Tri-ball help needed badly. Blown and destroyed wads

[longbow]

You and yer grits!

[doubledown]

To the OP, I had problems with groups when I first started loading the tri-ball. I have one question, what are the balls measuring when you "mic" them. My .60 mold was dropping them at .611 !! That's where my problems came from. defiantly check the size they are dropping. I now use a .595 mold and I have no more problems. The last ball hanging up sounds like that might be your problem.

.600 should be the outside maximum, .575-595 work best. I believe James from Dixie slug said he used balls as small as .575 with great results.

Like others have said, use an alloy like Lyman #2 or harder, and slit the orange 123 wads to the bottom. I use Alliant Steel powder and have great results.

[savage308]

to jhunter77, I am using the 3"brown fiocci hull,and all the other components as in the tri-ball threads. Sometimes the do great and group real good and the wads look ok then all the sudden I get a petals sheared and larger groups. that's is what im trying to fix. All the balls are slightly flattened where they contact each other and I guess that's ok, I think that's going to happen with lead to some degree and don't think that's the problem with the blown rear of the wads but might contribute to the sheared petals.
I am trying 24 gr. to 29 gr. of blue dot with all components and loading sequence the same to see if I can get a sweet spot where
I get a constant result. I shoot into a lead trap of sorts at 75 yards and I am able to recover all the balls if I dig them out which I sometimes do, so I am only wasting primers and powder and I have a lot of both so I wont run out anytime soon. I will keep you informed on my successes and failures. I find myself shooting a lot more of the lee 7/8 oz slugs lately because im having great luck with these.

[jhunter77]

Well still no luck I have shot over 50 rounds trying different things. I seated the first ball like Mr Gates said and it is still shooting the bottom ball through the wad. I cut a cross section from one of his wads and its looks the same as the wads we are using. Also cuts the same. I have weighted the buffer and its the same we are using. I have tried down to 25 grains of Steel up to 32. I have also tried 28 grains of Blue dot. I even tried a 1/8 card wad under the 3 balls with no luck. I am thinking the only thing I have not changed is the shot gun. Has any one found a gun that wont shoot triball? I am shooting a 870 super mag with a 26" barrel. I can look down it and it does not appear to have any ruff areas or mis-machined spots. Any advice on what I should do with the load? Does anyone else have a load that takes a wad stack like the old shells did? I just can not find a way to keep the wad together. I have two more shell to try once this weather clears. One from a pull down Dixie load using our batch of wads and then one with two card wads under it. I will report what I have found.

[jhunter77]

One last thing. My wads were slit as far as the original wads out of the factory tri ball loads. I did slit them all the way to the base also just to try something new. I measured the balls today and I am getting depending on where I measure .601 down to .5995. ONE THING I FORGOT TO MENTION. I did tumble the cast balls in a little graphite in a rotary tumbler just like I do my shot. Could this graphite be causing the wad to "slip" past the balls? This is a long shot but I figured I would mention it. Thanks again for all the help!

[doubledown]

Jhunter, measure your balls and use the three smallest diameter balls you have and report back. Hopefully you can find three .599 and under, I would be interested to know how that turns out for you. You don't need to graphite the balls, and I doubt that is causing your problem. It sounds like you are doing everything right, its a challenge now to figure this out. Keep us posted.

[hubel458]

Maybe using tougher hulls will help Brown Fiocchis are little soft.
In all my testing REM STSs worked the best.Ed

[jhunter77]

I tore apart one of the factory shells and used one of our wads. I reloaded using the guts from the factory shell into our hull. It shot great. So its not the gun, the wad, or the shell/primer. That leaves the card wad, the powder or the balls. I am thinking the graphite could be causing it. I am going to load some more this weekend with out the balls being tumbled at all.

I have a few more things to try but have to wait until this weekend. I will post what I find the problem is when I find it. Thanks again to all the folks that are helping me with this!

[Buckshot Bill]

I tore apart one of the factory shells and used one of our wads. I reloaded using the guts from the factory shell into our hull. It shot great. So its not the gun, the wad, or the shell/primer. That leaves the card wad, the powder or the balls. I am thinking the graphite could be causing it. I am going to load some more this weekend with out the balls being tumbled at all.

I have a few more things to try but have to wait until this weekend. I will post what I find the problem is when I find it. Thanks again to all the folks that are helping me with this!

Interested to see if you get it worked out. I have followed the posted recipes along with many variants, all the way from hull to buffer and I always get wads that are mangled with blown bases and awful groups. I was shooting out of a super mag too but I doubt the make/model of gun has much to do with it because IIRC James said he liked the super mags for this load.

[jhunter77]

I am determined to get this figured out. This is an awesome load and my hats off to Mr Gates for perfecting it.

[jhunter77]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...94#post2674094

PROBLEM SOLVED!