Lead ball ?

[Kco.]

Would it be ok to use wheel weights for a 69 cal round ball in a smooth bore musket?

 

[Tin cup]

Would it be ok to use wheel weights for a 69 cal round ball in a smooth bore musket?

Be careful, wheel weights are now mostly made out of zinc! You don't want that stuff mixed in with lead. Your best bet is to go to a scrap yard, they usually have containers with lead, and get a supply of discarded old lead roofing vents. They are soft lead, make great ammo for muzzle loaders. As to your question, I have used pure/soft lead, wheel weights, and even harder lead for musket round balls with no problems. That is one reason I like shooting a .69 smooth bore, you don't have to be picky about the lead, lubrication, sizing...just stuff the ball(s) down the barrel and shoot!

Kevin Dally

 

[Kco.]

I would only use wheel weights for my 69 cal smooth bore. Would this be O.K.

 

[Tin cup]

I would only use wheel weights for my 69 cal smooth bore. Would this be O.K.

I used WW a lot in the past for the .31 cal, and .66 cal round balls for my repro 1842, no problems encountered.

Kevin Dally
Musket shooters have more balls.

 

[hrobalabama]

WW are ok maybe for smoothbores but I would only use soft lead for Mine Balls and rifled pistol balls.

 

[Palmyra]

They'll work for RB in a smoothbore. Toss any w/w marked "ZN" or any that "clink" when dropped on concrete or have a body that sticks to a magnet. The small square adhesive weights are usually lower in antimony and tin than clip on w/w, and are softer. Try to cut them with pure lead if you can. A little tin (1-2%) is ok even in a muzzleloader alloy, as it helps fill out the mold at lower casting temperatures, or if you pot temp varies, and doesn't add much hardness.

 

[Frederick14Va]

If you have a sport shop - gun shop that has a firing range... I did and would go by there occasionally and get a couple bucket loads of harvested spent lead bullets and shot. Melt it down and pick out the remaining copper jackets if present.. They would frequently clean out the traps and that's usually sold off for scrap metal. Sometimes would get it for a couple bucks for a 5 gal bucket load... Another shop would just give it away... Just another possible option to consider...

 

[dagger dog]

If you keep your smelting temperature to under 750* the zinc and steel wheel weights will float to the top of the lead melt and can be skimmed off with the dross. If you can find lead stick on wheel weights they are just a few points harder than pure lead 6-7 BHN as apposed to 5-6 for pure lead, clip on lead wheel weights run 12-13 BNH when air cooled and not water quenched.

If you shooting your smooth bore with round ball and a patch or wadding, wheel weight should be just about as accurate as a pure lead ball, bullet or hollow base minie's shot with without patching need to be soft to be able to obturate (slug up) to seal and grab the rifling.