Last year it became obvious the price of lead was going up through the roof, and California and a couple more states were beginning to ban the use of lead projectiles. People who enjoy Flintlocks as a hobby normally shot them a lot and of course use patched round lead balls to do so. I average 40 range trips a year with 50 shots per session and knew my hobby would come to an end if lead balls either became unaffordable or unavailable...so I started playing the "what if" game...what if that happened, what would I do.

I started researching possibilities that might exist to use alternative balls at least for weekend practice sessions...thank the lord for the Internet and Email. Turns out all the other metal balls were as or more expensive than lead so they couldn't be considered...and the other possibilities I could think of were balls made of wax, wood, rubber, glass (marbles), etc. Wood and wax were simply too light...rubber and marbles are the winners, with marbles clearly being head & shoulders above everything due to their heavier weight...a 9/16" marble weighs 65grns...holds it velocity & energy a little further than a 22grn rubber ball.

To make a year long story short...had many communications with many different companies, made many trial purchases, spent many weekends experimenting at the range with the chronograph, different powders, patches, lubes, etc...and so far found 4 commercially available alternative practice 'balls' that work extremely well to keep right on having weekend fun shooting...and most are dirt cheap. If you think about it, unless you're actually sighting in a rifle with a hunting load, 95% of the range trips are just for fun, practice, etc...and you don't need full powder hunting loads just to poke holes in paper, or shoot pine cones, or empty .12ga hulls, or 2" aim point stickers...all at 25yds...simply do not need to waste an expensive lead ball every time you pull the trigger to do those things.

Complete write up can be found @ http://carolinasoutdoor.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/2114/Major_accuracy_breakthrough_wi.html#Post2114