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Old Ironsights
02-28-2009, 11:40 PM
This afternoon I took a 7lb catfood can of bad alloy + 1.5lb of questionalbe scrap and cast up 790 ea 77gr .375 round balls to use as slingshot ammo. [smilie=1:

Felt good to salvage what I had thought would end up as waste.

Really got to get smelting though. Too many WWs and not enough ingots. :???:

monadnock#5
02-28-2009, 11:53 PM
Sounds like a fine way to turn those lemons into lemonade.

I still have ice in my yard, but I know smelting season is right around the corner!

Slow Elk 45/70
03-01-2009, 12:27 AM
Hullo Old ironsights, Good for you, your post reminded me I need a ball mold for the same purpose. Must be tough to have all those WW lying about just gettin moldy..better hope to it.:mrgreen:

We still have winter up here, started snowin yesterday and hasn't quit...maybe April..[smilie=1:

crabo
03-01-2009, 01:03 AM
I have thought about getting a slingshot to shoot squirels in the yard, but I keep remembering the time a H&G 68 got kicked out of the garage and ended up in the grass next to the driveway.

Its amazing how hard an edger can throw a 200 grain swc. It threw it hard enough to knock the window out of my wife's car.

I keep wondering what the lawnmower will do to roundballs.

Gerry N.
03-01-2009, 01:31 AM
Lead alloy roundballs in town are a standing invitation for a command visit to the cop shop. Those silvery little bastiges never seem to stop careening through the neighborhood until they've manged to take out at least one automobile windscreen and a residential picture window.

For the accelaration of stray cats and dogs, the chocolate covered malted milk ball is nearly ideal. Light for excellent short range velocity without overpenetration, biodegradable, pretty close to round so they fly more or less straitish, and they are cheap. Plus they won't get you that unfortunate invitation.

Gerry N.

StrawHat
03-01-2009, 06:08 AM
For the accelaration of stray cats and dogs, the chocolate covered malted milk ball is nearly ideal. Light for excellent short range velocity without overpenetration, biodegradable, pretty close to round so they fly more or less straitish, and they are cheap. Plus they won't get you that unfortunate invitation.

Gerry N.


Great idea, but for me personally, they might not work.

I am not sure they would last long enough to be launched! But you are correct about no trip to the PD, ...I'd eat the evidence.

dogfood
03-01-2009, 10:22 AM
Many years ago, I did something similar with a batch of alloy that I just wanted to "make go away". Using a Lee 2-cavity round ball mold (perhaps for a .32 caliber?), I cast as many as I could stand for buckshot loads. I then used these for the shotgun event in our bowling pin matches.

You know, when you are casting small round balls in a two cavity mold ... and subsequently loading them by hand in buckshot loads ... you can keep yourself occupied for a very long time. (I need one of those smiley faces here, with a Rumpelstiltskin beard).

dogfood

zxcvbob
03-01-2009, 10:27 AM
I have about 4 or 5 pounds of zinc-contaminated lead. I wonder if it would cast into .457 round balls OK for use in my blackpowder mill? Would the zinc harden the lead, or just make it porous?

OTOH, I dont want to get the stuff in my casting furnace.

Old Ironsights
03-01-2009, 01:53 PM
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/MrMisanthrope/IMAG0063.jpg

FWIW, nasty alloy works just fine in a ML for PRB plinkers if you are using proper patches. You may have to go from a .015 to a .010 patch, but not necessairly. Just try not to shoot them into a backstop you are later going to mine...

I use my slingshot ammo mostly in the woods/at the beach squirrel/crow hunting &/or pigeon/seagull vermin depredation.

I think that bad alloy balls should be fine in the BP mill. Yeah, they will be a bit harder, but it won't make a significant difference IMO... I don't think using your furnace should be a problem so long as you run it completely dry.

Johnch
03-01-2009, 05:42 PM
M & M p nut , round type jelly beans are both used to promote movement

But cheap dollar store marbles are hard to trace and pack more punch when it is needed

John

mpmarty
03-01-2009, 06:02 PM
Used to work in a transmission rebuilding shop and still after nearly fifty years have a good supply of ball bearing sling shot ammo.

dk17hmr
03-01-2009, 06:15 PM
I use dollar store marbles. They are cheap and work. I smacked a possum a few weeks ago with one at about 7:30 in the morning, it was under my neighbors window a 70 year of grandma. She didnt know I was over there taking care of varmints. Countless birds have been shot with my sling shot mostly using marbles. I can justify buying a round ball mold for my sling shot when I get get 100 marbles for 99 cents.

Old Ironsights
03-01-2009, 08:03 PM
Well, I would agree with the buying the mould JUST for slingshot ammo, but im my case the same .375 rb mould was also needed to cast pure pb balls for my .36 breech-loading C&B dueling pistols.

Otherwise I probably would have just cast .490s or .690s (for my Howda) with the stuff...