Shooting round balls

[NSP64]

I was wondering if anyone shoots round ball from their guns. It looks like you can get them for any size, .357, 30 cal, 44 , 45. Post what worked or didn't and loads. I was thinking of buying a bunch of round ball molds to play with. Single or double/triple loads?

[Jim]

I have RB molds for my .30 caliber rifles, my 8MM, my wife's .347 magnun, my .45 Colt revolver and my .45-70 rifle. I don't load multiple ball loads. I use RBs for recreation only.

I know there are others here that shoot RBs as well, but don't know who at the moment.

As for load data, instead of asking me to post all my data and notes on success and failures, could you tell us what calibers you want to shoot RBs in? Might make it a bit more simple.

[DeanWinchester]

This is a good subject I wouldn't mind knowing a little more about. A gentleman I used to know loaded his 45 Long Colt with two round balls over a very light charge, but I cannot remember the specifics and he is long since passed.

[Jim]

Dean, there's quite a few here that shoot RBs. I do it just for recreational shooting. Kinda' like shootin' a .22 when using RBs in an '06 or .45-70.

[WHITETAIL]

I have made some RB loads for the 357.
I read along time ago that it was called a pawn shop load.:holysheep

[NSP64]

I was thinking single ball for can shooting at up to 50 yards in 308, 357, and does anyone load one in 45 auto? I was thinking of running it through a push through sizer to give it a little more bearing surface. Like a .313 sized to .310 maybe knurl the flat area and apply some lube.

[desteve811]

How deep would u seat a round ball? This is the first I've heard of this. Pics?

[buck1]

I have heard just past half way, and crimp over the ball slightly.

[Ohio Rusty]

I think I have shot hundred of round ball from a pistol. Most were just reduced plinking loads that were for fun or close range small game. I have shot both .360's in 38's and .429's in .44's. Powder charge was only a couple grains of Unique. I think we used an empty .22 shell as the powder measure. Lots of fun. In fact, they were so accurate out of my ruger pistol at 25 feet We could put out a candle flame without hitting the candle !!

In an absolute survival situation, thesse reduced round ball loads are fairly quiet and will take about any small game animal. I always loaded the ball flush with the face of the shell. A round ball load can be also shot from an auto pistol, but the load has to be hand loaded and won't cycle.

Ohio Rusty ><>

[Shiloh]

3 gr of Bullseye under a .311 ball for the .30-06. 25 or 30 yards tops and expect flyers.
At least that was my experience.

Shiloh

[beemer]

I've shot a few out of a 7.62X54. Six grains of Red Dot or Trail Boss under a .314 round ball shoots like a .22 at 25 yds. The ball is seated flush with the end of the case with a little dab of bullet lube over the case mouth. My .310 RB mould for my .32 flintlock pours right at .314, that's just right for my Russian.

Dave

[steg]

Do you lube the balls or not, I was thinking alox, but I wonder if the powder that ends up sticking to the ball would perform the same way or not, I've fired round balls in .38 special, and 45/70's but unlubed and they were lots of fun to shoot................................steg

[HighHook]

RBs are Lots of fun in the 45-70 with no kick. Had the kids out on Monday and shot 50, we would sneak in a couple 320 with 12gr. unique to watch with amusement...

[bigted]

ive also often given thought to the roundball load. i shoot muzzleloaders and using the "lubed patched ball" is very accurate in my 54 cal hawk... i can regularly shoot 10 or 15 into the same ragged hole at 25 yrds.

i often wonder why i cant load a lubed patch wrapped around a slightly undersized roundball. in my 54 i NEVER get lead on the inside of the barrel shooting these patched balls due to the patch riding the bore so why not the same with my 45/70? i wonder why not load the patched ball rite down on the powder. either smokeless or blackpowder. the lubed patch should keep the bore slick and harldly any fouling with the blackpowder with the corresponding lite charges.

ive never read about the patching idea and wonder if anyone has had the same idea and if so did you take it to the next stage and load some and try em? if so what was or is the outcome and if nobody has or will admit to it then as soon as the mould gets here ill give it a try and report the results here.

[rintinglen]

I'e tried it in several calibers with "meh" results. I used some 000 buck shot over 2.7 grains of Bullseye in .38 special. This is a great close range, low recoil, load for teaching new shooters. It is not very accurate, but is fine for use at 7 yards.
I got some .457 balls and used them with 4 grains of Unique In 45 Auto rim cases for use in a 1917 S&W. Thse actually worked pretty well. The gun itself wasn't very accurate, but the over sized round balls actually shot better than the factory stuff.
I also tried some round ball loads in my 45-70. Total waste of powder and lead--way too many fliers. You'd shoot 10 shots, 7 or 8 would be in a decent group, but 2 or 3 would always be way out of the pack--somtimes 6 inches or more away from the main group.. Since I was hoping to use them for a lever action silhouette chicken load, they were of no value to me.
I lubed all my round balls with LLA, except for some of the 38s, which I seated flush with the case mouth, then pushed them into a pan of Javelina Brand NRA formula lube. I don't currently use any round ball loads, but the grandkids are getting to the age where I might be needing them.

