RE: shooting homemade bullets?
Many of us cast our own projectiles. I cast several actually. It is a lot more common then you might think. As for the maxiball, they are probably out of a Lyman mold and will weigh 370 grains. Fill the ribs with bore butter and shoot them with about 80 grains of Pyrodex RS and the accuracy might surprise you. Also the down range thump is excellent.