Is this lead too hard to use as a muzzle loader bullet. I received around 400 lbs of mixed hard shot and I was thinking on melting it down and making muzzle loader bullets for my self. I have all the components.

It's got some antimony added. Magnum shot advertises hardness equal to 5 to 8 percent antimony, depending on the brand. Standard shot is advertised as 2 to 3 percent antimony equivalent hardness. But, understand, they are hardened by dropping into water. Once you melt and pour them and don't quench them in water, they will be softer.

Another strategy might be to melt it to trade to someone for pure lead melted from the stick-on type wheel weights. Tell them to add a pound of lead-free, zinc-free solder to each 50 lobs to get a fair bullet casting alloy.

True chilled shot also has arsenic. That's what increases its surface tension enough for it to form spheres as it falls in the shot tower (or they'd be "raindrop" shaped). Arsenic isn't a problem unless you get the melt temp way too high, and it makes it possible to oven-harden bullets. Of course, that's the opposite of what you want.

I also have shot that I smelt down into bullet material. I add about four ounces of 50/50 solder to a ten-pound melt (shot is low on tin). That gives me an alloy that fills the bullet mould well and is about WW hardness.

Bargain brand shot has little or no arsenic or antimony, so adding a wee bit of tin will make it fill the mould better without adding any hardness. Try crushing a pellet in a pair of pliers. If you can squeeze it down almost flat with one-hand pressure, it's pretty soft stuff and ought to work in a M/L gun.

i personally use my same water quenched bullet alloy for pistol bullets and ML R.E.A.L. bullets. it's a bit harder to start but very accurate.

Arsenic does make it more difficult for the lead to fill out the little details in a complicated mold (like he Loverin style rifle bullets). Increasing surface tension is good for making lead form little balls, not so good for having it flow into tiny right angles.

Have used a few hundred pounds of reclaimed shot as bullet material, and as long as i stuck with simpler one and two gooved designs, it worked fine. Even the Loverin designs worked well, but the reject rate was a bit high.

Is this lead too hard to use as a muzzle loader bullet. Yes, it would make it hard to load the ball. The diameter of a round ball would be larger when cast with an alloy containing antimony. A thinner patch would help. Pure lead is what you want.

I've never used lead shot before this week. A friend gave me an unopened sack of 7½, and a couple coffee cans of mixed size shot. I melted the mixed, and cast ¼ lb ingots. When melting, I found the shot generated a lot more dross than I'm used to. It was very dull gray with black speckles, and not very dense. Looks like very fine dark gray sand.

Anyway, I'm blending it off at the rate of an ounce at a time when I add 1lb of wheelweight + 1 lb range scrap to my melting pot during casting. I don't want to harden my bullets, just adding it because it's there. Seems to cast just fine.

For muzzleloading, I'd post an ad at my local range, gunshop, or craigslist to see if there's someone out there who'd like to swap lead for shot.

Better yet, take up casting for some centerfire! If you don't have one, you'll have to buy one...:o

:)



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