Non-lead round ball

[axelp]

ITX roundballs are made with a sintering process, where powdered metal (tungsten and iron) is combined with a malleable resin like substance, and heat injection molded.  They are generally softer than barrel steel but very much harder than lead. The small shot version of the product can be crushed easily with a pair of pliers but not the larger roundball version.

Another important thing to consider is you cannot use a standard ball puller should you dry ball. You have to unbreech the barrel and push it out with a rod, OR use a c02 discharger.

Ken

[axelp]

If you have a caliber that is not one of the 4 sizes that ITX offers, The best solution is to use your existing ball mold, using bismuth and tin alloy. Bismuth is quite dense like lead, and tin helps hold it together. It's malleable and will perform very similar to lead. the best % of bismuth and tin I found in my testing back in 2009, was 80% bismuth, and 20% tin. Any less tin, and the ball will shatter on impact as bismuth is quite dense like lead?  but rather brittle.

You can get ingots of Bismuth/Tin from Rotometals and they are certified and listed on the CA DFG approved non lead options.

Ken

[axelp]

There was a gent who frequented this board, that wrote and article about his California deer hunt using ITX. He totally misrepresented ITX by stating in the article that the product was made with bismuth... BUT he did take a deer with ITX.

Also, Black Powder Magazine, produced an article about ML champion Steve Chapman testing ITX, and his conclusion was that ITX was not inherently as accurate as lead, but that it was accurate enough to hunt with as long as you did your part. He also mentioned the risk of dryballing.

Ken

[Daryl]

Good info, Ken.

[axelp]

I forgot to mention that I believe our own Daryl also tested ITX roundball.

I have hunted with both ITX roundball and ITX shot. It works!!

The shot product is actually pretty good stuff. My favorite load is a duplex of #4 and #6 shot. I will admit the roundball product is kind of scary to use as you seriously do not want to dryball it... I also try to use the strongest patch material I can find, and usually use a pretty thin patch-- thinner that what I use for lead... not because it is more accurate, but because I am so fearful of getting the ball stuck in the bore.

Good luck.

Ken

[teakmtn]

Thanks Ken, Good stuff. I was hoping you would chime in here as I know you hunt in California and have done some experimenting with non-lead muzzleloading projectiles. I ordered some of the solid brass round balls. We'll see how that goes before I try molding up some balls.
Cheers, Doug T.

[axelp]

Doug, what zone are you going to be hunting? I hope you have a good hunt!

Ken

[Tim Crosby]

ITX roundballs are made with a sintering process, where powdered metal (tungsten and iron) is combined with a malleable resin like substance, and heat injection molded.  They are generally softer than barrel steel but very much harder than lead. The small shot version of the product can be crushed easily with a pair of pliers but not the larger roundball version.

Another important thing to consider is you cannot use a standard ball puller should you dry ball. You have to unbreech the barrel and push it out with a rod, OR use a c02 discharger.

Ken

 WOW! That is interesting, never heard of such.

  Thanks, Tim

[axelp]

I did not know anything about it until I met up with Continuous Metal, a company located in Ridgway, PA. They are the parent company for TomBob Outdoors that makes ITX. I am still listed as a "pro staffer" for TomBob Outdoors, but have not spoken to them in years. I have ITX roundball stored away in .50 cal size and some in .62 size... probably enough to last me a lifetime. I did a lot of shooting and testing early on, but lately not so much. I use ITX shot in my smoothbore quite a bit though--- I find that it works very well on my local turkey and gray squirrels.

BUT... if I could do so legally, I would use lead to hunt with. These muzzleloading guns were made to shoot lead and that's what they do best. My work developing lead free roundball was in desperation-- to be able to hunt the way I love to hunt. Yeah... I feel the passion of wanting to practice civil disobedience and just ignore the crazy California laws, but I had a son I was raising to respect the Law, and that was more important to me. Today he is grown up well, and his response to crazy California was to move to Idaho where he can live free(er). Maybe I will join him someday, and hunt with lead again.

Ken

[Hungry Horse]

 Lead free pewter is no harder to cast than lead. Does it melt at a different temperature, I’m sure it does, experiment with it. If people on YouTube can cast fancy googaas in a silicone mold with pewter melted over a burner on the stove, I’m sure I can make a bullet or two with my lead pot, and a mold.
 And by the way the CDFW has testers that can detect lead residue from a bullet hole.

Hungry Horse

[45dash100]

Lead free pewter is no harder to cast than lead. Does it melt at a different temperature, I’m sure it does, experiment with it. If people on YouTube can cast fancy googaas in a silicone mold with pewter melted over a burner on the stove, I’m sure I can make a bullet or two with my lead pot, and a mold.
 And by the way the CDFW has testers that can detect lead residue from a bullet hole.

Hungry Horse

I have some britannia metal (one of the common lead free pewters) that I recently used to repair an old jewelry box.  Britannia is 92% tin, 6% antimony, and 2% copper, and melts at just under 500f.  I also have some Callahan bullet molds that have never been tested.  Figured I'd give it a shot.

Was quite difficult to get it to pour into the mold, kept balling up and running over the side.  Even after heating up the mold a good bit.   Every time I've cast it into silicone, there was a much bigger hole.  Maybe lead has a lower viscosity when melted, I've never actually tried to cast lead before.     I'm not that experience at casting any metals either.  This recent jewelry box repair was my first foray into that world.



