Do round ball recall warnings happen?

[PT7]

The last couple of months I've been getting some .490 Hornady round balls for my .50cal pistols. Wondering if it's a good idea to keep the 100-round boxes separated by Lot Numbers? I don't know what, if any, might be issues with manufactured round balls? Kind of a new area of ammunition for me in shooting muzzle loaders. ~~PT7

Hornady Round Balls_3466.JPG (231.57 KiB) Viewed 5858 times

[Mistered]

Never heard of it.
It's not like round balls are a large part of the shooting world overall.
Patch 'em and shoot 'em as I do!

[Vaquero]

Nice pic
I wouldn't think there should be any problem.
Could always smelt 'em, buy a mold and recast.

RP

[JEBar]

agree .... about the only thing I can think of right off that might cause a recall would be the wrong label being placed on the box .... I've had some so long that they have turned gray .... I do know first hand that an old, oxidized, gray .490 round ball will bring down a buck ..

[PT7]

Yup. I'm getting similar answers from folk on the muzzleloaders forum which is kind of what I expected. Round balls are pretty basic ammo.

Jim. Other than the label switcheroo, could also mistakenly mix in some different sized round balls in one box. That would be easily noticed when loading it. You mentioned the .490 RB taking a buck. Reminds me of the "perfect wintertime deer hunt" video I posted last July. http://henryrifleforums.com/viewtopic.p ... nt#p101848 That was a successful hunt using a .50cal pistol.

RP. Yeah, you're right. Could melt down RBs and start over. And appreciate the comment about the pic. Like to experiment taking closeups with that old Nikon 35MM.

MrM. Exactly what I plan to do.

Thanks, Gents.

PT7

[Mistered]

Could melt down RBs and start over.

Providing you have some basic equipment such as a melting pot, mold, dipper and a few other things.
I used to cast round balls - and bullets - a long time ago.
Fun at the time but I eventually gave it up.

[dave77]

I still have all my round ball casting equipment. Was doing a lot of shooting back then so I went in with a couple of friends on about a 1000 lbs of pure lead (was stained glass window came someone was selling). We melted it down and cast it into small ingots, my share filled a couple of plastic milk cartons about half full, had to put them in two as I couldn't even begin to lift a full carton.

Was curious and just checked the price of pure lead and my lead is probably worth several hundred dollars, have to find a local buyer, shipping would probably be difficult and expensive.

http://www.zipmetals.com/Certified-999- ... p_155.html

[PT7]

It would be interesting to see a photo of your RB casting equipment, Dave. Is that doable? I'm curious as to what you used. And maybe a brief explanation about the tools? TIA. I see that MrEd noted some of the equipment he had used, too. Maybe between his list and your photo I'll get an idea on initial RB casting.

One fellow from the ML forum I write on answered my same inquiry, and said it cost him "probably less than $100 to get started...used a small cast iron pot (bought new), ladle, mold and old naphtha stove." What I need to follow up on is that he said this was to "get started." Wonder what else was/is needed?

I did some playing around with numbers for the 1000 lbs of pure lead you all purchased. I might be doing this incorrectly, but the results seem reasonable. 1000 lbs = 453,592 grams. One .490 RB is 177 grams. So I did the division resulting in a little more than 2550 cast RBs. Sound about right? I now have just over 300 RBs in stock to start out the next year, and will see how long it takes to shoot those. Anyway, I hope I got the estimated numbers close and don't end up too ! Thanks for your comments.

PT7

I still have all my round ball casting equipment...Was doing a lot of shooting back then so I went in with a couple of friends on about a 1000 lbs of pure lead

[Mistered]

The upside to casting round balls is they do not need to be lubed and that makes it a lot cheaper to start out.
I would recommend at a minimum an electric melting pot as opposed to some sort of stove system. I originally used a single burner Coleman stove to set my pot on but an electric pot made life easier later.
I don't have any of my molds anymore but I'll post a pic of my pot and what few items I have left.
I'll bet you could find a used electric pot pretty cheaply In your area with a little investigatory searching. Join your local online marketplace websites and post what you are looking for.
Ladles are cheap and you could probably find a used mold as well.
You might want to browse the 'Cast Boolits' forum as well for additional information.

[Mags]

.
I don't shoot black powder, so I have no balls, round or otherwise.

[dave77]

It would be interesting to see a photo of your RB casting equipment, Dave. Is that doable? I'm curious as to what you used. And maybe a brief explanation about the tools? TIA. I see that MrEd noted some of the equipment he had used, too. Maybe between his list and your photo I'll get an idea on initial RB casting.

