Lee did make foster type slug molds. IIRC they did not have the fluting/rifling. they were hollow based. I don't know what loading instructions were with them, I'd be kind of wary of trying to load the things. You can't just stick them in a standard AAA wad and crimp it shut. If a person could buy the solid wads, and had a roll crimping device, I'm sure that handloaded foster slugs would be a piece of cake.
Round Ball
- Thread starter Bake
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deerslayer303
New member
I have a Lee 1oz key drive slug mold and they shoot just as good as any off the shelf rifled slug load through my 19" cylinder choked shotty. They cast really easy.
Dreaming100Straight
New member
And here I thought you were up to some nefarious mathematical wizardry, Zippy.
OR, you can just rough figure it using the same method the old timers used to name the bore sizes. A 12gauge gun means the bore size is the diameter of a lead ball that weighs 1/12th of a pound. (which my calculator says is 583.3333gr.
)My Grandfather loaded his own 12ga shells from the early 1900s through the 1940s. I still have some of the rounds he loaded. Some of them are what he called "pumpkin balls" (single round balls). He seemed to put great stock in them, I doubt he ever used any of the commercial slugs. He didn't deer hunt, was a farmer, and if he ever needed something more than shot, the pumpkin balls did the trick.
Also, my grandfather's pumpkin ball loads weren't exactly just cast round balls. (he didn't cast), they were actual musket balls he had found as a youth. He lived near several French & Indian war and Revolutionary war battlefields, and collected a number of musket balls, a few cannon balls, and a number of stone arrowheads in his youth. I have some of that collection, including a few of the musket balls.
The .72 cal ball for the Brown Bess works tolerably well in a 12ga, and even the .69 cal balls can be somewhat useful.
NO, not as accurate, or as longer ranged as modern slugs. But they do give a good solid "thwop" on things at the ranges you can hit them (40-50yds or so, depending on things).
Dreaming,
I wasn't trying to stir up a hornets' nest about how to best calculate the weight of a 12-ga lead ball. All I wanted to know was how Pete's specific loads work. I assumed they weren't exactly 1/12 of a pound of lead (7000-gr/12), nor were they "pure" lead.
As a side note:
My neighbor, who does church windows, just gave me a bucket of came cut-offs. Anyone have experience casting with the stuff?
Dreaming100Straight
New member
I ever thought you were trying to stir up some hornets, but just joking around, Zippy.
jaguarxk120
New member
Since came is "worked" by hand it should very pure lead, no alloy's.
If it has been used there may be some solder joints and that could add some tin to the mix. I would use it for black powder bullets.
If it has been used there may be some solder joints and that could add some tin to the mix. I would use it for black powder bullets.
came is pure, soft lead, and should be treated as such, no matter how many solder joints you have, because a bit of tin mixed in with the lead isn't going to help. You can always melt it into ingots and go from there, see how hard it feels. You can probably melt it into ingots and trade or donate to a black powder loader, or they will be fine for other purposes of soft lead. Not going to be adequate for any heavy smokeless loads; they will probably strip pretty easily.
Last option I guess is to just feed it into bullet alloy a bit at a time, or make your own alloy with other alloys.
Last option I guess is to just feed it into bullet alloy a bit at a time, or make your own alloy with other alloys.
A .690" LRB weighs 495 grains. A .715" ball weighs 550 grains. That hull was loaded with a 690. I cast them myself. Pure lead from cable sheathing and old plumbing.
I shoot .654" pure lead RB from my 16 gauge flintlock fowler. No patching. Just two 16 ga. Mini nitro cards over 2 3/4 drams of FFg black powder and a single mini nitro card on top. They are quite accurate out to 50 yards, the farthest that I have tried them. The big problem is finding and maintaining a proper sight picture. Only a front sight. Vertical stringing is common.
I have tried the Centurion shells. Not very impressed.
Pete
I shoot .654" pure lead RB from my 16 gauge flintlock fowler. No patching. Just two 16 ga. Mini nitro cards over 2 3/4 drams of FFg black powder and a single mini nitro card on top. They are quite accurate out to 50 yards, the farthest that I have tried them. The big problem is finding and maintaining a proper sight picture. Only a front sight. Vertical stringing is common.
I have tried the Centurion shells. Not very impressed.
Pete