I needed to run off some .454 round ball as I wanted to try out my recent used Rogers & Spencer acquisition. I have three different pots--one that contain pure lead, another with a bit harder mix and finally one with very hard alloy. Cast a couple hundred and got to the range and you guessed it--I must have used the hard alloy pot as I could barely seat them
. Fortunately I had a few soft lead balls and even better the gun shot pretty good with those. So, back in the pot the other ones go. At this point in my life I am able to laugh off and forget these types of irritating mistakes. I do not believe in trying to seat anything but pure lead in a percussion pistol as I actually witnessed someone bend the loading lever on a Ruger Old Army using hard lead. So at least I was smart enough to quit before I did something similar!