Copper ball being fired from muzzle loader ?

Been reading of the push to cut down on the use of lead as bullits . Anyone developed a copper alloy bullit to replace
The lead round ball ?

Someone was doing an experiment with I believe brass RBs for California hunting with great success. I don't remember his moniker though.

I believe that was "roundball."

Maven said:

I believe that was "roundball."

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Yeah. He was using 58 caliber because brass balls were available for it. As I recall he couldn't find any that fit so well for use in 50 and 54 caliber, which he also shot a lot. Pretty thorough and exhaustive testing, and results were indeed outstanding.

Here's a few links to some very old posts by Roundball concerning his testing of brass balls.
http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/...tid/295766/post/1499191/fromsearch/1/#1499191
http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/274030/post/1208027/fromsearch/1/
http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/...tid/270850/post/1167400/fromsearch/1/#1167400
http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/...tid/270850/post/1165872/fromsearch/1/#1165872

The problem with finding brass or copper balls that would be suitable for shooting in a .50 or .54 caliber barrel is, most of the commercially available balls are made in common fractional sizes in variations of 1/16".

The 1/2" balls are usually within .001 of being .500 so there is no room left for patches.

The 9/16" balls are .5625 so they are larger than a .54 but roundball found they work nicely in a .58.

One that might work in a .45 is the 7/16 diameter ball. 7/16 is .4375 which is only a couple of thousandths smaller than the .440 diameter balls that are often used in a .45 caliber gun.

One thing that should be remembered.
Most of the suppliers of things like brass balls are in the business of selling thousands of balls at a time to commercial companies. They might not want to sell only a few hundred balls without charging large amounts of money for their services.

Thanks Jim. I'm not smart enough with the search function to hunt them up myself. But I never saved the links to my favorites. All done now, and I appreciate it.

Rotometals also sells a non-lead casting alloy....

The biggest problem is with legal definitions....Personally, I think muzzleloaders should be exempt for any non-lead laws.

Colorado Clyde said:

Personally, I think muzzleloaders should be exempt for any non-lead laws.

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Not sure the 'Colorado Clyde defense' would work. Will likely get you the electric chair in any state that bans lead in muzzleloaders.

I'll have to switch to gold then.... :wink:

Thanks gents . Well done .

There are a host of problems with such non-lead balls. The cloth patch does not indent the ball, and the ball does not swage slightly to the shape of the rifling. There is no obturation upon ignition. On top of that the lighter density of most other metals means higher deceleration due to air resistance. Lastly, less mass x velocity upon impact, ie fewer ft lbs of energy. Pewter would at least be easier to mold to proper size than to find brass or copper balls the right size.

zimmerstutzen said:

There are a host of problems with such non-lead balls. The cloth patch does not indent the ball, and the ball does not swage slightly to the shape of the rifling. There is no obturation upon ignition.

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That's all true. But when theory was faced up with reality, Roundball got superb accuracy with the brass balls. Still scratching my head over that one. But you can't argue with holes in paper versus words on paper.

The balls are also really, really cheap compared to any other nontox balls. His fine work made me really, really proud to already own 58 calibers against the day nontox is required, especially if it spills over from the hunting fields to the range. I figure at that point, owning a rack of 58 calibers will be like owning stock in Apple or Amazon! :rotf: