Casting for black powder?

M

maillemaker

New member
I've got a .44 caliber (came with .454 dia balls) CVA "Navy" blackpowder pistol. The cheap one with the brass frame.

I was going to buy a round ball mold for it, Lee 90442, but I was wondering if I can use wheelweight lead for such ammo? I heard that you should only use pure lead for blackpowder?

Also, Lee makes some conical bullet molds for black powder pistols, 90382 and 90382. Would one of these work also?

http://leeprecision.com/cgi/catalog/browse.cgi?1294175281.2551=/html/catalog/blackpow.html

Steve
 
If you use the lead stick-on type weights you should be good. They are nearly pure, close enough to work well for the front stuffers. The clip-on type are a bit harder and most consider them to be too hard for this application.
 
Stick with pure soft lead. Check with a metal salvaging/recycling yard. Old x-ray lead is very good. Old electrical cable, plumbers, etc.
Takes some work and being resourceful to find but it is out there.
BTW, I use an old dutch oven for refining and recasting my scrounged lead into ingots. Just make sure the pot is never used for cooking.
 
I found this one layin in a guys backyard.... he said he wasnt sure what was in it... but it was very heavy...he didnt know it was in fact lead.
 
I dont have one either.... A friend a mine has one... so if im unsure I have to take a sample to him.... Guess I should get one also... cept for now I only use straight wheel weights..and I know they are ok for hardness.
 
They're supposedly great for standard bullets, but for black powder, you want soft stuff, so I've been told. If you're buying lead from weird sources like batteries or whatnot, you don't know what kind of alloy you have so you don't know if it's good for black powder or not.
 
What about the lead from old car batteries?
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Don't mess with battery lead! You might be able to do something with the posts after cleaning them real good with baking soda, but never mess with the plates.
 
Battery plates have nasty chemicals that become very (did I mention VERY?) toxic when melting them down. For the amount of actual usable lead you get, it is just not worth the hassle, even if it wasn't that toxic. Terminal ends are fine after being cleaned up with the baking soda.

The lead stick-on wheelweights are generally considered pure and are easily soft enough for the muzzleloaders. The Fe and Zn ones are not. The clip-on weights contain both tin and antimony and yield a hardness sufficient for even most magnum handgun loads.
 
Battery plates have nasty chemicals that become very (did I mention VERY?) toxic when melting them down. For the amount of actual usable lead you get, it is just not worth the hassle, even if it wasn't that toxic.
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What chemicals are present besides sulfuric acid?

Steve
 
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