Pouring your own balls

[R.M.]

Hey Beav, do you think it was the brass or some moisture within. The reason I ask is, I melt down range scrap all the time, and it does have the odd .22 case in it. You should see it when a live .22 gets in it. Now you  talk about your Mount Vesuvius. Didn't know this old fat fart could move that fast.  

[Three Hawks]

One other safety issue, if you find old fishing weights and want to melt them down, make sure you have cut ALL the brass fittings from them ( if they have them such as snaps and barrel swivels etc.) BEFORE YOU DROP IT INTO A HOT POT!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mount Vesuvious time if you dont, please dont ask how I know this, its dang ugly!

What Beav said.  

If I salvage old fishing sinkers, I do it with a hand held propane torch, letting the lead melt off the main body of the sinker into a #10 tin can.  You'd be amazed at the crap I've found in sinkers.   I don't often use them any more, too risky.

I don't think the brass wire and things are particularly bad, but I'm sure water seeps in around the loops.  Also those dang bead chain swivels will harbor drops of water for a long time.  I think the salt left in them from salt water drying in the swivels isn't a good thing either as salt is hygroscopic (attracts water) and will be wet if it's at all moist out.

I do my casting in the garage, with the rollup door in front and the back door and window all open for cross ventilation.  

Three Hawks

[FG1]

During cold weather I bring my lead inside to acclimate before adding it to a hot pot . If you throw a cold ingot from out of doors in a hot pot it sweats instantly and pop !! lead splatters all over !

Had a big fly commit suicide once by dive bombing my lead pot and the resulting pop splattered a little lead spray.

[Sean McKown]

Along the lines of FG1,  I only cast outside, but in cold weather I have a plate that has a whole cut in the can go around the pot.  I set teh ingots on it to preheat them, molds also.

  I use a cast iron lead pot(holds about 30 #)  and a turkey fryer burner.  I usually cast with 2 molds, when one get too hot, I switch to let cool down, speeds up production that.   I have a new rifle that almost finished so I cast 1000  .54 cal balls last weekend,  gonna be a big weekend at the range.

[wwpete52]

I highly recommend casting your own round balls.  It's super easy if you have the right stuff: 1) a Lee electric lead pot 2) a round ball mold 3) an old dinner spoon 4) a candle 5) lead.

The Lee electric lead pot is easy to use and it is cheap.  Search ebay for a used one or a great price on a new one.

I recommend a Lee round ball mold because they come complete with handles, are cheap and heat up fast.  

The old dinner spoon is used to scrape off the slag on top of the lead in the pot. Slag=the junk that floats to the top of hot lead.

The candle is used as a flux in the lead pot.  Every once in a while you'll want to drop a tiny piece of wax in the pot to keep the lead clean and flowing.

Lead.  Here's the great part.  Ebay has pure lead cheap if you can't get it locally.  The United States Post Office really helps with their flat rate boxes.  There is a seller right now that has pure lead (NOT WHEEL WEIGHTS) for less than $48 shipped for 50+ pounds!  That's less than a $1 a pound.  That ain't bad!

That's it.  It's fast, easy and cheap once you get setup.  You don't even have to break the bank getting setup.  Remember this one word: EBAY!  If you are patient and keep looking on Ebay you will be able to find what you need cheap.  There are rip offs on Ebay but just be patient.  A good deal will come up.  Track of the Wolf is a reasonable online seller for new stuff.

For my friends on the forum that haven't used Ebay much: Please get yourself a PayPal account and become an Ebay member!  I can't even begin to tell you some of the awesome deals I have found not to mention the sells I have made.

I repeat: Don't be intimidated about casting ball.  It's A LOT cheaper than buying pre-cast balls and it's easy.

[bluelake]

This past summer, I picked up 100# of WW lead from a local tire store for $20 (the going rate for scrap was actually about .25 a pound).  The place had about 500#, but my vehicle could only hold so much.

I have an old electric melting pot and it works just fine.  It takes about fifteen minutes before it's hot enought to melt, but it really gets going after that.  Next summer, I may try something different, but we'll see.

