Harder lead for carbine

[ian45662]

Anyone else shooting 30:1 in carbine? Smith or sharps in particular?

[Ron/The Old Reb]

Don't know how hard 30:1 is. But I have shot Linotype in my Smith with good results.

[xring2245]

I cast my carbine bullets and SB roundballs out of reclaimed range lead and it works great. The range lead is from a pistol range and generally is composed of .22s (very soft) and .38s and .45s. A few years ago I borrowed a hardness tester and the alloy tested out to 9-10. I don't want to use up my pure lead for these bullets and a relatively soft alloy works well. I would think that linotype is too hard and brittle to get the best results from the shooting that we do. I cast up some .45-70 bullets a few years ago and the accuracy with linotype wasn't close to a softer alloy. A medium hard alloy seems to work the best. James

[Rebel Dave]

Back in the day, when our guns, were the guns of the day, bullet companies used mostly soft lead. Lead might have had some hardening alloys in it, but it was mainly soft. Rifle bores of the day wandered a little in size, also. That all being said, soft lead bullets will expand into the bore better than hard lead, so that gave the firearm manufactorers room to wiggle as far as bore size, and they knew that.

When I shot a Smith, I used the same soft lead in it, and my Maynard, as I use in my Musket. They shot excellent with my musket lead. You can get lead too hard for these ole guns. One of the key ingrediants in all this is, the right lube, this will keep down fowling, and leading of the barrel. I bought some .38 and .45 calibre "Black Dawg" black powder pistol bullets, for my mod 1872 Colt open tops (Cimarron). I am in the process of melting them down, they were so hard you could bareley scratch them with your thumb nail, way to hard for the pistols.

I think you are better off with soft lead, in ole guns designed for it, because it will expand into the bore better.

Just my .02

Rebel Dave

[gemmer]

Charlie Hahn recommended 30/1 for my Pedersoli .54 Sharps sporter when he did his breech block and chamber job and it shoots very well with it. I normally cast 20/1 for my 45-70 and 50-70 TDs and my 3 groove converted '63
Sharps carbine. Works fine in all of them. BTW, I believe original government issued 45-70 ammo was
12/1. Winchester used 16/1 and 20/1 for a variety of .45-70 and .50-70 loads.

Duane

[Jud96]

We have had much success with wheel weights for over 30+ years in Sharps, Gallagers, .45-70s, .45-90s, .44-40s, roundballs and pretty much anything besides obviously minnie balls. The wheel weights don't lead up at all in anything, are easily available, and you just drop them right into the pot without having to mix alloys or anything!

[ms3635v]

I use soft lead in both my original Smith and original 2nd Model Maynard. I have been shooting the Maynard for almost 30 years and never had a leading problem in that or the Smith.