Since the patch is grabbing the rifling and not the ball, can you use wheel weights for round balls ?....I had some tight fitting patches today and noticed I was deforming the pure lead round ball when I used them.

I was told not to use wheel-weights for casting round balls it is hard on the rifling and hard to load.

Swede44mag

The solution is to use thinner patches or a smaller ball. Ever since I started in B/P back in the 70's the consensus has been"Do not use Wheelweights". derf

I did notice some guys at the club using a mallet to start the ball, So I got me a rubber mallet and used it, It did not affect accuracy at all, so I will use this for a while, I just bought a yard of pillow ticking, thats why I would rather use it up.Once the ball is started it goes down easy.Also I got some material they had for 1.00 a yard got 3 yards, enough to use for cleaning patches for a dang year,

My understanding is that the high percentage of antimony used in wheel weights doesn't allow the lead to shrink much upon cooling. The bullets are therefore a bit oversized when cast in a given sized mold. I could be wrong.

Small fish is right that the harder alloys doon't shrink as much as pure lead when they cool. In addition, wheelweight metal makes bullets that are difficult to start. If you use it, you may get patch cutting when you start the ball. In addition, while it is true the patch "takes the rifling", it must cut into the ball to get a sufficient grip to spin the ball! If you use an undersize, hard ball, the patch will probably NOT grip the ball sufficiently to spin it reliably, and accuracty will suffer.

Wheelwights make good bullets, but not for muzzleloaders!!