Best Place to buy Minies

[LongRifle]

I have purchased my Minie balls from Track of the Wolf in the past

Is there any other place that might be cheaper.


Making them myself is not out of the question. I do have a lead melter and lots of bullet moulds, but have never done it. I would have to purchase a mould to make them, and I have NO IDEA where to get lead from.

[Eddie Bruner, 12222]

Where do you live?

[Edwin Flint, 8427]

If you know your size, Pat Kabosky, can help you with bullets.

cwbulletman@aol.com
or 262-363-4625.

If you need lead, you have to locate it. A GOOD hardware stores will sell it to you in 5lb. Blocks. Bit expensive this way but okay for start up. Other places have it also. Be careful that it is pure lead as minies will not shoot well with alloys.


Check your area for smelters, and refinerys. It is usually available at wholesale market price there.

[ian45662]

I get mine at a scrap metal place for 40 cents on the pound. It is sheet or pipe lead.

[RangerFrog]

LongRifle, if you are going to be casting minies for that 1855 you mentioned in the other post, I would suggest you look at the RCBS minie moulds for the .58 cal. There is a traditional style and a lighter one. I have both, but when I got my Zouave it had the lighter bullet mould with it, so I figured so far I would stick with that.

I like the RCBS design best because of the way the pin for the hollow base is retained. It seems much quicker and easier for me to use than the other designs I have encountered.

HTH ~ Froggie

[Bob Matthias]

Northeast trader has them also

[gjkershul]

I bought about 70 lbs of 99.99% pure lead from http://www.rotometals.com/ this Spring and have been very happy with the Lyman Parker-Hale and RCBS 500 gr Minies I have cast with it.
Free shipping on orders over $99.

[LongRifle]

Interesting... I also received some PMs.

Seems that first I need to get the size of my bore. I have fired my older 1861 many times and the .575", Lyman 575-213, 510 grain, pure lead, that I purchased from Track of the Wolf shoot very well.

I don't have good tools to mic a barrel, but it sure seems like the 1855 is a little larger (IE .002) than the 1861. But again, hard to tell with the equipment i have.

So based on your feedback, I did look at moulds, but again, I need to figure out of my 1855 needs more like a 577 vs a 575.

I will check around for 5lbs blocks from hardware stores. I would LOVE to find that because I do have a melter.

No idea how to use it, but I have one.

[LongRifle]

Also.. ROTOMETALs. Nice!!!... I wonder if shipping will kill me

I will check that out

[LongRifle]

What do you think about the LEE MOULDS

Lee Original Minie Mould .58 cal .575"

[gjkershul]

A friend had the Lee Original Minie mold when I decided to try to master the rifled musket again and cast a couple of hundred for me. They shot at least as well as I did and when I gained enough knowledge from this forum to cut my charges to 40-45 gr of 3f they shot even better. Well enough to get conical projectiles banned from several local buckskinner shoots.

I got one of the Lee modern minie molds and found that I had to size them to .575 . They did not shoot as well as the Lee originals for me.

Since then I have obtained a Lyman-Parker Hale Minie mold that seems to shoot better than the deep based minies over 100 yds in my Euroarms Enfield Musketoon.

This morning I cast 50 minies from an original Parker Hale mold with an RCBS deep cavity base plug machined down to cast a 5/32 shallow flat based minie which I am advised by posters on this forum was the original confirguration of the Parker Hale mold. They weigh in at 560 grs.

I will lube them ths afternoon and test fire them tomorrow morning in the cool.