Lyman #2

[forrest-hunter]

Can you cast Lee REAL bullets and roundballs using Lyman #2 for hunting or do you have to use lead?

[Hardcast416taylor]

Some people have used other than pure soft lead for the boolets and balls you mention. And these same people swear like a sailor on liberty when they get then stuck halfway down the barrel and the ramrod breaks from pounding on that stuck hard not soft lead object.Robert

[forrest-hunter]

Thanks - that makes sense

[Omnivore]

There are several alloys between pure lead and #2. Going straight to #2 would be a huge jump. Some people add just a little bit of tin to improve mold fill-out. That's as far as I'd want to go. #2 is used for high pressure (i.e. smokeless) loads, up to around 2,000 fps or a little higher depending on the particular gun and loading practices. There's absolutely no point in using #2 in a muzzleloader. Maybe in a shotgun, if for some reason (which I can't imagine) you needed a harder shot. You could use #2 alloy ball in a smooth bore, so long as your ball/patch combo wasn't real tight, but since the tin and antimony make it more expensive, again there is no reason to use #2 over pure lead. There's just no reason to even want such a hard alloy in a front-stuffer, as the only reason it exists is to reduce or avoid lead fouling due to high pressure smokeless loads.

If you're asking because you don't have any lead, and you happen to have some #2 laying around, I'd say trade it off for some lead. Lots of people cast for smokeless, and would love to have it.

If you want to punch harder targets like car bodies or something, a 58 caliber lead Minie will do that handily.

[SSGOldfart]

just use as pure soft lead as you can find/ I use old lead wire jacketing lead for my hunting RB's

[451whitworth]

you can use Lyman #2 or wheel weights for ML'er projectiles. The key is making then the correct size so they load easily. With a round ball, use a .005" smaller mold than a pure lead mold, i.e. a .530" instead of a .535" in a .54 cal rifle. And adjust the patch thickness if needed. With bullets just size then down until they just kiss the barrel walls. They will upset and fill the rifling when shot. Pure lead is easiest to work with though.

[Good Cheer]

Tried hard ball (really nasty alloy that wouldn't cast no bueno por anything with lube grooves) in the .69 rifled musket with surprisingly good results. I clean between shots from habit so a tight patch with no yield from the ball didn't bring on any panic attacks.

In rifling with three hugely wide grooves the hard alloy might even be a plus in helping to keep the ball from settling off towards any one groove.

[Hellgate]

You will be beating your gun muzzle up or the palm of your hand trying to get the hard #2 alloy REAL bullet started and down the barrel. "Rifling Engraved At Loading" is gonna be tough with a hard alloy. Plus, accuracy might be poor as a pure lead bullet will upset a little and fill the riflings a little better upon obturation when firing.

[C. Latch]

.....Some people add just a little bit of tin to improve mold fill-out. That's as far as I'd want to go.

That's what I did with my REALS last summer. They seemed to work well; soft lead with just enough tin to make them shiny.

[OverMax]

Where many get into trouble is changing their rifles intended projectiles material. I seen tin, hard magnum bird shot, chilled shot, Lino, Mono, mix with COWW or poured (straight) right into a mold with someone's idea too make a better ball or bullet. All that was accomplished was poor accuracy or a stuck ball causing damaged to their ram rod and on one occasion a bulged barrel which garnered quite a bit of laughter because of some others stupidity. I could shoot REALS or Maxi's but don't. Never found anything that couldn't be harvested or bulls-eyed with just a simple patched soft lead ball.

[mooman76]

I have used WW lead because that's all I had. It's doable and didn't shoot bad but I don't think I would want to go any harder.

[dondiego]

I have shot WW and harder alloy with round balls for years and don't understand how you could get a ball stuck. With REALs I have only used soft lead.

[True.grit]

Soft lead is the best way to go, second best it SWW. I also use soft for casting boolits with sabots even though you could use any alloy. The softer the more mushroom you get.

[dh2]

Lyman #2 should cast .002 inch larger than pure lead that would be all out trouble.

[dondiego]

You use a patch that is 0.002 inches thinner.

[Omnivore]

You could shoot rocks out of your gun if you had to. #2 is more expensive than lead though, so, why?