[evan price]

I load a single Hornady #0 buckshot pellet (.320") in .32 S&W Long. I put 3.5 grains of Titegroup under it and seat it so that the pellet is almost flush with the case mouth and roll crimp. It winds up looking like a wadcutter with a domed top. The displaced lead from forcing the .320" pellet into a .312" shell leaves a small ridge around the top that seals the cartridge nicely. The Hornady buckshot is lubed with graphite so no extra lube needed. It's not a hot load but it snaps along pretty good. The pellet weighs about 45 grains. It deforms when swaged into the pistol casing and winds up looking like a stubby capsule.

Shot from my H&R 732 revolver they will penetrate two thicknesses of automotive sheet metal and deform nicely into a mushroom. It engages the rifling a little, but out of the 2.5" barrel H&R there's not much to grab and not much surface area to do the grabbing so accuracy isn't the greatest. Fun at short range.

I also loaded it up with a tiny amount of 800-X and they were so mild you could shoot them indoors- perfect gallery load.

I haven't tried yet but I'm thinking a Magnum small rifle primer and no powder could be a nice trick!

[WHITETAIL]

I was checking my books and found the load.
Use a 357 mag. empty.
Put in a reg. primer.
Add 7grs. of green dot.
One gas check skirt up.
A pinch of lube.
A OOO buck ball.
A pinch of lube.
A OOO buck ball.
Half way in and crimp.:redneck:

[krag35]

I have shot single and double balls out of My 44 mag and 444 Marlin. Same powder charge in both cases, 6 gr Unique with a single ball, 8 grains with a double ball. I put a card wad between the balls on the double ball load. With the 44 mag, six pulls of the trigger will put 12 holes in the target that ( if I remember correctly ) were in a group around 3" Single balls would go into 2" or so. With the 444 Marlin, double ball loads were 6" at 50 yards, but single ball loads were right at 2", but about a foot below where the sights were.

Have shot single .311 RB out of my 30-30 with 4756 (don't remember the charge off hand) I drilled the flash hole out as big as I could and keep the "feet" of the anvil on the bottom of the primer pocket. They shot pretty good.

YMMV

[trk]

I used to use 3 in the .375Win BB. Good groups out at 40 yds. (30 or so years ago)

[Three44s]

I own the Lee RB .433" mold and have done some RB work in the .44 mag case.

I started with making my own felt wads and cards cut of of discarded singe layer cardboard.

I was treating the felt with regular boolit lube and then discovered Wonder Wads (for BP shooters).

What I found out in the long run is that the lube from the Wonder Wads would leach out into the smokeless and inactivate it.

SQUIB CITY! The primer would sent the RB into the barrel and there it was stuck. DANGEROUS

In the short run they were a very nice and accurate ...... and CLEAN load.

The wonder wads do a very nice job of cleaning even lead deposits.

I did all of this before I started using liquid alox.

Today, I would make my own felt wads if I could not find them and use LLA and Johnson's Paste wax or a combo there of.

My point of impacts with the failed wonder wads over smokeless powder also raised up to be fairly close to my heavy bear loads. That was an added bonus.

I believe the powder I used last was Unique.

Three 44s

[Rocky Raab]

There are several threads on this topic if you search a bit.

I've done quite a bit of this. Lube with LLA and seat just to the ball's equator and apply a very light crimp. For two-ball handgun loads, smear a bit of lube between the balls and seat the upper one as described. Two round balls will weigh very close to the normal bullet weight for a given cartridge, but you have to reduce the charge due to the severely reduced case volume. Start very light, to be sure. Seeing two holes on the target with one trigger pull is a hoot.

Single-ball loads in a rifle are a very short-range proposition, and 3.5 Bullseye works fine in any rifle cartridge. As a quiet, backyard rat smacker, this load is great. The main drawback is that it ricochets almost every shot unless there's a secure backstop.

[Larry Gibson]

In past years I've shot RBs in the 25-20, 6.5-308 (rechambered Arisaka), 6.5 Swede, .30 Carbine, 30-30, .308W, 30-06, 7.65 Arentine, .375 H&H, .38/.357, .44/.44 Mag, .45 ACP, .45 Colt and the 45-70. Probably a couple other .30/31s also. Dedicated well fire formed cases with drilled flash holes (#31 or #28) work best with Bullseye being the powder of choice. No filler or wad used. Velocities kept between 600 and 1050 fps for best accuracy. As Shiloh mentions; 25 - 30 tops for accuracy and expect a few flyers. The larger .375 and 45-70 were adequate to 50 yards with quality swaged or cast RBs.

