older wheel-weight lead, OK for hunting bullets

[rushin4]

Cleaning out some shelves and I found some 20+ year old casts I made (from old wheel weights) for using in muzzleoaders with sabots. Will they expand at all for hunting purposes (whitetail), or blast right thru like a FMJ?

[dh2]

muzzle loaders generally go with pure lead , I would do a hardness test and make sure they are soft

[bmortell]

probably get a bit of pure for actual hunting ones, since there sabot'd? saboed? saboated? (lead in plastic) ww and pure should shoot very similar so you could just scrounge up a few pounds of pure for the actual hunting ones. unless your getting high end inline velocity like 1600fps

[rking22]

What shape is the bullet, flat point should work at rifle velocity. I prefer something softer to hunt with as well. You could use them for practice and targets.

[white eagle]

you can remelt and use for another round if you are not sure
or not happy with their bhn

[megasupermagnum]

I've got some older clip on wheel weights, likely 70's era. They run about 13 BHN, and do not expand much until around 1700 fps. The easiest way is to cut it in half with pure lead.

[sixshot]

Wheel weights that old usually had a bit more antimony in them than the later ones so yes, they would be harder. Best way is to test them with a hardness tester. They usually age harden up for a certain length of time & then slowly go down but not a long way. Really no way to tell how much without testing. For my six guns I like to run my powder coated bullets about a 9 BHN if the accuracy holds up, if it doesn't I go a bit harder. If it's elk I'm hunting I'll usually go about 14-15 BHN, it's worked on 12 of them. I've broke both front shoulders with that alloy.

Dick

[Screwbolts]

rushin4, What is the nose shape of the boolitz you found? IMHO if they have a nice wide meplat they will be fine. I water drop all my LBT , 452-320 LFN for sabot use in smokeless MLs. Also do the Same with my BRP 4 cavity 452 - 290 FN for the same purpose.

Ken

[taco650]

I've read on this forum that lead balls made of WW's will kill deer just fine but don't expand much like pure lead ones can. This is from Waksupi.

[Beerd]

How many is "some" and how old is "old"?
I'd probably melt them down combined with half straight lead and start over.
..

[Tripplebeards]

I Kinda went through asking about muzzle loader alloy questions here not to long ago.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...-a-sabot/page4


I think in my in-line pure lead or 16/1 or less off a ratio mixed with some pewter to give it some elasticity for HPs.

[Screwbolts]

In the OP " for using in muzzleoaders with sabots. " very clearly states In sabots, IMHO, all the RB and pure posts are kind of irrelevant to the OPs original post and use.

Ken

[Jniedbalski]

It will work but may not expand much. Only way Is to shoot to find out. I would mix half wheel weight and half pure lead. But if your shooting them fast and at big deer only way is to shoot one to find out. They have pure copper for inlines now and they work. I really don’t like pushing my in lines that hard 50 to 80 gr is perfect for me, so I use a soft alloy. I have used ww for round balls for target shooting just to find out if they would shoot. I was told ww would not shoot straight. Well found out they shoot just as good as soft or pure lead. Just shoot some to find out . I bet they would make a good big game bullet

[Tripplebeards]

Depends on muzzle velocity the op is shooting what alloy to use. In my case I run 150 grains of 777 pellets. If you see my velocity chart i posted it shows a 300 grain saboted boolit is moving 2100 FPS and a 250 grain around 2250 FPS. I’m thinking after I run one through my loads through my Chronograph I’m guessing Ill find out they will will be slower than the posted velocities. I’m thinking pure might be to soft? I’ll try a pure HP on a deer next year and see what happens. Most people here run 50/50 COWW and pure at these velocities out of their centerfire rifles so I don’t know why they recommend softer for a muzzle loader at the same velocities. I like the pure softer idea so it blows a huge hole in and out with a lot of energy transfer myself.

I think most don’t realize how fast an in line shoots with a saboted projectile.

[Jniedbalski]

I have ran my in-line with 150 gr but man did it kick . When I was young I thought it was cool and it did shoot very good. Now a days I very seldom load to 100 gr when I get good accuracy at 40 gr to 80. Most of the time ism shooting paper so it really doesn’t matter . That 150 grain load I did shoot at 200 to 250 yards and could not believe the accuracy I got. If I could see it I could hit it. A 6 inch paper plate used as a target got drilled pretty easy it almost was boring.

[Tripplebeards]

I don’t notice the kick with 150 grains at all. It’s similar or little more to a 20 gauge or 35 Remington recoil. Most of my centerfires and shotguns have more recoil then my muzzle loader with 150 grains of pellets and a 300 grain bullet. It’s basically the same bullet diameter and velocity as 450 bushmaster. I plan on trying a 250 grain FTX bullet in a sabot this year since they drop deer in their tracks most times times at the same speed out of a 450 BM. Hornady also makes a 200 and 225 grain .452 FTX to gain velocities and energy transfer. I’ll probably try all three and see which ones shoot the tightest. Every bullet I’ve tried to date out of my smoke pole has the same effect on deer. They run after being hit like they weren’t shot. I believe ALL muzzle loader bullets are made with too hard of an alloy and lack kinetic energy transfer Characteristics. I’m not recoil sensitive till I’ve shot a good half dozen shots through my 375 RUM wearing a T shirt. Maybe in 30 years I’ll think differently. I have shot my muzzleloader several times spending all afternoon on load development with three grains of triple seven and it doesn’t bother me.