How does pure zinc cast?

[MBTcustom]

I am having too much fun shooting my shotgun with round balls. It is the funnest thing I've done in a while, but it eats lead like its free. 16 shots and I have lost 1lb of lead:mad:
I had an idea though. Since the ball is in a sabot of sorts, inside the shot-cup, why not cast out of something cheaper like zinc or maybe I can find steel balls the right size, or marbles.
Zinc I know I can get, and I know it should work fairly well if I can cast it. I know that a sniff of zinc mixed with lead can screw up your whole day but what about pure zinc? Anybody cast with the stuff?

[Hickory]

From what I've read here, it will leave a void in the center of the casting.

[Dan Cash]

It must cast OK if you know the technique. Lots of low stress parts are die cast zink. I have not tried it though.

[darkroommike]

Rotometals sells cast cannonballs for popcan mortars and the rounds used on TopShot for the Hotchkiss Mountain gun (I want one so bad) were made of Zinc.

http://www.rotometals.com/product-p/zinc_cannon_ball.htm

http://www.history.com/shows/top-shot/videos/weapons-rundown-hotchkiss-mountain-gun#weapons-rundown-hotchkiss-mountain-gun

[MBTcustom]

Yeah, I know, thats why I'm asking about zinc in the first place. .685 is a big hole whether the ball expands or not, so why not use something that runs cheap? I am also looking into marbles or ball bearings but no love so far.

[runfiverun]

zinc is worth more than lead.

[MBTcustom]

zinc is worth more than lead.
By weight, not by volume. Besides, everybody is throwing away their zinc WW's

[fishnbob]

When I was a kid, I needed some split shot so I opened up a paper shell hull of #1 Buck and took out the pellets. Not being able to afford to throw the shell away, I packed it with marbles and they shot all the way through the wood shed that had 1" thick oak boards on for siding. IIRC, they went through the other side and into the johnny house where I found one marble imbedded in a Sears & Roebuck Catalog. I was about 25 yds away when I fired it! If I'm lying, I'm crying and I ain't shed a tear.

[Huntducks]

You best be careful with steel zink or anything none lead in a shotgun as the pressure built up is real high.

A tern shotshell reloader have is lead is forgiving steel is not.

[MBTcustom]

That expression is in reference to shooting shot through a choke. I have a cylinder bore on my shotgun and the ball is in a shotcup. Weight is weight whether you are shooting lead, zinc, steel, or glass marbles. If the shot is not being squeezed down by a choke, there will be no difference.

[JeffinNZ]

Goodsteel: Zinc casts fine when you run it HOT! I agree with you. A 70cal hole is a .70cal regardless of how it got there. Will also be easier on the shoulder.

[runfiverun]

stick to steel molds.
i have been giving the zinc some thought recently also.
it would be cool for poking holes through deer and such in the condor zones.
pure lead and zinc [2-3%] alloy round balls were used in africa for some time for thier penetration
can't recall the guy's name that used them [he was one of the big white hunters in his day though, rourke maybe]
he was using them in a muzzle loader,and his measured load was by the amount in his hand taken from his pocket.

[BAGTIC]

In the early days of African big game hunting it was common to harden the lead balls with mercury. Antimony works better and is much safer.

[Grapeshot]

Zink will cast just fine, its cutting the sprue that problems arise. You can not cut thru the sprue with the spue cutter on the mold. You have to have a mold that has a pour hole so you can snip the sprue off with a pair of nippers after they cool and use a file to smooth the nub flush to the base or ogive/radius of the bullet or ball you are casting.

The bullets are hard as all getout and you can drive them fast thru a pistol or rifle, as far as balls are concerned, loaded on a shot cup they will get the jub done on most game you can take using shotgun slugs. I wonder if they could be used in a paradox barreled SG for Bear or other dangerous game.

[Huntducks]

That expression is in reference to shooting shot through a choke. I have a cylinder bore on my shotgun and the ball is in a shotcup. Weight is weight whether you are shooting lead, zinc, steel, or glass marbles. If the shot is not being squeezed down by a choke, there will be no difference.

But it will be squeezed down by the forcing cone.

