Can you use lead rounds that were chambered and then ejected without firing?

[Notchy Bob]

I wouldn't throw the deformed balls away, in any event. Somebody could use them, and maybe the OP will try his hand at casting.

At the old-time beef shoots, the right and left hindquarters were the first and second prizes, and the third and fourth place winners each got a forequarter. The hide and tallow went to the fifth place, and number six earned the right to salvage the lead from the backstop. It was valuable.

My dad had a little range down in a creek bottom when I was a kid. He had short (maybe five foot) sections of old telephone poles placed vertically as a backstop. After every shooting session, we would pick out whatever bullets we could from the backstop, the ones that didn't penetrate too deeply, and save the lead to re-cast. I remember one time, I found a fragment of a .22 bullet. I dropped it on the ground and said something to the effect that it was "too small to save." Dad assured me it was not, and I didn't leave the site until I had grabbled around in the leaf litter long enough to find it again. Lesson learned.

I also remember charging our muzzleloaders with shot. If a couple of pellets spilled while loading, dad would hold my gun and have me pick them up. "Those are the ones that'll kill the squirrel," he said.

As I heard to old timers say back then, "He didn't waste nothin'."

Notchy Bob

 

[Britsmoothy]

Clearly they are, as I explained. Anyway I won't in the future. I have plenty of clients who pay me for my linguistic services.

No really they are not needed.
I would rather stay illiterate and ignorant than a presumptuous arrogant person.
You ain't never going to see any of my dollar.
Oh and your use of the word "toss", do folk pay you to teach them that also?

 

[Dude]

You guys are killing me.

The OP asked an honest question and here you are, arguing over the answers... LOL

It's obviously winter and stir-crazy has set in. Keep it up, I'm enjoying the show.

I guess lead isn't as valuable as it once was - two bucks a pound is peanuts these days. Back eighty or a hundred years ago, it wouldn't only have been the cost, but the fact that you might have to go thirty or forty miles into town to get more.

What interests me is the results of your experiment. Were the cylinder bores uniform or varied widely?

 

[French Colonial]

Once the balls are out of the cylinder they are worthless for anything but melting down and recasting.

Unless the individual cylinders have been reamed with a cylinder reamer they are probably not exactly the same and a smaller ball in a bigger chamber.....yada yada not going to work

 

[Packrat]

I would just te- melt them

 

[shorthair]

I'm missing something here.
What was the point of this exercise again?
Just shoot the freaking things out!
Why do people put videos up that are looking to fix an issue that a; may not even exist and b; fix it via creating an issue!
Just take measurements of the cylinder mouths, the throat and muzzle. Or, lube the barrel and push a ball through it.

It's not going to be miles away and don't forget soft lead likes to expand some on firing.
How does the revolver shoot? Good or bad?

Op said that he was testing a theory and loaded the balls in empty chambers then drove them out with an Allen wrench, which would have damaged the balls. But heck it's only 6 balls so I'd count it up to the price of education and call it cheap.

 

[Dusty_Traveler]

Get a small hole gauge set and some dial calipers! These will tell you all you want to know right now, and more in the future!

 

[Dusty_Traveler]

"Those are the ones that'll kill the squirrel," he said.

As I heard to old timers say back then, "He didn't waste nothin'."

Waste not, want not is something I’ve grown up appreciating.

 

[Britsmoothy]

Op said that he was testing a theory and loaded the balls in empty chambers then drove them out with an Allen wrench, which would have damaged the balls. But heck it's only 6 balls so I'd count it up to the price of education and call it cheap.

It was the theory I don't get and no, I don't mean I need it explaining..

The correct thing to do is take measurements with appropriate measuring equipment and slug the bore to take measurements.
If you do this pointless exercise suggested in a video one still has to take measurements and what if the revolver shoots well, it's even more a useless exercise!

 

[Sun City]

Sometimes really dumb questions are asked!

 

[shorthair]

It was the theory I don't get and no, I don't mean I need it explaining..

The correct thing to do is take measurements with appropriate measuring equipment and slug the bore to take measurements.
If you do this pointless exercise suggested in a video one still has to take measurements and what if the revolver shoots well, it's even more a useless exercise!

Very good point.

 

[nick_1]

Its just pistol shooting. a few thousands here and there don't mean nothing unless you are shooting bullseye. decades ago in a different life I was very serious about IPSC often when training in the winter i would use snowbanks as the backstock. Come springtime i would find all my 200gr semi wadcutters just laying there on the grass. about half of them were in good enough shape to run em right through the Dillon 550b press and load them into practice ammo for the .45 ACP never had an issue with them and they were plenty accurate for IPSC. last year when I got back into Muzzeloading I did the same thing and salvaged some of my spent roundballs. The ones that looked undamaged shot just fine. the deformed ones got melted and re smelt. I get that a cap and ball rig is a slightly different beast than a .50 cal hawken or single shot pistol. However as long as that deformed lead is not dirty and you lube the heck out of the cylinder mouths you wont hurt nuthin... Most likly heck i did shoot just about everything through my black powder pistols when I was a kid. even shot nails out of them things.