[melsdad]

I have been told by different people that wheel weight lead is to hard, but I also still hear of alot of people using it to cast round balls.

So what is the to do, or not, to do on wheel weight lead?

Thanks
Brian

[bluelake]

I have been told by different people that wheel weight lead is to hard, but I also still hear of alot of people using it to cast round balls.

So what is the to do, or not, to do on wheel weight lead?

Thanks
Brian

I dunno.  I cast and shot a lot of balls out of WW lead this past summer--they shot well and nothing seemed the worse for wear.  Still, here's a web page on possible problems (mainly with weight differences between different wheel weight alloys): http://home.earthlink.net/~potomac008/Lead%20Alloys.htm

[Sean McKown]

Well, it is harder.  Loads harder, so when I normally use a .495 ball in pure lead, I will use a .490 mold for wheel weight.  They dont deform like soft lead does, and are not as heavy by a few grains. BUT it is a PATCHED round ball so it doesnt touch the barrel. I havent found any accuracy difference. maybe from a bench, but I shoot offhand unless im adjusting sights.   and its cheap.   I recently ended up with about 175# of wheel weights for 20$. That was after I melted it down and skimmed off the clips and other assorted trash.  As opposed to 13.99 for hornady balls per 100.

  That being said I use soft lead for hunting.

[R.M.]

Should you cast balls from wheel-weights, do not drop them into water from the mold. It will make them that much harder. Don't need that.

[biliff]

So what is the to do, or not, to do on wheel weight lead?

As others said for PRB its probably not a big deal. If you're shooting a C&B revolver, though, you might bend your loading lever trying to swage 'em into the chamber.

[bluelake]

So what is the to do, or not, to do on wheel weight lead?

As others said for PRB its probably not a big deal. If you're shooting a C&B revolver, though, you might bend your loading lever trying to swage 'em into the chamber.

This is just from my own personal experience, but I cast and shot not only RB for my C&B out of WW, but also conicals.  Again, just like with the PRB I made for my matchlock musket and flintlock pistols, I had no problems; they pushed right into the chambers with no extra effort compared with RBs I bought.  YMMV (Your mileage may vary).

[wwpete52]

Wheel weight lead is alright for smoothbores but I won't use it in a rifle.

[rickevans]

I got started casting balls when i got my .62 cal  fusil. My son got a bucked of WW for me. Because of the size of the ball, hard cast WW balls will be used for deer hunting this fall. A .62 cal hole all the way through a fat doe is suffecient.

[vermontfreedom]

pretty much anything i would add has basically been covered except how much you shoot.

about 2-3 years ago I asked myself the same question (cast own or buy). Back then I was shooting about 600 rounds a year out of my then only ML, a .54 flintlock.

I actually did a bunch of calculations to compare economy of buying balls (then about $11 per 100 for 0.530 or 0.535) versus casting. Assuming I could find free lead, I figured with buying a standard (dip-style) Lee electric pot, Lyman single mold and used handles, and dipper, it woule take me 2-3 years to pay off the investment in the equipment.

However, I've since dropped to shooting perhaps only 100-200 rounds per year (many other new obligations have prevented as much range time as I used to enjoy).

But I came in to about 60 pounds of free lead and, very importantly, I started recapturing my balls and am able to collect about 80-90% of lead I shoot merely by shooting into magazines stuffed into cardboard boxes.

Lastly, there are the intangibles mentioned by others: the sheer enjoyment of making your own, particularly gratifying to use your own balls to harvest game!!!

BOTTOM LINE: if you shoot a couple of times per year, have only 1 or 2 round ball MLs, and hunt (and fire) just a few times per year, it's probably NOT worth the investment on a purely monetary basis.

If you shoot >100 and definitely >200 or 300 rounds per year, it will pay for itself ESPECIALLY as lead become more expensive to buy and harder to scrounge.

Like MOST hobbies, economics really aren't part of the equation. Do it because you love it, enjoy it, and don't worry about the nickles and dimes - probably small peanuts compared to mortgage/rent, car payments, grocery bills, etc.