tumbleing round ball

[milltownhunter]

has anyone tumbled lee molded round balls to get rid of spur?

[waksupi]

I've done it, but it is a waste of time, really.

[Tatume]

My most-used ball mold is a 0.658" single cavity brass mold by Jeff Tanner. It does not have a sprue plate. After clipping the sprue with diagonal cutters, I used to very carefully dress the sprues with scissors, then file them smooth. The I fell back to just dressing them with scissors. Now I just clip them with the diagonal cutter and leave a tiny bit standing. There is no difference in accuracy, and in fact my shooting with the Rigby one-ounce gun has improved considerably over the years. So the lesson is, shoot more and spend less time worrying about things that don't matter.

[Czech_too]

My BP mentor spoke of rolling the RB between two panes of glass. Myself, I weigh each RB and only keep those within a certain range. This is for the .32 only.

[Lonegun1894]

Thank you for the scare! I thought this was asking about stabilizing a RB and was going to say that we all just need to check and make sure the RBs aren't going through the target sideways/keyholing.

On a serious note, I wouldn't worry about it. If anything, weigh them to make sure the weights are within an acceptable range, but that is all. It will make a much bigger difference than tumbling the balls to smoothen up the sprue on them.

[OhioBeekeeper]

Thank you for the scare! I thought this was asking about stabilizing a RB and was going to say that we all just need to check and make sure the RBs aren't going through the target sideways/keyholing.

Thats was what I was thinking too. I looked at the thread title and thought, "How on earth could a roundball tumble".


On a serious note, I wouldn't worry about it. If anything, weigh them to make sure the weights are within an acceptable range, but that is all. It will make a much bigger difference than tumbling the balls to smoothen up the sprue on them.

That's what I do. I gave up filing on roundballs fifteen years ago. I do weigh mine to make sure they are close in weight.

[HARRYMPOPE]

On a side note i shot some 50's that were given to me that had visible voids in the sprue.I loaded them sprue up and they shot under 2" at 50 yards.

George

[Boerrancher]

I looked at the thread title and thought, "How on earth could a roundball tumble".


Well after a long discussion with Waksupi, it was determined that when you install a loobe groove on a round ball it will always cause it to tumble and key hole in the paper. Other than with the installation of a loobe groove there should be no reason that a round ball will tumble...

I hope this clears things up. Waksupi can explain it better than I if you have any questions.

Best wishes,

Joe

[Hellgate]

If you are interested in accuracy then you want to see the sprue to align the ball with the bore so only brief tumbling would be OK. If you tumbled a ball with a large sprue long enough to eliminated it you might end up with a ball that is out of round and you couldn't orient it for loading.

[Guido4198]

I don't see much point in doing anything to eliminate a normal sized sprue. I load my RB's "Sprue-up". I shoot a pretty tight patch/ball combination and suspect that the act of seating smooths it out.
FWIW: I remember one fellow who said he put all his newly cast RB's into an old tool box and drove'em around in the back of his pick-up truck. The random rolling around they went through eliminated any trace of a sprue.

[Tatume]

On a side note i shot some 50's that were given to me that had visible voids in the sprue.I loaded them sprue up and they shot under 2" at 50 yards.

George

Hi George,

When the lead cools it shrinks and pulls material down from the sprue. If there isn't sufficient lead in the puddle it will pull air and a visible void will result. Molds that have a sprue plate often smear the void, and it is not obvious.

My experience is similar to yours. Time invested in sorting balls by weight or even minor surface defects does not result in a significant return in accuracy. It is just a waste of effort. Shooting all the balls one can find time to cast will give the greatest benefit in performance, as the shooter is the weakest link. Practice, practice, and more practice are the keys to accuracy.

Take care, Tom

[Good Cheer]

A cookie sheet laying flat in the back of the car works but I found out that it didn't make any difference except it made it difficult to tell where the wide part of the ball was.

[1Shirt]

Way back when I shot al lot of round ball in front stuffers, I made a box with a sheet of glass in the bottom, put it in the trunk of the car (same principle as good cheer), and put balls of all dia in it. After a week or so of rattling around on the glass they were round w/o evidance of sprew. Didn't make any difference in accuracy that I could see however over clean cut sprews loaded correctly.
1Shirt!:coffee:

[59sharps]

I put 10 or so in a coffee can shake for 30 sec. you have golf balls. I to use the J T mold w/ side cutter to cut the sprue.

[Hanshi]

I tumble all mine as a regular practice, even the Lee ones without the sprue. Tumbling will flatten the sprue and make the ball more uniformly round. It's a win-win practice.

[Fly]

I agree with Waksupi 100%.It's nit picking.

Fly

[Boerrancher]

In all seriousness, I don't worry about the sprue, I just make sure it is as top dead center as I can get it when I load it. The sprue is huge on my .311 RBs. I only give each RB a close visual inspection and cull the ones with visible imperfections. I can take a squirrels head off every time out to 35 yards, and regularly even at 40 yards. I figure that is good enough. I guess if you are target shooting and looking for pin point accuracy then I guess you can take the time to tumble off the sprue, and weigh each and every one, but if you are not in a championship match I don't see much pay off to all the extra effort when a good visual will tell you most of what you need to know about the ball.

Best wishes,

Joe

[nanuk]

I remember reading an article where the testing was damaged ammo

the J-words shot fine with a damaged nose, but terrible with a damaged base

the round balls shot fine with a damaged base, and flew all directions with a damaged nose.
they had marked an X on the ball and seated the X pointing towards the breach, and towards the muzzle.

has anyone else noticed a difference with the sprue?

[charlie b]

I remember reading an article where the testing was damaged ammo

the J-words shot fine with a damaged nose, but terrible with a damaged base

the round balls shot fine with a damaged base, and flew all directions with a damaged nose.
they had marked an X on the ball and seated the X pointing towards the breach, and towards the muzzle.

has anyone else noticed a difference with the sprue?

That's why I always loaded the sprue down. Leave a 'clean' front on the ball. Never made any measurements either way.

[LAGS]

I tumble all of my Round Balls and Buckshot.
I found that besides removing the Sprue It makes any Defects Visable.
The balls come out rounder, but Gaining Accuracy is still in debate.
But the more uniform round balls are much quicker to load, and you dont have to look for the Sprue nub and point it Up.
It is a matter of Preference, and I just do it out of habit in a rotary tumbler right after I cast a bunch, and am casting another Caliber.

[Golfswithwolves]

A shooter on a forum devoted to muzzleloaders pointed out that the sprue is a helpful thing to have on the round ball. Because otherwise when you load, you couldn't tell which side of the ball was the front.

[TCLouis]

Unlike other brands of RB mold, all of my Lee RB mods do not have enough of a sprue nib to worry about, hard to even find it to orient it upon loading.

[rodwha]

Unlike other brands of RB mold, all of my Lee RB mods do not have enough of a sprue nib to worry about, hard to even find it to orient it upon loading.

Certainly true with the two (.457" and .490") I have.