Strange things you see

[armednfree]

At our last club meeting a guy showed me something I've never seen before. He is one of these SHTF survivalist types.

He showed me a 308 case with a red plug in it. What he says he did was cast some .310 round balls and run the through a Lee sizer. Then he loaded the round with Trailboss and seated the ball to the bottom of the case neck. Then he melted bullet lube and poured it in flush with the case mouth.

I have heard of shooting round balls as squib loads but nothing like this.

What are the chances of any kind of accuracy? What the heck would you use that for?

[BHuij]

Can't fathom what that would accomplish.

[2ndAmendmentNut]

I suppose it could be used as a small game load. I’ve shot round balls in handguns. They grouped well, but very low.


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[country gent]

Could be used for small game ie rabbits grouse squirrels and such or as a finisher for big game that was down but not completely out yet. Another plus would be a quieter report to not scare game away. Another use would be teaching a new person to shoot with much lower recoil and noise.

[Larry Gibson]

It has been common to shoot RBs for many, many years for gallery or close range vermin shooting. I shot a lot of RBs in various calibers years ago. Before LLA it was common to seat the RB below the case mouth and smear lube over the top. With LLA a light coat does as well. I found the RBs were best used at short range, usually under 25 yards. That was fine for gallery or indoor use but in the field I never found RBs satisfactory except for use in the 375 H&H and the 45-70.

I found lighter weight for caliber cast bullets, preferably PB'd cast bullets to be the better choice. In 30/31 calibers the Lee TL314-90-SWC is an excellent choice. The Hornady 90 swaged 32 cal SWC lead bullet is as good. Loaded over 2.7 gr Bullseye in cases up through 300 Savage capacity and 3.2 gr Bullseye from 308W up through '06 case capacity they run 800 - 900+ fps and are very accurate to 100 and even 200 yards.

If a lighter weight mould was not available slip on GCs can be pre-heated in a tin lid on top of the furnace and then with tweezers one can be placed in a drive band groove in the mould with the cup facing the sprue plate. The cast bullet will then be a WC. When cooled the GCs can be flicked off and reused, no need to shoot them. A light coat of LLA and they shoot very well to at least 50 yards. Loaded over the same small charges of Bullseye (Red Dot also works very well) they are much more accurate for a considerable longer range than are the RBs.

The Hornady and Speer swaged lead WCs can also be used but require a bit less powder.

Any of the above can be sized .309 to "as cast" or bought (.314). In push feeds with cases using LR primers case headspace can shorten after a few firings. I drill out the flash holes for use with such loads. That will prevent the case shoulder from setting back. Also well fire formed cases work best that are just NS'd.

[Jack Stanley]

I have used round ball loads for squirrels but , I did not seat them that deep or have a need to use that much lube . Mine were seated right at the mouth of the case with the case just barely closed over the widest part . I think I was using Corbin dip lube on them .

Though I don't know for certain I think that much lube may present it's own set of problems for the user .

Jack

[whisler]

Neat ideas, I like it.

[sledgehammer001]

You guys keep giving me bad ideas! How's a guy supposed to save money if he has to keep buying new molds?!
Another idea I'm going to have to try: RB or < 100gr cast.....

[texassako]

I have 2 lonesome pieces of .50-110 range brass that may get turned into 10.35 Italian Vetterli tri ball cases. It looked like an interesting project when I saw one of the original military cartridges since it has a long neck to contain the balls in place of the bullet.

[MT Gianni]

They make a nice hole in a target for very little money. Put three grains of BE under them and you are good to go. No need even for a resize just deprime and reprime, add the powder and push the ball in with your thumb.

[Wayne Smith]

His mistake is seating the ball below the neck. The way he has done it he is likely to create a hydraulic pressure as the ball pushes all that lube out the neck and tries to find the neck itself. Don't think I'd want to do that.

[lightman]

I've shot buckshot in pistol cases and experimented with multi ball loads. It did not not do anything that a cast bullet would not do but it was fun.

[Dusty Bannister]

There is a nice article in the Art of Bullet Casting, which is a collection of articles from Handloader Magazine. Chicken Loads, Cast a small game wadcutter for your big game rifle by G R Shewchuk.
He utilized a plug for the nose of the bullet and then cast the body of the bullet with the plug in place to form consistent wadcutters for rifles. Quite an interesting article and is similar to what Larry has already described. Where accuracy for a longer distance would be desired, this would be superior to the buck shot ball seated snug in the case mouth.

I will say that from experience, those buck ball loads are too much fun to pass up for less than 20 yards.

[armednfree]

"If a lighter weight mould was not available slip on GCs can be pre-heated in a tin lid on top of the furnace and then with tweezers one can be placed in a drive band groove in the mould with the cup facing the sprue plate."

Let me build on that thought.

If I have a 405 Lee HB with the base plug cut flat I should be able to place a gas check on that now flat plug disc and it would become a GC boolit. Does that sound possible?

[303Guy]

I made a nose pour mold that use a G/C to close the mold base. The G/C was slightly expanded first then inserted to the required depth using a tool I made.

[mdi]

Yep a light, gallery load that can be used for small game at sorta close distances. I have a "Ball load" for my 44 revolvers; a 432" ball rolled in alox then seated over 2.5 gr. of Bullseye. Actually pretty accurate out to 15-20 yards but I haven't run them over my chrony...

[Boolseye]

two .360" round balls over 3.3 gr. BE work well in .38 spl. sink the first ball below the case mouth and then seat the second ball 'til it's about half exposed. Crimp. About 850 fps. i just lube them with 45-45-10.

[wistlepig1]

This looks like something for these cold days. I think I will try Larry's suggestion.

[JSnover]

I've shot buckshot in pistol cases and experimented with multi ball loads. It did not not do anything that a cast bullet would not do but it was fun.

In the early 90s I tried it with a .357 It was fun but not really practical. The main reason I stopped was because my cases started splitting.