Jeff gives sound advice here Keith. Glad he mentions the fumes and hand washing issues. I'd add to make sure to not use any scrap lead that has not been thoroughly dried out and be cautious of using scrap wheel weights as some contain minute amounts of mercury which will vaporize out of the melt at a much lower temp than lead lead. Good ventilation or working outside is must. Get on the "cast boolits" forum for lots of good advice. There are some serious and experienced casters on there who cover any issue that may arise.
I used to have a Navy Arms cyl-bored muzzle loading S/S 12ga that I shot .678" round balls through by using a Remington 12ga plastic shot cup. The balls are for my .69cal Springfield musket. The shot cups had a rib on the inside that protruded into the shot portion so I had to slice that out. I shortened the shot portion of the cup to be long enough to cover the ball. That size of ball would drop into and slide down the lightly bore-buttered barrel in that cup with the perfect "snugness". A Win AA shot cup wouldn't have the ribs and would take the ball perfectly. The 475 grain RB's would put one hell of a hole in anything you put them through. I found junk cars to be an ideal test medium; impressive.
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