[MBTcustom]

The forcing cone is simply the transition from the diameter of the shotshell to the diameter of the barrel I thought?
Help me out here folks, am I missing something? I thought a cyclinder bore is a .735 hole with one end reamed out for a shotshell, and the other end might be back-bored for an interchangeable choke tube, but that opens it up not down.
If I understand Huntducks correctly, there are actually two chokes on the barrel, one as the shot leaves the shell and enters the barrel, and another one as the shot leaves the barrel and enters the atmosphere, is that about the size of it?
I am willing to learn and I am ready to, but I am having a hard time with this one, because last weekend I fired about 20 rounds through my shotgun that had a .738 round ball. My cylinder is a measured .734. The balls were loaded in a shell on top of a scoop of cream-of-wheat and a wad that had the petals removed. How was I getting 4" group at 50 yards with an undersized ball that had been reduced in diameter by a forcing cone? That's my problem.
Check out this link, I think I'm right.
http://www.hallowellco.com/chamber_and_forcing_cone.htm

[Lizard333]

I made up some zinc cannon balls for a buddy about six months ago. Keep your mold hot and they pour fine. Leave you sprue open and trim when your done. Lighter than lead but a heck of a lot harder. If he finds them, he reuses the cannons. Good luck.

[mrbill2]

You might want to check the game laws in Arkansas before you start bouncing marbles, steel balls, zinc,ect. from one county to another while hunting. Sounds like a bad idea to me.

[MBTcustom]

a-hem, this is a dedicated pig gun, and they dont care what you kill them with as long as they end up dead. The official regulations encourage hunters to kill the pigs whenever they are found, and we are not required to take it home. Just leave it where it lays if we want to.

[Dan Cash]

The forcing cone is simply the transition from the diameter of the shotshell to the diameter of the barrel I thought?
Help me out here folks, am I missing something? I thought a cyclinder bore is a .735 hole with one end reamed out for a shotshell, and the other end might be back-bored for an interchangeable choke tube, but that opens it up not down.
If I understand Huntducks correctly, there are actually two chokes on the barrel, one as the shot leaves the shell and enters the barrel, and another one as the shot leaves the barrel and enters the atmosphere, is that about the size of it?
I am willing to learn and I am ready to, but I am having a hard time with this one, because last weekend I fired about 20 rounds through my shotgun that had a .738 round ball. My cylinder is a measured .734. The balls were loaded in a shell on top of a scoop of cream-of-wheat and a wad that had the petals removed. How was I getting 4" group at 50 yards with an undersized ball that had been reduced in diameter by a forcing cone? That's my problem.
Check out this link, I think I'm right.
http://www.hallowellco.com/chamber_and_forcing_cone.htm

Forcing cone in shotguns depends upon the gun. I have a slick 20 O/U, the barrels of which mike out += a hair as the same diameter as the inside of the plastic shotshell. I have an older 16 bore SxS that has no chamber. You could, in theory, use a shell as long as the barrels. If your ball is no larger than the chamber throat, I see no problem.

[MBTcustom]

I have a slick 20 O/U, the barrels of which mike out += a hair as the same diameter as the inside of the plastic shotshell.
That, of course depends on the shotshell. STS is much tighter than WW for instance.

[ku4hx]

When I was a kid, I needed some split shot so I opened up a paper shell hull of #1 Buck and took out the pellets. Not being able to afford to throw the shell away, I packed it with marbles and they shot all the way through the wood shed that had 1" thick oak boards on for siding. IIRC, they went through the other side and into the johnny house where I found one marble imbedded in a Sears & Roebuck Catalog. I was about 25 yds away when I fired it! If I'm lying, I'm crying and I ain't shed a tear.

I believe you! In my teens I built a marble cannon out of a T, a couple of threaded plugs and a length of galvanized pipe. Clamped that thing in a vice and put marbles into orbit using Cherry Bombs. Destroyed a few limbs on a Pecan tree in the process. My mom called the county agent to check out very destructive tree worms.

That concluded my ballistic marble phase.

[popper]

Made model sailing ship (pirate type) cannons in HS out of tool steel. Gave one to a friend who proceeded to try to shoot a ball bearing from it. He ended up with a 2 piece barrel. Steel is harder than zinc, but! 1920's HW store 12g still has a forcing cone.

[MBTcustom]

I still dont know what a forcing cone has to do with anything.

[popper]

Shotgun barrels are pretty thin anymore and the forcing cone and choke threads are pretty weak. You've shot lead OK, but zinc is hard (BHN of 60-130), doubt if it will swage much. Even in a shot cup a solid MIGHT bounce around and dent something. Now zinc OO shot might be safe.

