different brands of balls

[LONG REACH]

Cheers for that JP.
I'm not sure if I could get to grips with doing the mixes, using tin and other stuff, that dictates hardness etc

All the best
Baz

[AHPP]

place like buliders merchants, Wickes and Travis Perkins etc would be the best place to buy lead (or a scrapyard )

Nah, mate. Church roof has got loads...

[LONG REACH]

Not that much these days, the thieving toerags have seen to that. Shame more of them don't fall off and break thier worthless necks !!!

Baz

[harricook]

Hi Baz

Sorry for delay & the short reply !!

Spoke to my friend about sheet roof lead & he poked me in the eye for suggesting it may be 'hard' lead & said - "Get i straight in the soft melting pot"

So there

Regards

Roy

[robinghewitt]

Someone has a double cavity .454” ball mould on the mlagb.com sale forum for £30 + shipping, fits RCBS handles.

While I'm here, how much powder for a .36, five shooter, antique?

[DJS]

While I'm here, how much powder for a .36, five shooter, antique?

12 grains of 3f gives the ball a nice gentle push from my repro' .36 revolver, for full fun and flames i can go up to 22grains
What type of pistol have you got?
Daz

[robinghewitt]

I have a few, mostly shot out, don't think I have one good forcing cone between them. The one I plan to shoot is a little Manhattan open frame, a real sweetie

I have a Manhattan combined ball/bullet mould but I think it's the wrong one because the bullet nose doesn't fit the rammer, they're a bit too pointy.

Close enough

[delboy]

Try mixing wheel balance weights in if you require a harder mix, 4oz pp of lead as a trial and then add or subtract from there

[tim56]

I use wheel weights for .357 and .45 bullets and any old lead such as piping and roofing lead for .451 and .562 round ball. Although i do try to keep the bullets as close to pure wheel weights as possible i dont worry too much about the exact mix for balls. As long as they get a bit of a flat on them when dropped on the floor i find they will shoot ok. If you look at swaged and cast balls side by side swaged balls are far denser and harder than cast balls but both will shoot ok.
The .562 i use in a .577 2 band navy with a cloth patch which takes up any minor variation in size or hardness and the .451 gets rammed down into the chambers of a Rogers and Spencer which distorts and forces the ball into the correct size for the barrel anyway. Once the old black stuff goes bang i would have thought that any hardness of lead being softer than a steel gun has only one way to go and will expand to fill the rifling as it goes.

[steve883]

try digging it out of the sand at the range if you don't mind looking like a poiykey.

i've already paid for it once in the form of .22lr etc, so it's still mine! takes a bit of cleaning up mind!