The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

Hi all, found you community on the search. I’m about to start trying to make my own lead balls, for Ruger old army in .45

My question is, as I have been given conflicting info,
Do you need to coat the balls in Alox?
One nice old chap said, no, its not needed, that is just used for lead bullets but other bloke who shoots varied old pistols, tells me, it MUST be done, he has for many years.
So is it needed?

I have been making round balls for Colts (reproductions) for years. I put nothing on them.

I load the charge, I use a "prepped wad", then the bullet. If I feel like it I can put grease over the bullet as an "extra".

Alox is mostly for bullets and conical. It goes in the ridges. I make my own for bullets (not round balls) made with Bee's wax and Crisco.

.457 round ball's of pure lead, or 90/10 Wheelweight lead. I cast them in a Lee mold, stick a wonder wad down on top of the powder charge and then ram the ball in on top of that. That's pretty much it for either of my Old Army's

dolk wrote: ↑Fri Aug 21, 2020 1:26 pm I have been making round balls for Colts (reproductions) for years. I put nothing on them.

I load the charge, I use a "prepped wad", then the bullet. If I feel like it I can put grease over the bullet as an "extra".

Alox is mostly for bullets and conical. It goes in the ridges. I make my own for bullets (not round balls) made with Bee's wax and Crisco.

dolk wrote: ↑Fri Aug 21, 2020 1:26 pm I have been making round balls for Colts (reproductions) for years. I put nothing on them.

I load the charge, I use a "prepped wad", then the bullet. If I feel like it I can put grease over the bullet as an "extra".

Alox is mostly for bullets and conical. It goes in the ridges. I make my own for bullets (not round balls) made with Bee's wax and Crisco.

I know nothing about the art, but I would have thought that the lead would be self lubricating. I remember reading, sometime in the past, that some anti-tank shells had lead in the tip to help lube the shell through the armor steel.

The lube helps soften the black powder fouling, and helps seal the chambers against chain fires. The wonder wads I use do the same job, but are more expensive as they must be store bought. Many good BP lubes can be made at home out of bee's wax, bear grease, and stuff like that much like it was done 150 years ago.

Steve,

If you don't lube them, (with a cartridge round) say for a Trapdoor or Snider, you will only get so many rounds through it before it "fouls" out. At that point you would have to stop fighting and clean your rifle.

With the lube in the grooves, that round counts goes way up before that point.

A civil war cannon is a good xample. They used a round ball (either steel or lead) with no lube .....BUT,..... They swab the barrel out each shot. That cleans the Black powder fouling out allowing them to keep going. Alos put out any embers still glowing in there. Glowing embers are a bad thing when you are re loading I would bet! LOL

You will see the problem with a old Kentucky (Penn) Rifle. They used a ball on a patch, and some of the shooter put lard or grease on the patch. If you don't, expect to only fire a small amount before cleaning.

Dolk

I hear you. When shooting my flintlock Penn rifles I experience the same thing. Even with lubed patches, I get about 5 shots before ramming a ball becomes very difficult. I found that it helps to use some solvent or spit on a patch every 3-4 rounds and run it down the barrel to clean up some of the fowling. I often wonder what it would have been like back in the day in the middle of battle especially with the Indians. I mean just the process of loading these rifles took so much time that they'd be on you in seconds. Now experience a fowled barrel. The rifle becomes a club at that point. Maybe why they also carried multiple pistols, knives and tomahawks... Unlike most modern skirmishes, this was just about always going to boil down to hand to hand combat.