I always tmbled them in LLA for a really light coat for lube and never had a leading problem. I found if casting better results are always better with an actual light weight bullet than with any RB. Thus I only use RBs if the price is very right. Otherwise I use the powder and primer under a real bullet of light for caliber weight. Still, RBs are fun to use, especially for indoors at short range and arecovery of the alloy is easily done with minimal back stop required.

Larry Gibson

[wgr]

i have made rat shot for my 357. i load 3.5grains of red dot put a 1/4 t.p. wad then no. 9 shot then place a round ball crimped to hold it togather. the round ball will hit close to point of aim at 15/20 feet with the shot around it. i used the round ball and enough shot to to around 160 grains.

[turbo1889]

For revolvers its easy, simply choose a ball size a little bigger then your desired diameter and pop it through a Lee sizer to make a ball with a slight equator band. Use a light powder charge such as one would use with a mild slow wad-cutter load and seat the ball flush with the end of the case and smear a lube concoction that dries hard and brittle (think extra paraffin and simple Elmer’s white glue added to your normal pan lube recipe) with your finger tip into the hollow area formed between the ball and the case mouth. Load and shoot like light wad-cutter loads.

A very similar method can be used to load for rifles that have a smooth enough and controlled enough feeding to allow easy chambering. Obviously, single shot break action guns qualify but I have seen on occasion some bolt action guns that will feed as well.

For semi-auto handguns and some other action types it gets a little more tricky since one needs to seat the ball just barely over half way inside the neck and crimp to give the cartridge a half ball nose to feed correctly. This loading method necessitates the use of a tumble lube on the balls before loading. There is the additional issue that loads hot enough to cycle the action strip in the rifling due to the extremely small bearing surface of a ball load and loads light enough to produce accuracy will not cycle the action.

[Lee1954]

No. 4 buckshot in a .223 and less then 2 gr bulleye plus a filler.....I belive a light cast boolet is better,,,
this is a quiet plinking load Dan

[1Shirt]

Have shot single, double, and 3 round balls in various ctgs. All were coated with lee mule snot and allowed to dry. Best info I have seen regarding loading round ball is the article by Beagle. John's testing and documentation of this subject is outstanding. I even shot a double round ball load in a 30-30 just to see if it could be done. I managed it, but would not do it again for fear of the bottom ball droping into the powder space. Loaded and shot three rounds of it, and they shot well, and grouped well at 25yd.
1Shirt!:coffee:

[Echo]

I loaded some for my Smith 15. Pinch of powder (don't remember, and don't feel like looking it up), seat the ball down so the top of the ball is even with the case mouth, smear a little 50/50 in there, and shoot.

The shooting of which gave me an idea for a new match. I aimed at a rock on the berm 60 yards away, and came close - on the ricochet! The ball bounced off the ground about 40 yds down range, and bounced up hitting within a foot of the target! HOW WOULD that BE FOR A FUN MATCH? Gotta ricochet off the ground, or the shot doesn't count...

[KCSO]

I have used round balls in about every gun I have from a 30-30 to a 458 mag. Mostly single balls with a light charge of Bulls Eye for plinking and small game. My current favorite is a 380 ball in a 38-55 with 5.0 of Trail Boss. An excellent small game load.

[BAGTIC]

I shoot round balls in all my straight cased rimmed calibers, revolver and rifle.

I use a dowel to seat the ball down on the powder making a compressed load. The high
(100%) loading density seems to be more consistant than when I tried to seat the ball part way.

[Catshooter]

This loading is a little different that most listed above.

Twenty gauge rifled H&R single shot "shotgun". Mag-Teg all brass case with a large rifle primer. Blue Dot powder, nitro wad, 19 .050 card stock wads, three .626 wheel weight balls rolled in Lee lube, crimp on the equator of the top ball. Wads are from Circle Fly.

The bore of the shotgun is .626 and is 24 inches long. Now velocity is a bit tough to measure since you've got three projectiles flying over the screens, but you can if you persist. With our load of Blue Dot we're getting an average of 1030 fps. Each ball weighs 350 grains for a total of 1050 grains lead per shot.

The barrel is quite heavy and with the stock bolt hole full of #9 shot the shotgun weighs 10.5 pounds. So recoil isn't that bad.

At 25 yards one round will group into 2 inches, a perfect triangle almost every time.

This load/shotgun was set up for my brother who wanted some shortish range heavy bear mediceine. I think he got it. He can't stop grinning when he shoots it and sure get's the comments at the range.

In Paco Kelly's Leverguns book he discusses round ball use in the rifle. He does the very light load like most people. He also has done a single ball at over 2500 fps out of his .348, so they don't all have to be slow loaded.


Cat