One fellow from the ML forum I write on answered my same inquiry, and said it cost him "probably less than $100 to get started...used a small cast iron pot (bought new), ladle, mold and old naphtha stove." What I need to follow up on is that he said this was to "get started." Wonder what else was/is needed?

I did some playing around with numbers for the 1000 lbs of pure lead you all purchased. I might be doing this incorrectly, but the results seem reasonable. 1000 lbs = 453,592 grams. One .490 RB is 177 grams. So I did the division resulting in a little more than 2550 cast RBs. Sound about right? I now have just over 300 RBs in stock to start out the next year, and will see how long it takes to shoot those. Anyway, I hope I got the estimated numbers close and don't end up too ! Thanks for your comments.

PT7

I still have all my round ball casting equipment...Was doing a lot of shooting back then so I went in with a couple of friends on about a 1000 lbs of pure lead

I'll dig my stuff out and get a photo taken today or tomorrow.

Your figure of 2550 balls in a 1000 lbs seemed low. Looked up the weight of a 50 cal. rd. ball and it's 177 grains instead of grams. 1000lbs.= 7,000,000 grains so 39,548 50 cal. balls is 1000 lbs. so my share of 333 lbs is 13,182 50 cal. rds. Since my rifle and pistol are both 45 cal. it would be 16,317 rds. That's a lot of BP shooting.That's 266 hours of shooting a round every minute.

[Mistered]

Your figure of 2550 balls in a 1000 lbs seemed low.

I originally overlooked the post but yes it was low And Dave is correct.

Bullets/balls are scaled in GRAINS not GRAMS - big difference!

[Mistered]

Here is all I have left.
My ancient SAECO (Santa Anita Engineering Co.) lead pot, an ingot mold, a couple ladles, a hunk of lead and the lead pot insert liner.

IMG_1720[1].JPG (162.93 KiB) Viewed 5431 times

[PT7]

I definitely did the oops calc, didn't I? Hmm, how could one mix up Gr versus Gm?
Thanks to both for clarifying.

Dave, your correct total is an incredibly large number of RBs.
And to shoot one ML round/minute would be some feat

Appreciate your casting equipment photo, MrEd. Interesting tools. I think I'll do some reading about RB casting.

PT7

Your figure of 2550 balls in a 1000 lbs seemed low.

I originally overlooked the post but yes it was low And Dave is correct.
Bullets/balls are scaled in GRAINS not GRAMS - big difference!

[Mistered]

I think I'll do some reading about RB casting.

You''ll find there is not much to it really.

A couple minor 'technical' aspects to it but pretty dang simple.

[Vaquero]

I cast few different caliber bullets for handguns and rifles.
Just recently picked a mold for my .54 cal. Renegade.
No round ball molds... Yet.
And I did just score a 32 cal. CVA squirrel rifle, I may buy a mold for it.

RP

[Mistered]

Just recently picked a mold for my .54 cal. Renegade.

What mold did you pick up?

Ironically I AM 'kind of' thinking of starting to cast .54s for my OWN Renegade (the one I restored) considering Hornady DROPPED their 'Great Plains' bullets in .54 that shot excellently out of my Renegade!!

[JEBar]

Your figure of 2550 balls in a 1000 lbs seemed low. Looked up the weight of a 50 cal. rd. ball and it's 177 grains instead of grams. 1000lbs.= 7,000,000 grains so 39,548 50 cal. balls is 1000 lbs. so my share of 333 lbs is 13,182 50 cal. rds. Since my rifle and pistol are both 45 cal. it would be 16,317 rds. That's a lot of BP shooting.That's 266 hours of shooting a round every minute.

that's a bunch of round balls .... my sons and I haven't ever fired anything but 490 round balls out of our 50's .... for several years we deer hunted with them and were also members of a black powder club that held monthly shoots .... enjoyed it

[Vaquero]

Just recently picked a mold for my .54 cal. Renegade.

What mold did you pick up?

Ironically I AM 'kind of' thinking of starting to cast .54s for my OWN Renegade (the one I restored) considering Hornady DROPPED their 'Great Plains' bullets in .54 that shot excellently out of my Renegade!!

Ed, it's a 380 gr conical, it's a Lee mold.
I made a dozen, but I haven't tried any of them yet.
Deer season is in the way at the moment.

RP

[Mistered]

I made a dozen, but I haven't tried any of them yet.

Well get out and give 'em a try and let me know how they shoot!