Should I water quench round balls?

[Stopsign32v]

Well I'm going to start molding starting with 36cal round balls and pure lead. What I'm curious about is should I water quench these? It will be fired with real black powder and not any substitute.

[35remington]

If they are pure lead nothing will happen if you do.

[Stopsign32v]

Ok, good to know

[country gent]

Water quenching pure lead changes it very little. If there is antimony and balls harden then loading in a cap and ball revolver will be much harder both on you and the firearm.

For bullets I use a paint roller tray lined with several hand / Bar towels. bullets roll down to the lower portion when dropped on the angled area. When the lower area gets full just pick up the top towel by the corners and remove setting off to the side leaving next to use.

[mdi]

If you are concerned about hot balls laying around, then you can drop them in water to cool, but as noted above, it won't harden them. I have preferred, purchased, and cast balls for my black powder revolvers out of "pure" soft lead.

[gwpercle]

36 cal. lead balls don't take that long to cool . Not having water around to splash into your pot would be an advantage. They will not get any harder and you don't want them harder...you want them pure lead soft .
Gary

[tazman]

Just for grins, I cast some round balls out of wheelweights and water quenched them. I tested them against balls cast from pure lead for accuracy. The only thing I found was the ones cast from wheelweights were much harder to load into the barrel than the ones made of pure lead.
The accuracy was the same in my rifle.

[GARD72977]

If you are weary of hot balls laying around, then you can drop them in water to cool, but as noted above, it won't harden them. I have preferred, purchased, and cast balls for my black powder revolvers out of "pure" soft lead.

I do this because it's my normal casting rutine.

[stubshaft]

I water drop the balls for my 8 bore because they take too long to cool down.

[quail4jake]

Naaaa...don't change nuthin and pure lead casts well in round balls which is unaffected by quenching. never thought about that 8 bore thing...I cast 12 oz balls for our 1/2 pdr smoothbore howitzer and they take a long time to cool, maybe I should drop em in water?

[dondiego]

Just for grins, I cast some round balls out of wheelweights and water quenched them. I tested them against balls cast from pure lead for accuracy. The only thing I found was the ones cast from wheelweights were much harder to load into the barrel than the ones made of pure lead.
The accuracy was the same in my rifle.

I believe that they were harder to load because they end up being larger in diameter due to the WW alloy.

[tazman]

I believe that they were harder to load because they end up being larger in diameter due to the WW alloy.

That's part of it. The other part is, pure lead round balls actually imprint the texture of the patch cloth into the sides of the round ball assuming they fit tightly. If you recover a round ball(or pull one) you can see the marks.
There was no possible imprinting on the hardened ones. They don't allow that.
I only fired about a dozen of them. It wasn't worth the work getting the balls started.

[Bkingnsmth]

Grabbed one right out of the mould by mistake once. Sticks to your fingers. Now I water quench all.


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[tazman]

I seem to remember an old Davy Crockett episode where he pops a ball out of a mold into his unprotected hands and didn't even flinch. Tough man!

[Dave W.]

Of course, he's Davy Crockett. If any of us mere mortals tried that, we would have a hole burned through our hand.

[BAGTIC]

I water quench mine but I shoot them all from cartridge guns. I tumble lube them with JPW and shoot them bare. Also I use scrap lead mostly WW. I use a five gallon bucket with an old towel or other large cloth draped across the top so the ball will hit the cloth and roll into the water. This eliminates the possibility of water back splash.

[Green Frog]

Of course you should water quench them... right before you powder coat them candy pink!

Froggie

[tazman]

Of course you should water quench them... right before you powder coat them candy pink!

Froggie

That made me laugh. I can imagine a man going to a rendezvous in full buckskins with his flintlock and powder horn, pulling out a candy pink ball to load.
OMG, he would certainly bring out the laughter.

[facetious]

You could tell them that thy are jaw breaker's . How about blue ones. Let them ask you to tell them all about your blue ball's.

I cast and WD'ed a can full for sling shot ammo and thy are hard, even years later.

[Edward]

If you find yourself water quenching balls you"ll be spending a lot of time toweling off your balls