Casting lead balls for a muzzle loader

[Mark]

Here are some pics of lead balls for a 58 caliber muzzle loader being made. I thought you might find the process interesting.

Lead being melted over a camp fire then poured into the mould


You wait a few seconds for it to harden up


Open it and out drop the balls. You can see the "sprue" from the pour hole.


This mould has a built in cutter to remove the sprue. On some flat base moulds the cutter is a sliding plate, other types of moulds have no cutters at all and you need to use wire cutters


Finished and unfinished balls, with excess sprues cut off. The excess material gets re-melted and re-used



Here is a 50 caliber Hawken style rifle I have, and a few dinners I got with it a few years ago

[snIPer]

Hey thats nice Mark, I have one of those moulds with me. Belonged to my Grandfather and was used for casting balls for 12 guage shotgun cartridges.

[Mark]

I have one that I made out of soapstone, that I might post up some pictures sometime as well.

I hope that sometime there becomes an interest in muzzle loading again in India, as it would be quite economical to shoot once you cast your own balls. A load of 35 grains gives you 200 shots per pound. Use a flintlock and you don't have to deal with primers as well.

And besides that they are fun to shoot!

[Mack The Knife]

Lovely little tutorial.

Thanks.

Mack The Knife

[HSharief]

Very good instruction Mark, and a very nice buck too. I remembered the movie "The Patriot" when Mel Gibson's character makes his bullets from the miniature toys.

I wonder in India, what are the legalities of importing the modern muzzle loaders. I wonder if they're called "firearms".

[eljefe]

Mack The Knife.
when are you going to use that mould?

[Mack The Knife]

Forgot about that damn thing or did I give it back to you?

[Mark]

I was figuring that I'd have to show you guys how to use it sometime!

AS far as the legality of importing a modern made flintlock, I was under the impression it was simpler than an airgun as there are few or no restrictions on them?

[mundaire]

Quite some time back I'd made myself a steel mould (of sorts) by cutting a disposable CO2 cylinder in two and tried casting some bullets as an experiment. The lead used was from a variety of sources (used pellets, wheel weights, etc.).

When I poured the molten lead into this "mould", I found that the cast bullet would invariably end up with dimples and other imperfections. Then I tried rapid cooling by dipping the mould into water as soon as I poured the molten lead, this resulted in perfectly smooth bullets.

This was just an experiment and I never really used the cast bullets as the shape and dimensions of the mould were something I could not put to any use. I was just wondering if anyone else has faced a similar problem (of dimples caused by air-pockets) while casting bullets?

Cheers!
Abhijeet

[mundaire]

AS far as the legality of importing a modern made flintlock, I was under the impression it was simpler than an airgun as there are few or no restrictions on them?

Unfortunately not I recall that discussion we had here a while back, but penpusher recently checked with the authorities and muzzle loaders cannot be imported.

That said quite a few small outfits here do make muzzle loaders for sale to the domestic market and one can also dig out imported muzzle loaders (antiques) if one puts in some effort. The last time I checked with a dealer (in Jaipur) he offered me a (French made caplock) double barrel ML gun for around INR 5,000/-. Did not check, but singles would be much cheaper to buy... Though bore condition could be a bit of a problem with these old shooters....

Cheers!
Abhijeet

[cyrixoutside]

hi,

i have made 16 gauge lead ball from wheel weights on many occasion using an old mould that i have. i add wax to the molten lead when its very hot and that helps to remove the impurities (wheel weights tend to have lots of muck) and i have never gotten any air holes or dimples, just pure round balls.



rajat

[Mack The Knife]

I am curious. How would wax help to remove impurities from within lead?

[cyrixoutside]

hi,


i read about it in " The Complete Black Powder Handbook" By SAM FADALA.

it says on pg 186 that one should add paraffin wax to the hot molten lead.

but i dont really know the science behind it.

rajat

[Mack The Knife]

Thanks Rajat. If someone like Fadala mentions this then there must be a reason behind it. Would really like to know the scientific reason behind this.

P.S.: Does he mention any specific ratio of wax to lead in the book?

[dev]

I have one that I made out of soapstone, that I might post up some pictures sometime as well.

I hope that sometime there becomes an interest in muzzle loading again in India, as it would be quite economical to shoot once you cast your own balls. A load of 35 grains gives you 200 shots per pound. Use a flintlock and you don't have to deal with primers as well.

And besides that they are fun to shoot!

Thank You Mark. I really like the idea of being independent in the ammo arena. But as you know we can't import any but I have begun to find muzzle loading very appealing now. Specially the old dragoon colt replicas.


Regards,

Dev