Okay so I'm a noobie to this boolit casting thing and I've only been muzzleloading for a few months.
I'm wanting to cast round balls for my .50's. I bought some Speer swaged .490 balls and they load fine with a patch. They take some effort to get started about the same as 370 grain Maxi-balls or 320 gr REAL. I picked up a Lee melting pot and mold at the gunshow the other day along with a few pounds of wheel weights I got from the tire shop. My first attempt at casting I water dropped the balls. Apparently that really hardened them. My father in law swears he always used wheel weights for casting RB with no problems. They won't start in the bore. I remelted them and air cooled them this time, they still won't start with a patch. I measured them at .495.
I'm disappointed to learn free scrap lead is pretty much non existent in California. Granted I need to get some pure lead but do I need to buy another .490 mold? It's turning out to be more cost effective to just buy balls cheap at gun shows.