Lee Loader

I just finished casting 100 .490 round balls for my flintlock using a Lee 2 cavity RB mould with the Lee Precession Melter at 650* and pure lead it took about 45 minutes. I also have a Lee production pot that is strictly for center fire bullets.
I have a club shoot Sunday morning where we'll shoot 25 or so various paper targets at ranges out to 100 yards.

Nice I ran a pile of 375 ,454 and 490 about a yr ago for a meet I was hosting . Must be about 5# of each left . I sure wish you could get a 6 cavity in each or in mixed pairs as inexpensively as a straight 6C for other bullets .

It goes pretty fast when you get it going .

Track of the Wolf has six cavity molds in most of the Round Ball sizes if not all of them. I have them for all of my rifles and 12 Gauge.

Ranch Dog wrote:Track of the Wolf has six cavity molds in most of the Round Ball sizes if not all of them. I have them for all of my rifles and 12 Gauge.

So you load gallery loads? For plinking or what?

I LOVE shooting my flinch-locks. I do cast for them both the 2 hole molds work just fine for me. Afterall they aren't semi autos so an hour worth of casting produces at least a 6 month supply for but the 50 and 54 cals.

I've spent the last 2 years, part time, building a Pecatonica River 1803 Harpers Ferry flinter. Man this "kit" is a serious challenge to my skill set. Just figuring where and how to drill from the outside of the stock thru the stock to pivot the trigger so it is correctly position on the sear got me flummoxed. But I've almost got it figured out, I hope. This kit compare to the Lyman kits is a WHOLE different ball game. Unfortunately I've not been home much this year. Spending a lot of time with the grandkids and just traveling. But the 2 very good books I have go traveling with me and get studied over and over.

I've had the 2 cavity mold for a bizazilian years and I cast every now and then just to keep a few hundred balls on hand. Something to do in the evening to get out of the house (away from the TV racket).

daboone wrote:

Ranch Dog wrote:Track of the Wolf has six cavity molds in most of the Round Ball sizes if not all of them. I have them for all of my rifles and 12 Gauge.

So you load gallery loads? For plinking or what?

My first experience with round balls was with .311" balls for use with my Marlin 336A that was chambered in 30-30 AI. I used them to fireform my brass. I found out they actually were accurate and would sit on the bank of my pond shooting at turtles.

Within the last couple of years, I became interested in them again with the 357 & 44 Mag plus the 45 Colt for small critter control. I was looking for something to replace my 22 Rimfires. They shot well but I was not pleased with the killing authority so I stopped using them. I've put as many as five round balls through a large raccoon in the top of a pecan tree but it not die. One flat nose bullet through the chest cavity with the same load kills them immediately.

We have a couple of public nilgai hunts that require slugs be used because of the size of the properties so I thought I would see how accurate the road ball was but given the experiences above on raccoons, I dropped the consideration in favor of the Lee Slug Molds which are deadly.

I even bought Fed Cornell Wad Cutter Dies from Buffalo Arms.



I was pretty serious about the work but have since given it up based on the killing authority. Here is a 25-yard target, I had a real tough crosswind on this particular day.



Here is my load for the 357 Mag.

Wow

Thanks RD for the excellent feedback.

You racoon story reminds me of Louis and Clark's expedition. In 1804 they first sighted grizzly bears. After hitting one more than 18 times, some head shots and several in the lungs, it still force them to jump off a cliff. They then decided they had their fill of that kind of excitement.

I hunted pigs once with a 50cal flintlock and was successful. I quickly realized it wasn't a smart thing to do as I had to do a sprint and hug a low branch of a nearby tree till she finish bleeding out. That sow was around 350 lbs of %@*&$ off. I never hunted with round ball again.

I do believe the round ball is accurate as my BP guns have proved. I've also loaded gallery load in my 1888 Springfield trapdoor and that proved to be accurate as well on cans and targets. Because of your comments I will add the 38spl to the list of my "to do list".