..., I found a small Lee Lead Pot, a single cavity mold for a .45 caliber maxi ball and a muffin tin with 6 ingots of lead. ..., I have been a caster of lead for smokeless powder for a while but have not done any for blackpowder, except round balls for my smoothbore...., I would like to cast some maxi rounds for my T/C Hawken.
OK so it's likely that the stuff is good for muzzleloading but....,
As mentioned you can likely shoot the lead through the smooth bore without worries as most folks don't have a bullet as tight in the smoothie as in the rifle.
However, as the mold is for a conical, the owner might have had an alloy, though it's unlikely. I've always found that thumnail pressure on lead will give a good indication of how soft the lead or lead alloy is, at least as far as a sort of "go/no go gauge" for using the lead.
IF you cast for your rifled Hawken, you should know that a lead alloy such as that used for modern firearms lead bullets, or fishing sinkers, etc. will normally not shrink as much as all lead when cooled. So you might end up with say .493 or perhaps even .496 lead ball when using an alloy from a .490 sized mold. Further, if the mold has a built-in sprue cutter, you may find you need to whack the sprue cutter pretty good to get it to cut the alloy sprue, and that cutter may not be that durable depending on the brand of the mold, as the manufacturer expected pure lead to be used. So with the slightly larger ball, you would then need to use a bit thinner patch. LOTS of folks have done this and have excellent accuracy results.
As for conicals, as far as I know, all of them, Maxi-Balls, Maxi-hunters, Hornady Plains bullets, and Buffalo Bullets, don't engage the rifling until fired, while LEE REAL bullets (
Rifling
Engraved
At
Loading) do engage rifling, and may really need to be smacked to get the conical to start down the bore IF you are using an alloy. The other brands obturate when the rifle is fired, and very hard alloy bullets may not do that very well, and thus accuracy suffers.
LD
