Bp & soww

[Half Dog]

I have an 1860 Uberti Army in a 44 cal. I am looking to cast my own bullets and I would like to know what is considered soft enough lead. Is SOWW's soft enough?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

When I've smelted WW's (a few years), I always separated the COWW from the SOWW, and all the SOWW were surely soft enough for BP pistol. I haven't smelted WW for a few years, and it seems I've heard that there are now some harder SOWW's out there, if I ran across those, I'd smelt them with pistol range scrap. Anyway it'd be hard for me to say if your SOWW is soft enough without measuring that hardness of your batch.

[44man]

I always sort mine too. Last batch of SO's had so many zinc ones I only picked out what I knew was pure lead. Guess I had a pound or so out of a pile.

[runfiverun]

I'd look for a more known lead like roof flashing.

a small amount of tin or antimony will be fine, but I don't trust ww's to be anything but [hopefully] some type of lead -tin -antimony mixture anymore.
the clip on's are getting softer and the stick on's are getting harder.

[Yodogsandman]

I sort SOWWs now according to BNE's Sticky and it seems to work out that way. The square painted ones rendered to ingot form "clink" on concrete like COWW's and the others "thunk" like chimney flashing.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?229666-Stick-On-WW-XrF-Data

[Half Dog]

Thanks so much for your inputs. Where would one get lead that is soft enough to shoot out of a BP revolver?

[RogerDat]

Thanks so much for your inputs. Where would one get lead that is soft enough to shoot out of a BP revolver?

Read in the Swapping and Selling forum the members selling lead, or post in the Wanted to Buy part of S&S forum. Should have some in no time. Other than that Rotometals sells foundry lead ingots, and has a link in that banner at the top of every page. Stuff from members here is cheaper, stuff from Rotometals is precise alloy composition. Heck if you want to send me a PM I can sell you a small flat rate box of soft lead for about $1 a pound plus shipping. Boxes tend to run a bit over 20# maybe as high as 25# or can send less if you don't need that much but the shipping cost is one flat rate, makes sense to send all that fits. Swapping and Selling will have people selling larger boxes up around 60 - 70 lbs. might be a touch less per pound. Shipping will also be less per pound in the larger boxes.

I was not looking to sell any plain lead but if you don't find what you want elsewhere send that message and we can work something out.

[Tatume]

PM bushwack. I've bought soft lead (SOWW) from him recently. Good prices, dependable, and honest.