?????

[droptine55]

have a friend who has cast roundballs out of wheel weights, i have heard that they are to hard for muzzleloading.but if they are wrapped in a patch, how are they going to do harm to thew barrel?or is this that they are to hard for hunting purposes. the other question is what %of weight of soft lead with the wheel weight lead would make it soft enough to be applicatable.

[flintriflesmith]

If the lead is too hard the balls will be very hard to load. Just push a patched ball in the bore and you will find dents and cloth prints at each land. Hard lead won't hurt the barrel but it may mean that loading is a pain.

Gary

[omark]

wheel weights can cause more damage to steel targets. they wont expand in game like soft lead, but, depending on what you are hunting, that may be an advantage as they penetrate deeper.  mark

[SCLoyalist]

The classic test for whether lead is soft enough to use for ML roundball is the 'thumbnail test.'  If you can't scratch the lead with your thumbnail and see a bright shiny scratch, it's too hard. 

Do a search on 'wheelweight' and you'll find lots of previous discussion on the pros and cons of using WW for smoothbores, hunting  and in rifles.

[Dphariss]

have a friend who has cast roundballs out of wheel weights, i have heard that they are to hard for muzzleloading.but if they are wrapped in a patch, how are they going to do harm to thew barrel?or is this that they are to hard for hunting purposes. the other question is what %of weight of soft lead with the wheel weight lead would make it soft enough to be applicatable.

It will depend on the land groove ratio of the barrel. I shoot WW and lead interchangeably in my 16 bore with 8 very narrow lands using a slightly thinner patch. NOTE: WW will cast a larger ball from the same mould when compared with lead. Most alloys used to harden lead will reduce the shrinkage and the ball will be a few thousands larger.
Green Mountain barrels should use WW OK since they have fairly narrow lands as well.
The myth that soft lead had to be used stems from the land groove ratios of original barrels with often had lands much wider than the grooves. Hard lead will cause grief in these for sure especially since the harder lead would have made a larger ball from the same mould..
The idea that WW balls would harm a barrel is simply ridiculous.
Letting the patches get dirty is a far greater threat.
Dan

[Daryl]

Ditto the above. As Dan and the other noted, WW won't harm the barrel, & his observation of different rifling styles is spot-on.  If you have difficlty getting pure lead, you can use WW, BUT - you willneed a smaller ball mould - depending on the calibre and groove depth, up to .020" smaller than the bore.

[droptine55]

thanks for all the input, has definately shed some light on the subject

[hanshi]

I plan on using WW in my .62 smoothie and will soon be ordering a .590 mold just for WW ball.

[Daryl]

I bought a .562" mould for the tight bore'd Enfield and have tried the mould with WW in a normal .580 bore'd rifle. They would perfectly, being some .018" undersize to it's bores.

Many guys here use WW in smoothbores, including myself, Taylor, Hatchet Jack, probably Leatherbelly and Crispy- 3 .62's, Taylor's .62 and .77, and Crispy shooting a 28 bore.  I believe Clarence is using pure lead balls in his 24 bore smoothie, same ball he uses in his .54 rifle barrel - same gun.

[Roger Fisher]

WW fine in a knuckleballer; but you will tear up your patching while loading it in a rifle barrel with a tight combo.

[Daryl]

Depends on the ball and patch size, Roger.  I've been shooting WW's out of the .69 since 1986.  Until I got the .675" mould, I had to stop using WW at 90gr. 3F, 110gr. 2F due to the thinner patches needed. At those levels, the pressure wa such that a thicker patch was needed, but couldn't be loaded with the first mould, a .684".  The smaller ball allows a .030" denim patch that maintains it's entegrity.  I've picked up all the spend patches, then re-lubed them and used them a second time with perfect accuracy and wihtout tearing or burning them on the second shot.