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The easiest method of making hard balls is to use alloys. Straight wheelweights, as in the ball I put through my last BP moose, was from my 14 bore rifle. The .684" ball wieghed 466gr. before and after. It smashed out a 6" piece of rib (1-1/2" wide and 6" long) and drove that through the left lung, cutting the bottom of he right lung and ending up stuck between the ribs of the right side, with the end of it still inside the right lung. The ball went across the lungs, making a 5" round hole, presumably from the attendent shock wave. It entered the off shoulder, smashing it and came to a stop underneath the hide.
: The ball was undamaged, except for some marks from the bone, and or the willow tree tips it went through before hitting the moose.
; Now, that was only a wheel weight ball. If one wants them harder, one merely has to harden and temper them.
: Put several balls on a steel plate in the kitchen oven set at 460 degrees. The balls must be cast from wheelweights of a mix of pure lead and wheelweights. Adding tin will hurt rather than help the alloy in this case. Raise the heat 10 degrees at a time, until you see the balls sag from being semimolten. Drop the temperature back to the seting it was last at without any sagging.
: Replace the tray with the rest of the balls and the them 'soak' in the oven for at least 1 hour.
: Gently remove the tracy, tin can or other object they are in, and dump them carefully into a bucket of cold water. A towel on the bottom will help protect them.
: At this point, they will still be quite soft, but will harden over the next 12 to 24 hours to something in the 30 to 32 range on the brinell scale. Linotype is only 22 brinell but may be too brittle for our use - maybe not. Linotype is about the hardest alloy we can easily find, and that is harder to find all the time. It is also much lighter than WW, which are lighter than pure lead. An alloy of 50/50. WW and pure lead will obtain the highest brinell we can develop with any alloy. Well, now they[re hard, perhaps too hard, so here's how to temper them. (draw the hardness to the level we want). This is also called annealing and the overall method is similar but not quite indentical to annealing steel. Set the oven at 190degree Fahrenheit.
; Letting the balls stand in the oven for a period of 1 hour, will result in temering them to about brinell 24 to 25. 1 hour 45 min. will result in balls 21 to 22 brinell and 2 hours soak will result in balls being 19 to 20 brinell. That should be plenty hard for everything required. When the desired time span is achieved, remove the balls and let them cool at room temperature. Do not quench them.
: Once cool, they will now be at the desired hardness level you chose form the list of times. Alloys with a large amount of tin are not good for this as they will age soften fairly quicky (or not harden at all) (become softer with age). Wheel weights or pure lead and wheelweights mixes are the best. Arsnic must be present in the alloy in order for it to harden properly, as arsnic is the catalist. Straight lead/tin alloys won't harden at all.
: Wheelweight's minisule amount of arsnic is suffienent, even when cut in 1/2 by alloying with pure lead. A 50/50 mix of wheelweights and pure lead will actually harden to almost 35 brinell, and if then tempered (drawn) to a lower brinell, will result in a tougher ball than straight wheelweights that have the same brinell number.
: I do hope this gives something more for you to think about.
; Maintaining the high specific gravity (densness) of lead or lead alloys is important for our penetration needs. Making the ball lighter will reduce total penetration. I am quite sure a steel ball will not penetrate nearly as far as a standard ww ball, let alone one that has been hardened and tempered for maximum penetration. For this same reason, modern armour piercing rounds no longer have steel cores because carbaloy out penetrates steel due to having a higher specific gravity(it's denser, ie: heavier for the same size)
; Due to our velocities being so low, under 1,700fps normally, I do not think a hardened ball of 31 brinell would be too brittle. If driven at 2,800fps, perhaps, but not at the velocities we're talking about. Testing, testing, testing.

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Daryl

"a gun without hammers is like a Spaniel without ears" King George V