either my best idea ever .. or dumbest

[ss40_70]

while working yesterday i had what may turn out to be not such a good idea or maybe the best dumb idea ever . i had read some of the older posts about shooting round ball in a 45-70 , sounded like a pretty good idea for shootin at squirrel an such but heres my problem . i dont have a round ball mold for a .457 ball .. now heres where it gets a bit iffy ... i do have a .451 dia mold soo i was thinking why not put say 3 ball in a ciggerette roller and patch them babies up to .457 or so and set em on top of 40-50 grns of ffg with a card wad in between .. what say you .. nifty idea or dumbest thing you ever heard :dung_hits_fan::redneck:

[leftiye]

They'll mash together (unless you use hard lead), and may even fly as one or two instead of three. Nothin wrong with hard lead though. I'd think that whatever happens including not staying inside the patch, they won't fly right. Cotton ticking maybe over ball waxed, tied or something and seated with open end to the rear so that patch would engrave properly? Patch would likely stay on, = problem.

[Mavrick]

Beagle it!

[ss40_70]

aah dang it maverick thank you for pointing out the obviouse choice , it hadnt ocured to me to do something that simple

[DLCTEX]

I could send you a few .457 balls to play with. PM me.

[geargnasher]

I dunno, it sounds like a fine idea to me. Most .45/70 bores are somewhere in the .452-3" area, and .452" boolits patch quite nicely to groove diameter. BP might squish them a bit, but if you put cards between them it just might work!

Gear

[x101airborne]

Interesting idea. I would like to hear how it goes.

[10x]

I would try a allox greased denim or linen patch.
Basically load the cartridge like a short muzzleloader.....

[ss40_70]

im going to cast a few ball this weekend and give it a try before i beagle the mold , what the heck worst that can happen is i lead the bore just a bit

[Calamity Jake]

while working yesterday i had what may turn out to be not such a good idea or maybe the best dumb idea ever . i had read some of the older posts about shooting round ball in a 45-70 , sounded like a pretty good idea for shootin at squirrel an such but heres my problem . i dont have a round ball mold for a .457 ball .. now heres where it gets a bit iffy ... i do have a .451 dia mold soo i was thinking why not put say 3 ball in a ciggerette roller and patch them babies up to .457 or so and set em on top of 40-50 grns of ffg with a card wad in between .. what say you .. nifty idea or dumbest thing you ever heard :dung_hits_fan::redneck:

May be kinda difficult to seat 3 balls inside a patch at one time, but go for it!!!!

[44man]

Might be fun but I have to ask! Do you plan on eating the squirrels? :bigsmyl2::bigsmyl2::bigsmyl2:

[7br]

Might be fun but I have to ask! Do you plan on eating the squirrels? :bigsmyl2::bigsmyl2::bigsmyl2:

Just wondering why 6 shot wouldn't work. Maybe like a brass cased .410 shell

[ss40_70]

just got done casting some ball , if i get my honey doo list done i'll try to get a couple rounds loaded , ... and i might just eat em if i can hit em an theres enough left .... if not there will be a few less varmits in my back yard

[MtGun44]

Hock shop load. Sounds like it might work. Let us know how the experiment turns out.

Bill

[lbaize3]

Let us know how everything turns out. I have the Lee 457 round ball mold and plan to cast a bunch, soon. Hoping to build a 50 yard accurate load for fun and pleasure.

[ss40_70]

well i got the chance to sit down and do a bit of loading today , and things went a lot easier than expected , i managed to sneak some of my wifes cooking parchment without being caught and after giving myself a headache on how to get paper the right size for 2 wraps around the ball it hit me .. duh just put a spot of paint on the ball and roll it , lol easy as heck ., i had thought wrapping 3 ball was going to be a bit difficult but was easy using a ciggerette roller drop in the ball push them together close and wrap , i left the paper long to twist a tail and the other end i snipped off at the top of the ball , im not sure what the finished dia is but they are a nice slightly snug fit in my fire formed cases , powder was the hardest part , i finaly came up with 27 grns ffg a .060 paste board wad and about 1/8 in compression to give a uniform powder column put the widest part of the ball right at the case mouth and a bit of crimp to hold it all together , if its not raining tomarow morning before i head down to georgia ill put up a piece of cardboard at 25 yds and see what happens

[geargnasher]

Keep us posted if you get to blast that pinko-commie cardboard back to the stone age!

Gear

[ss40_70]

woo hoo look out squirrils an other such back yard varmits , it actualy works at 25 yds all three ball go into about a 3 1/2 inch average circle with the 10 rounds i shot , .. 27 grns of ffg makes a nice pleasant pop ( a lot quieter than standerd velocity .22 ) perfect for backyard fun , ooh and if it makes any differance i cast the ball out of wheel weight to be a little harder and not squish together as gear suggested ... the patch didnt turn to confetti but it did come off at the muzzle so im calling this a sucsesful endeaver

[Artful]

sounds like a keeper of a load, keep a few on hand.

[geargnasher]

woo hoo look out squirrils an other such back yard varmits , it actualy works at 25 yds all three ball go into about a 3 1/2 inch average circle with the 10 rounds i shot , .. 27 grns of ffg makes a nice pleasant pop ( a lot quieter than standerd velocity .22 ) perfect for backyard fun , ooh and if it makes any differance i cast the ball out of wheel weight to be a little harder and not squish together as gear suggested ... the patch didnt turn to confetti but it did come off at the muzzle so im calling this a sucsesful endeaver

HA! That's superb, thanks for the update. I love it when a plan comes together! That worked better than I thought it would, 3.5" at 25 yards is a good pattern, and sounds like it would be pure MURDER on backyard pests. I'm assuming the bore was protected by the patch so no leading?

Gear

[btroj]

I say give it a shot. Not much to loose. And it would make a mess of whatever it hit.

Reminds me of the time my then future father in law challenged me to a one shot, high score wins contest. He never said one projectile. He had an 8, I had 2 8s. I won.

[ss40_70]

no sir no sign of leading , the only odd thing i found was the paper was cut for the center ball but not on either end , but it does show rifling imprint for both