curing ?

[hobbles]

Mornin boys, Do I need to let my ww balls cure? or can I go shoot em now?? I just talked to my neighbor and told him I am savin me money makin my own balls,, He said NOPE, all that means is I can shoot more,,, I think he's right..

[6pt-sika]

If you wanna save money , get rid of all your guns and casting stuff. Give up automobiles , women and beer . Then you just might save a little money [smilie=1:

I know its to late for me :drinks:

[hobbles]

If you wanna save money , get rid of all your guns and casting stuff. Give up automobiles , women and beer . Then you just might save a little money [smilie=1:

I know its to late for me :drinks:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v323/hobbles/icons/rotf.gif

[hobbles]

Now,, bout the curing time ??

[6pt-sika]

I have cast one day let cool , size , lube and load the next day . And shoot the day they were loaded.

[buck1]

Now,, bout the curing time ??

I dont see what your shooting but " balls" sounds like black powder?
It takes 2 weeks for air cooled WW to reach full hardness.
But I hear BP likes soft lead.
FWIW.....Buck

[hobbles]

Sorry boys for the lack of info on my question,, I am shootin a 54 cal muzzle loader usin 527 ww for the round balls, This is my first time makin my own balls and don't know if I need to let them sit for a while or not,,,

[45 2.1]

Those balls will harden up pretty well and essentially stabilize in hardness in a couple of weeks. Your problem will be if you are able to get that hardened ball down your fouled barrel and seated when they get hard. Soft balls don't have that problem. Maybe Waksupi will give you a primer in getting it to work for you.

[versifier]

Shoot them up!
If the advice to use ww's had come from anyone else but Waksupi, I'd have told you without hesitation to ignore it and only use pure lead. But, not only does he actually shoot his m/l's, he hunts elk with them successfully. Nuf said. So many times on this forum we find ourselves reexamining those things that "everybody knows", only to discover that the reality flies in the face of conventional wisdom. His point that it's the patch that engages the rifling and not the ball itself is well taken, but there is some displacement of metal in the loading process, even with a prb, and I do think they'll be a bitch to load in a fouled bore. No one is going to convince me that a Minnie, a REAL or a Maxi that actually engages the rifling itself should be cast of anything but pure lead, however. I once cast some Maxis out of "mystery metal" (turned out to be pure lino [smilie=1: ) some years ago. I couldn't START them, never mind seat them. Now, I even cast the .45cal HP's that I put in sabots out of pure as they load a lot easier after a few shots, and expand better in the deer, too.

[waksupi]

I consider the minie balls and such, an abomination in a muzzleloader. [smilie=1:
The round balls don't need to age. Actually, if you like the hardness of pure lead, put the fresh balls in the freezer, and you will be shooting soft balls when you take them out. I don't worry about it. I shot an inch and a quarter 6 shot 50 yard group Saturday with my flinter from the bench with WW balls. Would have kept shooting, but ran out of balls. The balls were barely cool enough to handle when I put them in my ball bag, to head to the shoot. Hard or soft, they will shoot the same.
If fouling is the problem, you are using the wrong lube. Use Moose milk, one part water soluble machine oil, to 10-12 parts water. Blue and white striped pillow ticking is the gold standard for patching material. Most commercial patching will fail. Bore condition remains the same all day long, with Moose Milk. The group I shot this weekend was after probably thirty shots, with no cleaning. If the ball starts too hard to do it without a ball starter, your combination is too tight.
I have seen pure lead balls fail on elk, by being too soft. A friend shot a bull in the neck at about fourty yards. The bull went down. He reloaded, and finished up about the time the bull got back up. Shot it again in the neck, and it went down for keeps. When we dressed it out, we found that both balls had hit the same vertebrea , one on each side. Both were completely flattened. But the vertebrea was not shattered. It is our belief if he was using WW ball, the first one would have certainly broke the neck. That is all he will use for elk now. An elk neck is a lot of muscle. It wasn't his hoped for shot, but the neck and head was all he could see on the first shot, and the second was at a much closer range.

[buck1]

Well good! you guys seem to have your "balls" well in hand! ;)



I just couldnt help it! >>>>>>Buck

[357maximum]

I'm just happy I've never had to get my "balls" cured, especially if it involves a decision to freeze them or not. You guys scare me sometimes.

[versifier]

I figure I'm safe as long as I don't get my bullet pouch and my ball bag confused. :mrgreen: You need to be aware of these things when you have to do a quick reload.
When I hunt with prb's (not often anymore to tell the truth) I precut the patches and dip them in melted beeswax. No smell, no mess, and no fouling for the first few shots. Not that I have ever needed to fire it more than once at a deer or a dog. Plain old spit works fine on the range.

[Bman]

Doesn't Hornady offer 'hard ball' Rb's for better penetration? I thought I saw an ad for them somewhere. I think they are swaged like the pure lead ones but out of a harder alloy.

[rusty marlin]

We, Dad and I, cast a bunch of WW .50 and .45 cal balls up years and years ago. The only deer that was shot with that batch the ball went clean through both shoulder blades and was recoved up against the hide on the far side. It looked just as round as it started! We decided that pure lead was going to be the mat'l of choice and relegated the WW balls to target practice. They shot great, but just too hard for shooting deer.

[waksupi]

Rusty, I have to ask, don't you consider a .45 or .50 caliber hole through a deers lungs sufficient?

[44woody]

Hobbles I have been shooting bp for about 20 years what I do and it works great I seperate the stick on ww fron the ones that have the metel clips on them the stick on kind are alot softer lead than the others another thing I do is give all my bp bullets a coat of liquid alox that I make I never use the ones with clips for bp shooting target or hunting they are just to darn hard to get down the smoke pole I hope this helps :castmine: 44Woody

[hobbles]

Thanks boys for all the info, I find, with my weapon,, That the 527 ww's work fine with my setup, I have a Green Mountain barrel and they are a big 54, One cleanin patch and a 54 jag don't cut it, It's a loose fit,, I got to use a 50 cal jag with 2 cleanin patches to clean it, Maybe that's why the 527 ww and 015 patch works, But it works,, And their free, I figure after I make bout 700 0r 800 The free will kick in, (gotta pay for the mold's and stuff) Got 500 made already,,, I also found that the 527's and .015 still load the same as the store bought 530 did, I think a lil easier, I still use a short starter, but don't have to use the back of it to get the ball started down the barrel, I can fire 15 shots before I got to run a cleanin patch down the barrel, and that ain't cause it gets had to load, it's cause the POI starts to move on me, I will will fix that with a different lube mixture,, Funny thing bout muzzle loaders,,,, What works for one, may not work for the other,,,

[Underclocked]

"quick reload" :mrgreen: For me that amounts to throwing my powder, bullet, and cap on the ground. Steadies me a little for that second effort.

;-)

[rusty marlin]

Rusty, I have to ask, don't you consider a .45 or .50 caliber hole through a deers lungs sufficient?

I guess I never thought about it like that. I always just figured a bigger hole out lets out more blood.

I've only recovered two pure lead balls from deer, one cut off a 1 inch sapling (dead center hit) and then centered a near side rib, a far side rib and was found againd the farside hide, just about tore through too. The other was a "head on" shot that passed length wise as was recovered againt the hide in a rear quarter next to the tail, both balls where over .75" when recovered.
Everything else has been clean through.