oversize round ball

[Rio Grande]

Question - could I shoot a lubed soft lead .320 roundball ('O' buckshot) in a revolver with .312 groove diameter at a moderate velocity without excessive pressure developing?
I've read its possible (George Nonte and a .32 short revolver), and that makes sense because of the reduced bearing surface.
I'm experimenting with a Russian Nagant revolver, and the chamber mouths are such that a fired 32-20 case may still have a .316 case mouth diameter after sizing in a .30 Carbine sizer die. I have not rec'd the die yet, but I strongly suspect that will be the case based on measurements so far.
The Nagant is a weird duck - a tapered oversized chamber meant to be used with an extra long case which extends past the cylinder which effects a gas seal. Nagant cases are expensive and hard to come by, but 32-20's are very close, and sized in a .30 Carbine die are a very good fit, though shorter. And I've got lots of 32-20 cases. I've read some folks have used .312 dia. boolets in them with good accuracy, but I don't think they will work in MY Nagant with MY cases. Anyway, round balls are fine with me!
It's a very sturdy revolver, and I'd like to get up to 1000 FPS w/ the 49 grain (or so) round ball.

[dogtrainer12]

Yes you can. I size down (using the Lee bullet sizing die) .350" balls to .311" and shoot them out of a 7.62 x 39. If your unsized balls are small enough to fit inside the case (without sizing) and the reloaded case can be loaded into the revolver cyclinder then ball round will be sized by the barrel forcing cone upon firing.

[longbow]

While not quite the same, I have shot quite a few 0.440" round balls as cast through my Marlin 1894 in .44 mag. No signs of pressure and accuracy was pretty good.

Why 0.440" balls you ask? Well, because I have a mould and believe it or not, they fit into the cartridges and shaved just a hair of lead. They also chambered just fine. I did want a somewhat oversize ball though these were quite a bit oversize.

I worked up to 10 grs. of Unique in the .44 mag. so no pipsqueak load.

Anyway, they shot fine and as you noted the bearing surface is small so just resulted in a narrow "belt" around the balls. Recovered balls showed clean rifling and no real distortion other than the engraving.

I would say the balls should be fine but start with a light load and work up.

If they are too large to chamber when seated in the case mouth then you could size them down to suit. If not a standard size, it is pretty easy to make a simple sizer using standard Imperial or metric drill bits a little undersize then hone out with emery cloth on a split dowel or small piece of round bar in a drill. A piece of steel plate, bar or even a nut can be used as a sizing die and a rod to tap the balls through with a hammer. You might not want to do hundreds but a few to try is no real problem.

Longbow

[Rio Grande]

While not quite the same, I have shot quite a few 0.440" round balls as cast through my Marlin 1894 in .44 mag. No signs of pressure and accuracy was pretty good.

Why 0.440" balls you ask? Well, because I have a mould and believe it or not, they fit into the cartridges and shaved just a hair of lead. They also chambered just fine. I did want a somewhat oversize ball though these were quite a bit oversize.

I worked up to 10 grs. of Unique in the .44 mag. so no pipsqueak load.

Anyway, they shot fine and as you noted the bearing surface is small so just resulted in a narrow "belt" around the balls. Recovered balls showed clean rifling and no real distortion other than the engraving.

I would say the balls should be fine but start with a light load and work up.

If they are too large to chamber when seated in the case mouth then you could size them down to suit. If not a standard size, it is pretty easy to make a simple sizer using standard Imperial or metric drill bits a little undersize then hone out with emery cloth on a split dowel or small piece of round bar in a drill. A piece of steel plate, bar or even a nut can be used as a sizing die and a rod to tap the balls through with a hammer. You might not want to do hundreds but a few to try is no real problem.

Longbow

Thanks, dogtrainer and longbow, I'm encouraged.
I've heard about sizing round balls, but how do you then load them straight into the case?
Seems like they'd go crooked.

I'm sure I can get that Nagant to shoot well.
I've shot .312 balls out of it in new .32 mag cases (not expanded yet, so they held the balls tight) and got pretty good groups, but all loads shot about 4 to 6 inches low at 10 yards because of the light ball.
I can replace the front sight w/o modification to the revolver (dovetail) and bring the POI in.

[Jim]

I load .330 RBs in 8MM cases over 5 grains of B/E. Fun squirrel load!

[jonk]

Try this...

Punch out the primers but don't size the case.

Reprime.

Fill with around 2 gr of bullseye.

Drop the .320 ball right down into the case over the bullseye just like the russians loaded it.

Crimp the neck.

When I do this I admittedly usually use trail boss so the bullet isn't quite as far down in the case but it doesn't seem to matter either way. It can be done with 32/20 brass even though you don't get the gas seal.

When loading regular bullets I size and load normally but for round balls its good fun.

[Guesser]

Speer #10 or 9 or 11, somewhere in that series had load data for RB in cartridges. I used a lot of .433 RB in 44 Special.

[Urny]

Hello RG. O buckshot is what I normally load in .32 S&W. The revolver is a Smith and Wesson 1 1/2 break open. Cases are not resized, just deprimed, reprimed, mouth expanded, 1.0 Bullseye or (prefered) Red Dot, the tumble lubed shot seated and the mouth taper crimped enough to ensure chambering. Results are minute of old washing machine lid at ten paces or so. I've tried resizing the shot to .311, .312, and .314 and always had trouble seating them straight. The old bureau drawer special isn't accurate enough to tell which is the most accurate, so the easiest way, not sizing, is my way. I also use 00 buckshot and 4.0 Red Dot in the 8x57mm.

[Hang Fire]

I shoot a lot of .452 cast round balls in my .45 LC Kirst cylinder for 1858 Remington. With the Pietta slow twist, they shoot better than boolits.