 2008, 10:21:20 PM

Do what!? Some people. No, you put powder, wad, then ball. I used them in the past, but have since almost quit using wads unless I'm putting a couple hundred rounds down range then every so offten I'll put some lubed wads in to help clean the crud out of the bore. No idea if it works or not but I've got plenty of wads. Most times I just put a swipe of crisco over the top of the ball to keep the fouling soft and cylinder arbore lubed.

I've been experimenting with Lee's conicle bullets and so far they seem more accurate than round ball. I haven't put them on paper, just hitting steel and cans and such. I pan lube them with home brew lube, mutton tallow, bee's wax and parifine. It's the same lube I use on all my black powder bullets. Only down side is I had to round the sharp corner off the loading port of just about every cap gun I've got to get the things to load. Looking at originals they all were chamfered, looks like the imports skipped that step.

I've tried WW round balls, didn't like them, they wear hard to load but shot just fine. I would think a steady diet of them would cause undue wear or damage to loading leaver, especialy something like the Remington with a week rammer. If I remember my lead hardness #'s rite straight WW is just about the same hardness as 20 or 30-1 lead tin.

Ace Lungger · July 14, 2008, 05:12:44 PM

A friend of mine came buy and we were talking, and he said that he had some inots of pure lead and he would just swap ww ingots for his, so I am okay for a while! I just need to find a place to read up on loading data, ect. I want to shoot aas light a load as I can or maybe a little above the minum. I was told since I had a jug of Pyrodex to use it up, it is rs-ffg, I was advise to use 24 gr. Since I bought these wads, they are not wonder wads I am sorry that I cannot remember the brand I think it is the brand that made my powder flask I bought one of the round brass and it has 3 letters on it! I was wondering, since I have the wads, could I get buy with 20gr. of powder?
I am a pure Dumb A$$ when it comes to BP!
One more and I will shut up, don't most of you shoot plain B.P.??

I would be deeply greatful for ant and all advice.
ACE

hellgate · July 14, 2008, 09:07:41 PM

Ace,
Pyrodex ignites better when heavily compressed. I used to use it occasionally when I ran out of FFFg BP and found unless I really ram the ball hard I would get a paBOOM rather than a BOOM with BP. The wad softens the degree of ramming so I got more delayed ignition with the wads than without when using Pyrodex (I was using Pyro-P). You could use 20grs by volume. I use 20 grs as my "gamer" load in the C&B 44s. Keep some of your WW metal and blend it 50/50 with the soft stuff for the rifle bullets you are likely to cast. If not, trade off the whole bunch of WWs as they will eventually ruin your C&Bs.

Ace Lungger · July 17, 2008, 03:50:25 PM

:)Hellgate, I am going to try the 20gr. WW and ball, I will make sure it nrams tight, Im am also going to use some BP butter I made up and just likely seal over the ball. When I run out of the Pyrodex I have, I am going to use the Goex or it Geox, how ever it is spelled, that is what I want to use.

Thanks for the help you all have gave me!
ACE