[Sasquatch-1]

You were looking for marbles earlier. Have you tried these sites?

http://www.rainbowturtle.com/marbles-sections-c-441.html?gclid=CMfVn5mux6sCFeh25QodcCc76Q

http://www.megaglass.com/c/toy-playing-marbles.html?gclid=COOyy6mux6sCFdk55Qod9gGw4Q

http://www.landofmarbles.com/pc/mega002/marble-sets-and-assortments.html

[MBTcustom]

I can't find marbles that are 11/16" anywhere. Besides, $28 for 125 peices is not a cheap shoot! It costs me about $8 to make the same number out of lead ($12 from RotoMetals).

[Sasquatch-1]

I can't find marbles that are 11/16" anywhere. Besides, $28 for 125 peices is not a cheap shoot! It costs me about $8 to make the same number out of lead ($12 from RotoMetals).

They do tend to be expensive. These were just a few sites I had visited for a paracord tieing hobby I was doing.

[MBTcustom]

I searched and searched for 11/16 balls of any material that would be cheaper than lead. Even @ $1.50 per Lb. lead is still the cheapest material to make such things out of followed by styrofoam and plastic. Kinda gives you some perspective.

[Sasquatch-1]

I searched and searched for 11/16 balls of any material that would be cheaper than lead. Even @ $1.50 per Lb. lead is still the cheapest material to make such things out of followed by styrofoam and plastic. Kinda gives you some perspective.

Have you thought about ceramic bullets? You would have to buy a kiln though. :twisted:

[madsenshooter]

In the early days of African big game hunting it was common to harden the lead balls with mercury. Antimony works better and is much safer.

I once had a long glass mercury thermometer from the chemistry lab at my college. Had I said, because when stirring my melt with it, it broke. How much of mercury vaporized, and how much of it went into the melt I can't say, but if it hardened the alloy any, it wasn't much.

[Lead Freak]

When sorting through wheel weights, what is a quick way to find the zink weights?

[KCSO]

In an open choke zinc will work just fine. The forcing cone of the shotgun won't squeeze the shot cup down enough to cause any problems. As to casting zinc I have never done round balls but have cast zinc knife handles to restore some antiques. It takes a HOT melt and a heated mould to fill well. If I were going to do zinc in a steel mould I would look into some type of release agent as on knife shanks the zinc binds pretty solid. A Dixie mould should be just the ticket. Here is your chance to lead by example, do it and tell US how.

[fishnbob]

When sorting through wheel weights, what is a quick way to find the zink weights?

While sorting thru the clip ons and separating the stick ons to be cast separate(mostly pure), take a pair of side cutters and pinch them. The difference is obvious. You can also drop the zinc on a concrete floor and they will ring instead of a THUD![smilie=s:

[cf_coder]

Magnets... Zinc will not stick to a magnet. Steel will. Just make sure you're not sticking to the clip part that's inside the weight. Try it on an edge away from the clip.

Also, most steel weights will be be attached to the clip rather than being molded around it.

[blackthorn]

Magnet wont stick to zinc BUT it wont stick to lead either!!

[cf_coder]

Yup... after you've given a mighty squeeze with the side cutters to no avail, use the magnet to figger out which kind it is. :)

[Catshooter]

Goodsteel,

Asking a question whose answer isn't in the reloading books will bring the nay-sayers out of the woodwork at full lightspeed. As you've seen.

Unfortuneatley, most of us (including me) have zero experience with casting zinc balls. Kind of looks like you're on your own.

I understand fully. I once traded 200 rounds of x54r Czech Silver Tip ammo for 24 pounds of powder. Un-labeled and in pretty green plastic jugs. I didn't ask (anywhere!) how to use it safely, I just figured it out myownself.

Then my brother wanted to work up a three ball (.646) load for his 20 gauge. Didn't ask about that one either. Now talk about using up your lead supply! His .646 balls weigh 392 apiece.

Good luck with your zinc. When you're done, post what you did, would you? Some of us like to learn.


Cat

[MBTcustom]

First I need to find some zinc. I may ask on S&S. So far, in my 18years as a caster, I have found only a handful of zinc WW and I didn't even know what they were until I found this forum.

[DLCTEX]

A single ball load may not be a problem for a forcing cone, but multiple balls, such as 00 buck, will exert a lot of force to the side as the balls are wedged against each other under acceleration. I split the barrel of a shotgun as a teenager by substituting BBs for shot in some factory loads. I won't be shooting zinc/steel balls in any of my guns. I have shot WW balls through a modified choke with no ill effects.