Tinker, my loading tools are modern and very pedestrian, just a sizing and crimp die in an Ammomaster II, 3 conical molds, and one roundball mold. One of the conical molds is a copy of the original made from two billets of brass by John Miller and is a thing of beauty. Gatsby, who sold me the rifle (Thanks!!), tracked down the owner of the single shot 8-bore that was one digit higher in serial number and had its original mold, from which this copy was made!

I've shot a bunch of roundballs with this gun. They weigh about 1020 and go just over 1500fps with a medium/stiff load of Blue Dot. I shoot BP in my 10 but use mostly Blue Dot in others as its less abusive for the same velocity. Yesterday I was shooting BP and had the headache to show for it, which is no fun at all.

Daryl, I always compare pure lead to bubblegum too. It is amazingly gummy stuff that always seems to strech rather than break.

I've never had a bullet shatter, but may just have been lucky to date. For my practice bullets my scrap alloy is pretty close to WW based one the resulting bullet weights (that is, they're lighter than pure lead but heavier than those cast from Lyman, so I assume a lower tin content).

I've never tested the hardness of my bullets. I think a happy medium might work best, just a bit stiffer that the pure lead. I do remember reading a Ross Seyfired article where he cast bullet noses (that would sometimes be shed after expansion) out of pure lead with a harder alloy for the shank. That sounds like a great idea but I've got a lot of less complex avenues to exhaust first.

Bob