Lead weights and deviations

[jek279]

I cast my own minie balls for my .577 1862 Enfield. Anyone with experience could you tell me what BHN level do you want your lead? I run about 5.5-7. Is that to much of a variation in hardness? Plus, what weight deviation do you allow for shoot able balls? I use the 575213 AV mold from lodgewood. In a typical 100 ball casting, 5-7 will be .493 grains or less. 45-50 will be .497-.500 grain, and 30-35 at .501-.503 grains, and about 10 heavies above .5031. Are these acceptable numbers and what weight variation should I stay within when grouping rounds?

[johnefelts]

I do not think that a 10 grain spread in bullet weight will affect accuracy that much.

[Southron Sr.]

I generally run somewhere between 300 and 500 Minie Balls at a casting session because I have a Master Caster casting machine.

Then I go through them and separate out any that have visible flaws, such things as "blow holes" in the hollow bases, folds or whatever on the surface of the Minie, etc.

Then I weigh all my Minie Balls on an electronic scale and separate into the various "weight lots." If I were to chart the weights of my Minies, they would always fall into a classic "Bell Shaped Curve."

Generally I hold my "Match Bullets" to Plus or Minus 3 Grains. The lots of the "heavier" and "slightly lighter" bullets are kept separate and loaded together and shot together for practice ammo or team events. Of course, all of the "too light" bullets get recycled back into the lead pot because even they might look good on the outside, obviously, somewhere in them they have a trapped air bubble.

I have a Lead Hardness Tester I never use because I generally get my lead from a foundry that guarantees the lead is 99.9% "Pure."

For accurate shooting Minie Balls, "Pure Lead" is the best. I often use the "Fingernail Test" which means that IF I can indent the Minie with my thumb nail by using moderate pressure on it, then it is "Pure Enough" for Minies.

[jek279]

Thanks for your prospective. When I cast, I recycle the first 15 or so to warm up the mold. And like you I discard any that don't pass visual inspection. And like your results I see a bell type curve. When I cast I record all data onto a spread sheet down to the last detail and then print that information off and package that information with my different weighted minies. I first sort by weight and then run through my .580 sizer. Then I run them through the .578 sizer and check for the bullet lands to be evenly shaved by the sizer. I then run them through the .577 sizer and then recheck land appearance. Finally I run them through the .576 sizer and then reweight the round and again record the data. After regrouping by weights I then lube with 1/2 mink oil and 1/2 bore butter. I shoot a patched ball in my flintlock and swear by mink oil. I have never had to clean my bores between shots shooting 50-100 plus rounds whiling using mink oil, so I use it on the minies in the grooves. Nothing in the base. I was just curious what other shooters did for sorting by weights.

[Muley Gil]

"I shoot a patched ball in my flintlock and swear by mink oil."

How many minks do you have to swooze down to get enuf oil fer a match?

Enquiring minds wanna 'no. :)

[jek279]

Mink oil is a by product of the fur and pet food industry. Minks are farmed here in the United States just as any other ranched animals: chickens for meat and feathers, geese for down for pillows and blankets, cows for meat and leather products. The mink meat is used for dog and pet food, the fur industry uses the pelts and we buy the fat and oil which would otherwise be destroyed in our landfills. It is then sent to a Texas A & M University lab and filtered through a process to remove impurities and deodorize the oil.

[jek279]

In case anyone is wondering, you can buy mink oil from Track of the Wolf. They have an awesome website.

[Pat in Virginia]

JEK,

When you say you mix mink oil with Bore Butter at a 50/50 ratio are you doing it by weight or by volume?

I think it will probably be by volume, but I do not want to assume.


Pat

[jek279]

I take the mink oil and bore butter and put them into their individual containers that are small tin trays I have that are of equal size. I turn the oven on to 150 degrees and melt them to liquid states. Then I pour the two together into one large container. If I am using it for my 4500 lubrisizer, I mix the two and then direct pour into the lubrisizer. I have a sizer in the lubrisizer that has then pin in it blocking the lube holes from letting it run out. I then use the lubrisizer the next day after it has hardened up. It still is a soft mix of lube but I prefer that to being to hard. I never roll rounds until the night before so the paper doesn't get saturated. You can use beez wax in place of bore butter, but there is no substitute for slick lube. If I shoot patched round balls, I soak the patches in the melted mink oil and put them in my possibles bag and off I go.

[Fred Jr]

I guess I'm just not patient enough to go through all that. I cast them , size them, give a clance to see any obvious problems , dip in Len's lube and shoot'em. I do use only 99.9 pure virgin lead.

Fred

[jek279]

It sounds extensive but the 4500 lubrisizer makes quick work of sizing along with an electric scale. I found that if you size from .580 to .577 it pushes hard on the minie ball and can push it in crooked or even wrinkle the skirt it you run soft lead.

[Fred Jr]

I do believe you will find that most of the top shooters use pure lead.

[jek279]

I appreciate all the answers and comments, but does anyone besides me order or test their lead for hardness (BHN). I get 50 pounds of 5.5 BHN and 50 pounds of 7 BHN. I then blend to get roughly 6 BHN average. Just because people say 99.9 percent pure lead, it can still leave room from 5-6 or even up to 6.5 BHN. Maybe I am a lead nerd, but I need all the variables accounted for to help my poor aiming skills. So if I miss the target I can't blame anything other than wind or my bad aiming skills.

[Gary Van Kauwenbergh, 101]

I use my lead hardness tester every time I buy lead. BHN 5 or under is considered pure, and what I use on minies. I suppose you might get by with 5.5 or even 6 for minies on some guns, but I would never go out of my way to make lead harder for my musket, carbine or revolver ammunition.

I do use an alloy for my Henry rounds. I start out with a Lyman #2 alloy (BHN=16) and then keep adding soft lead to the pot until the sprue cutter slices smooth on the base of the bullet and doesn't leave a crater. That happens around BHN=12.

My regimen for weighing bullets is pretty much in sync with Southron Sr. I have large line drawn on my work bench with about ten hash marks signifying grains of weight. Once you're got the bullets weighed and distributed you'll see that 'bell curve' Southron mentioned, and you'll know which ones to toss back in the pot. I keep the largest group +/- 1 grain as my "Match Grade" ammo, and the rest are for practice and team events. I have a couple digital scales, which really speed up the weighing process.