WW Round Balls in a C&B Revolver?

[dtalley]

I was reading the recent post about WW Round Balls for Muzzle Loading but I believe they were talking about long guns. I just recently purchased my first C&B revolver and know nothing. I do however have a 5 gal bucket of wheel weights that i collected back when I thought I might want to start casting boolits. I decided against casting boolits but now might like to cast some Round Balls for my C&B revolver.

Wow! Question is, would Round Balls from wheel weights be too hard for my revolver? It is a 1860 Army Sheriffs Model .44 cal.(5 1/2" barrel).

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

I used some in my Rem Army 44 . . . .451" are a tad big with recovered range lead . . . they load HARD, and actually left a dimple on the front of the ball! shot OK, but hard too load . . .

[docone31]

You gonna like that pistol. I have a .44 Navy revolver.
Hokay,
You gonna need a .454 mold. That in itself is simple enough. I like Lee personally.
Now, mix is something altogether charming. I prefer Roof Boots. The lead that is put around the roof pipes.
With wheel weight, it is soft enough to work. Your ramrod is short though. It won't break from the pressure, but it will be tough with water dropped wheel weight. Don't drop them in water after casting. If you can get a couple of Roof Boots, mix them in the alloy to soften it up.
The more pure lead, the softer the mix.
I have run 30gns in my pistol, but 20-25gns works good also. You will need to mix some lube.
Any good lube formula will work.
I use 50% Beeswax, 50% or more or less Olive oil. Add Crisco to stiffen. Depends on what you are finished up with.
#10 caps, and you are good to go.
My formula should produce no leading, be easy to clean, and the spray on firing will coat the cylinder, and forcing cone. Clean up is a snap, and I can fire 100rds without the cylinder jamming.
Good luck, and I believe you will like the pistol.
BP is fun!

[bob208]

i know alot are using w-w for their c&b pistols and muzzloading rifles. but i was tought pure lead or a pure as you can get. that is what i use and have never had any problems. won a lot of matches too. i have never seen anyone using w-w or other hard lead win a match.

o agree with the lube and how to use it.

[SPRINGFIELDM141972]

I wouldn't use straight WW without a cylinder loading block. The kind that you remove the cylinder from the gun and set on a table. I would be afraid of bending the loading rod. Just my thoughts YMMV.

Regards,
Everett

[wellfedirishman]

Dtalley, did you pick this up from Cabelas? "1860 Army Sheriffs Model .44 cal.(5 1/2" barrel)"

I was looking at those and wanting one. What is the build quality like?

[waksupi]

I would not use wheel weights in a revolver. For black powder, only patched projectiles are workable for the harder alloy, some BPCR exceptions. If you make them from WW's, you will eventually break the loading lever trying to seat the bullets. Been there, done that. Finding a replacement part for a C&B revolver is not all that easy.....

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

Here is one I recovered after it went through 12" of rubber mulch and hit the dirt/gravel bank:
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s220/ShawnTVT/Guns/RB1.jpg

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s220/ShawnTVT/Guns/RB1.jpg

Notice the curved dimples, they were put there my the loading rod . . . Like I said, they load hard!

[Hellgate]

For that short rammer you are going to need a "cheater" if you don't go for an off the gun cylinder loader. Mine is a 1" dowel I drilled a 3/8 hole into one end and slipped it over the rammer to give me leverage and saved my palm. Soft lead is hard enough to load into the short barrels, WW lead will be a pain. If your gun is brass framed, forget it. You will strain the rammer by chancing pulling the arbor out of the frame or stretching the action when the hard balls are fired. I bought some .454 balls from National Bullet co. that were a great price til i shot them. Hard cast and I swear they put a year's worth of aging on my two 44 "navies". Scrounge or trade for softer lead.

[missionary5155]

Good morning
There have been some ruined rammers .. stripped teeth from using WW or maybe harder lead in the ML revolvers.

[gnoahhh]

Well, everybody got to it before I did! I'll ditto the ix-nay on the WW projectiles for the revolver. The only guy I know who has gotten away with it for years is doing it with a high-end Remington 1858 Navy Arms, the one that's the only Remington repo that is exactly the same size as the original.

All of us in our shooting group just use straight Crisco for lube. I dispense mine with a little cake decorating gizmo I got at a yard sale.

Keep your loads on the light side. Those low-end open top repos shoot loose quickly enough. Heck, a steady diet of max loads will give a high-end open top the shakes after a while. The bullet only needs to make it as far as the paper target.

[dtalley]

Well thanks for all the replies, I believe I will not be casting round balls with the wheel weights....

Wellfedirishman, Yes, you are correct. I purchased it from Cabela's. It seems to be a good reproduction. Everything Looks great to me. I haven't shot it yet but I need to purchase a few more things. I didn't get the starter set that was offered. The Short Barrel appears that it might be difficult to seat the balls but I think I will make a cheater like Hellgate wrote about. This is my first and I think I am going to puchase a 7" or 8" barrel pistol soon.

[ironhead7544]

It seems a lot of C&B revolvers have small cylinder throats compared to the barrels. Soft lead would make up for that using black powder. If the throats were reamed and the bullets sized accordingly you might get good accuracy. I have heard of people reaming the cylinders for J words and getting good results in ROAs.