Lead questions from a new guy

[Little Boats]

I lurked for a while and read threads going back several pages and found answers to most of my questions with one exception.

When I am looking for casting lead for traditional muzzle loading projectiles what am I looking for? I see the term "pure lead" used but what is being referred to? I have a metallurgist friend I shoot with who would say 100% pure lead is unattainable from commercial outlets. 100% pure metal of any kind for that matter.

For muzzle loading what is considered acceptable lead? Is there a percentage breakdown of what would work and what would be too hard?

I am new to casting and wish to get off on the right foot. Thanks

[Sensai]

Pure lead, as used in casting, is a relative term. What we really mean is "soft" lead. You can use any lead that you can mark with your thumbnail as "pure" lead for muzzle loader casting. :smile:

[pietro]

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Good reply.

Welcome to the forum, Little Boats !

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[rodwha]

Rotometals claims theirs is 99.9% pure:

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

I bought my lead as old recycled piping. Roof flashing is also supposed to be near pure.

[mooman76]

Use soft lead as possible. If all you can get is wheel weight lead that works too for RBs in rifles. Soft lead is more important for revolvers and conicals. Basically use what you can get, it's harder and harder to get these days. The softer the better though.

[D Crockett]

little Boats give me a pm and we can work out something so you will have about 20 lbs of soft lead that will work in a black powder gun D Crockett

[RogerDat]

Stick on wheel weights, roof flashing, plumbing pipe are generally "plain" lead. Not "pure" but without enough alloy to make them hard. The thumbnail test is a good one. There is a sticky on using Art Pencils for hardness testing that would be more precise.

There are folks in swapping and selling section of the forum that will have "plain" lead, they may use the term "pure" but they simply mean not an alloy as opposed to how a metallurgist would use it. Might have a little arsenic, sn, or sb in it but too little to make it hard. I think most would consider from 5-7 BHN soft. Lead wall sheeting used for x-ray rooms is a very good source, has a federal standard it has to meet so pretty close to pure.

I don't shoot ML but you need to consider how many rounds you need, how many you get per pound, and last how sensitive is the firearm to wear if you shoot something a smidge harder than pure through it. If the quantity is low and concern over damage or accuracy warrant it then purchase plain lead from Rotometals and know what you are getting.

I plan to get another ML eventually but I will probably be looking at an off the shelf item from Cabelas so I won't need to be as concerned about quality of lead as someone that has a really fine ML they want to protect from any excessive wear.

[Little Boats]

Thank you for the replies. I have a much better understanding of what I am looking for now. The sticky about testing with art pencils was quite interesting. Thumbnail testing is great but difficult when I am going to have to mail order lead.

The link to Rotometals helped as it gave the BHN for the 99.9 pure lead. A BHN of 5 to 7 would indeed seem to count as soft lead. I cannot buy anything lead other than round balls locally so casting is in self defense. If I do a good job one of the local shops has said they would buy from me so I might get lucky and offset the cost of the equipment.

If you buy off the rack RogerDat may I suggest you look at the offerings from Lyman. I have the 1 in 48 twist DeerStalker. My only knock to the gun would be the stock trigger pull on mine was horrible. We have an excellent traditional gun smith here who worked on my lock and got the trigger pull to 2 pounds 14 ounces with a crisp break. I can hold two inch groups at 50 yards off hand with either round balls or maxi's with no problems. A 370 grain .50 cal Maxi over 75 grains of 2F American Pioneer was clicking along at just over 1,350 fps at 50 yards. My spot is all set for Deer and I have tracks and game camera shots of nice animals within 50 feet of my stand. I should be good to go.

I am going to cast two maxi's from Lyman (TC designed) which are supposed to be for the 1 in 48 twist rifles so hope for improvement.

[CastingFool]

Plumber's lead is usually pretty soft stuff, too.