Pure lead or Alloy in rifles

[Britsmoothy]

Read where one member who evidently no longer posts had some brass RBs made and shot them w/ a patch in a rifle. He said the accuracy was excellent. This kinda goes counter to what is normally practiced....soft lead RB w/ a properly fitted patch that imprints the weave into the RB.

I use soft lead swaged RBs w/ a somewhat tight patch, but the brass ball experiment proved that harder lead can be used w/ accurate results.

Forgot who did the brass ball experiment, but it showed that the normal way of doing things, isn't the only way......Fred

Roundball was his name and I thought he used the brass ball in a smooth bore but I could be wrong.

B.

 

[Vaino]

Thanks for supplying his moniker. If the brass balls were shot in a smoothbore, it would have proved nothing.....Roundball wanted to find out the accuracy results from firing patched brass balls in a rifle......that's my understanding......Fred

 

[19 16 6]

I have cast lead balls from melted down auto batteries.
They are very hard.
target shooting at fifty metres, they are the same accuracy as soft lead balls once you get the patching right.
I have dug them out of the earth berm & they are not deformed & look like you could shoot them again.
However I have not done that.

I sent some to a fellow forumite who lives in the Northern Territory & he used them to hunt Asiatic Water Buffaloes with excellent penetration results & quick clean one shot kills. These critters are just as tough as the African ones with real thick hide. With a single shot 54 muzzleloader you gotta be sure of your shot, because the next one needs to be loaded yet. When he turns on you, you need all the balls you can get, hard or soft.

I have killed them & they came close to killing me, however that was not with a muzzleloader & not from an armchair. A lot of folk think they are just a draft animal for pulling a plow in a rice paddy.
Get a feral wild one here in Australia, wound him on the first shot, then try standing your ground & making the second one count as he is up you like a runaway freight train.

That forum member reported back on this forum with the results.
He was looking for better penetration on these mud encrusted tanks of animals & the 12 volt lead acid auto battery lead ball gave him just that.
No complaints about accuracy from him either.
He just got the patching worked out.
O.

 

[Bo T]

If you use pure lead and need to get some more, from any reputable source, the density and therefore the mass of the ball should be consistent, requiring little or no 'sighting in' (all other things being equal).

 

[Zonie]

Yes. Roundball was shooting the brass balls out of his rifle and he said after working up the right patch size they were accurate.

What one must remember though, Roundball was a hunter.

He was looking for hunting accuracy and used paper plates for his targets.
If he could keep all of his shots on a paper plate, he called that "accurate".

Don't get me wrong. For hunting, shooting a paper plate size group at 100 yards is probably accurate enough to bring home a deer.

I kinda wanted to see him use a target for his tests and tell us the size of the group but to the best of my remembering, he never did.

Anyway, he did prove that with a thick patch, even a brass roundball can be shot from a rifle without damaging the rifling in the barrel.

 

[Obi-Wan Cannoli]

It would be interesting if somebody could site sources of materials other than pure lead being used for roundball in the 17 and 1800's.

I'm not talking about the merits of one or the other in regards to contemporary muzzleloading, just historic examples of what was used, the circumstances behind it, and the results would be interesting.

 

[Vaino]

I also use white paper plates that are the appetizer dia of 6". They are glued onto an 8" black bullseye which makes a black ring . This enables a dead center hold of white background surrounded by a black ring. Works great.

Noticed that Roundball was somewhat fussy w/ his equipment and demanded excellent accuracy from his loads......so I imagine he also achieved the same accuracy w/ the brass balls. But we don't know that for certain......Fred

 

[George]

Noticed that Roundball was somewhat fussy w/ his equipment and demanded excellent accuracy from his loads......so I imagine he also achieved the same accuracy w/ the brass balls. But we don't know that for certain......Fred

Here is an extract from a post by Roundball describing his first test of the brass balls, 7-12-12:

RANGE REPORT
.58cal Non-Toxic Brass Balls as PRB's in place of lead PRBs

EQUIPMENT
TVM Early Virginia
Rice 38" D-weight .58cal x 1:72" x .016" round bottom grooves;
Chambers Deluxe Siler / Davis DST;
Sights previously zeroed at 50yds for 100grn Goex 2F PRB deer load;

NON-TOXIC BRASS BALL TEST USING SAME SIGHTS / SAME SIGHT PICTURE
Goex 4F prime
Goex 2F main
.62cal Duro-Felt OP wad, lubed with NL1000
.028" Cotton Duck patch, lubed with NL1000
.5625" Solid Brass Ball from 'Online Metals'
Weight = 201 grains

TESTS CONDUCTED FROM BENCH REST
100grns Goex 2F = 1+1/4" ragged hole at 50yds...POI=dead center
MV=1367 fps

120grns Goex 2F = 2" group at 50yds...POI=1.5" above dead center
MV=1611 fps

Spence