Had to get it a bit hotter than I liked for it to flow into the mold, and even that took a couple tries.  Ended up just heating the mold with the propane torch till the metal I had inside remelted.  The nice thing about it, is that it takes almost no time to melt with a propane torch.



You can tell from the purple and yellow oxidization that it got hotter than optimal.  Still perfectly serviceable.  In the midst of remelting things I don't think I kept the mold closed all the way.  No big deal, the flashing came off with a finger.



Here's the weight of it compared to some identically sized lead balls from Kibler.





Lead seems to weigh almost exactly a third more. 33.46%

Ran some numbers to compare it to the brass balls.  Pure lead seems to be around 11.348 g/cm3, and 260 Brass is 8.53 g/cm3.  Lead weight is only 25% heavier than brass.

With a 58 caliber gun, I really don't know if those weight differences matter.  It's possible that lead free pewter would expand better than brass.  Could make up for lost weight. 

Of course, you could also just work up a double ball load if you're worried about it. 

I've shot a bunch of .54 double ball loads, .58 can't be too much worse.

[axelp]

Yes, pewter does melt at a low temp and is easy to mold, but pewter is not close in density to lead. If the goal is to have a projectile that will perform like lead both in accuracy and in the ethical harvesting of game, then it needs to have a similar density/weight. Sure, there are stories of the old dead guys melting pewter forks and spoons to make roundball in the case of a indian attack, but this was a desperation measure, and I doubt anyone won any shooting contest with it.

In my testing years ago, I tried using other easy to mold options, and none of them performed like lead. The lighter balls would bounce off my target or shatter with little penetration. With bismuth and tin, I was able to get "decent" penetration on my test target. (a thick piece of split poplar.) It was still not identical to lead but it was closer.

ITX non-lead roundball is very dense, and in my tests (baled, wet newspaper) it had significantly deeper penetration that lead did on a target. It has zero expansion however. Brass balls too will have zero expansion. Something to consider for sure. But in a .58 cal size, maybe expansion is not a deal breaker.

Both ITX and Brass will also have serious ricochet risk, so be careful shooting steel or gongs with it... If you drop a lead ball on a tile floor, it does not bounce. (thunk). If you drop an ITX ball on the floor, it will bounce. Brass? it too will bounce...

I don't know how the CA game wardens test in the field if you are using lead. I seriously doubt they do any testing at all. When I go out, I carry with me some of the product packaging for ITX. If I am using my own Bismuth/Tin roundball, then the game warden would need to take a sample or take my word for it. I have never encountered a game warden in my woods. With a muzzle loader, they cannot ask you to unload to show what's in your gun like a breechloader so... Its one of those funny laws that the details were not all thought out before it was enacted.

Ken

[Daryl]

I would think the bismuth/tin is what I would use in a .58.
The other option would be the .562" brass balls.
Had the ITX balls been smaller in dia. Like
.480" instead of .490", I am sure we could have tested them.
I now have a .50, but didn't when Ken sent them to me. Of course now that summer is here, I cannot do any testing. I'm busy for the summer.

[teakmtn]

Thanks again Ken and Daryl. Ken, my tag is for X8. Which is basically East Slope Sierra, Alpine County. Carson Pass to Ebbets Pass. I have hunted the area a lot with a bow when I could get a tag. So this should be fun with my new Flintlock. I will try the Brass balls in .562, however, if I want to try molding some balls, what size mold should I consider? I read here that the Rotometals mixture will expand when cooling. Is there a formula to use to come up with the correct ball size? I'd rather not have to purchase several molds just for experimenting purposes. I will order a Callahan mold for running lead balls but am I correct that a non-lead mold will be a different size?
Thanks again,
Doug T.

[axelp]

Yes the bismuth expands. hmmm I would try them in whatever mold you currently have, and measure the ball to see what the expansion is. Then order a custom callahan mold.

You might be able to contact Rotometals and they might have data. They are pretty decent folks.

Ken

[45dash100]

Thanks again Ken and Daryl. Ken, my tag is for X8. Which is basically East Slope Sierra, Alpine County. Carson Pass to Ebbets Pass. I have hunted the area a lot with a bow when I could get a tag. So this should be fun with my new Flintlock. I will try the Brass balls in .562, however, if I want to try molding some balls, what size mold should I consider? I read here that the Rotometals mixture will expand when cooling. Is there a formula to use to come up with the correct ball size? I'd rather not have to purchase several molds just for experimenting purposes. I will order a Callahan mold for running lead balls but am I correct that a non-lead mold will be a different size?
Thanks again,
Doug T.

Rotometals links to a forum thread discussing the stuff.

https://www.artfulbullet.com/index.php?threads/lead-free-bullet-casting-alloy.5585/

Sounds like it expands a bit, but not horribly.  One user said .001-.002 and possibly another thousandth if the mold was really warm.  Don't think that's really enough to worry about when you're shooting with a patched round ball. 

I'd probably just buy a standard size mold and play with patches.  If you're worried about it expanding more than that it shouldn't hurt anything to have a ball size slightly smaller.  You'd just need thicker patches.

[Daryl]

As far as a mould goes, I would think in terms of a .562".