Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting 30 lbs wheel weights

I got 30 lbs of wheel weights. I started casting .457 bullets and swaging them down to .452 for my muzzleloader. When I tried swaging them they were so hard the first one got stuck and had to pound it out. Also, are they too hard for deer in a muzzleloader, and would they go right through without expanding? I could start casting 9MM bullets if i get a mould but am hesitant about casting bullets cause I never got decent accuracy out of them.

Straight wheel weights are pretty hard, especially if you water quenched them at casting. That is good stuff for faster rounds.


Mike Venturino mentioned in his "Loading 9mm bullets for military guns" article that cast bullets in 9mm often tumble. He said if you used slower powders for the cast bullets you might get better results.

You want pure lead for your muzzle loader, wheel weights are too hard (unless your using sabots, .452 in a .50 cal maybe?).

The stick-on wheel weights are close to pure lead and would work if you sort them out. The clip-on weights contain more antimony and are too hard.

a 45 cal hole in and out will kill deer, no need to worry about expansion.

personally I would go for some pure lead. why? so it will "obturate" when you fire it in a muzzle loader, good for better accuracy, ease of loading, etc....

Soft lead for muzzleloader save the wheel weights for handgun

Muzzleloader bullets should be made of pure lead Brindle hardness 5.