Single 0.600 inch round ball in 12 gauge

[Barry54]

I’ve discovered a 0.600” round ball fits snugly in a wad labeled Rex 24, sold by BPI. There are some ribs in the shot cup that keep it centered. It’s cushion section has more substance to resist total collapse vs a Winchester style wad. I’ll keep y’all updated on my progress.

[GhostHawk]

Following.

[Barry54]

Initially I put Precision Reloading spherical buffer in the loads. 0.7cc Lee dipper underneath and another 0.7cc on top with a home punched card wad. These loads fit well and crimped great. I twisted the ball down into the buffer to get it seated in the bottom of the shot cup. The spherical buffer acts like miniature ball bearings and reduced the “grip” of the ball and wad interface. The two wads I recovered are the best looking wads I’ve personally recovered from round ball loads.

Next I tried loads with no buffer. The fold crimp looked uglier and two recovered wads had holes pushed in the bottom of the shot cup. One recovered wad with a 20 gauge 1/8” felt wad in the bottom also had a hole with the felt pushed into the hole.

Next attempt will be with different buffers, preferably ones that aren’t as slippery.

[Barry54]

Here are the damaged wads from test loads without buffer. Felt wad pushed into the hole in one wad. My home cut overshot card pushed into the hole in another.

[Barry54]

These wads were from the loads with Precision Spherical buffer. When looking closely, one can see imprint of the buffer in the wad similar to shot imprints.

[Milky Duck]

there are dirt cheap fishing sinker molds that cast round balls..one of them sizes is spot on for the job described ..folk over here been using them for years as bail loads for pigs.

[longbow]

I always put a 20 ga. or 16 ga. nitro card wad into the shotcup then COW then the ball. Your buffer is likely better than COW as a cushion. If the wads hold up with the buffer alone that's good but you should try a nitro card wad in the bottom of the shotcup. With those ribs you may need smaller than 20 ga. nitro card wads though. 24 ga. might fit well.

Good round ball loads can be very accurate from smoothbore out to 50 yards at least.

Longbow

[W.R.Buchanan]

I once built a "Marble Launcher" for testing Painted Surfaces on a Navy Missile Launcher. It was basically cross between a Sling Shot and a Crossbow. It was powered by Surgical Tube and had a Track that had a "Car" on it, that was propelled by the Tubing. The launch was dead strait which is what we were going for. However the Car had a Center Drilled hole in the front face which held the ball in place and let go of it the exact same way every shot.

When I loaded my first .662 Round Balls I used a 1/4" thick Felt Wad in the base of the WAA 12 Clone Wad. This served the same purpose as Center Drilled hole by cradling the ball in the center of the Wad which was centered up in the bore when fired. As the ball was accelerated, it was pushed deeper into the Felt Wad which only centered it up better in the Wad. The result was Excellent Accuracy with a center mass hit on a Silhouette Chicken at 50 Meters on the first shot as well as a few more just for good measure. I didn't even have to change the sights!!!

At the time the gun was my 20" M500 with a Cylinder Bore Barrel with Rifle Sights. Later that gun delivered a 3" group on a Front Sight Target "Shooting Offhand" which I have posted here many times.

My whole point of this post is to make you aware that if a "Perfect Ball" (like a ball bearing) is launched perfectly strait, it will keep going strait until it's velocity decays enough to drop to the dirt. In space it would continue on the same line until it hit something! In the atmosphere it's Windage deviation will be Zero (unless the ball is not perfect like a ball bearing.) IE: the sprue will affect the flight of it due to airflow around the ball.. Even so it will still be close and if you can trim the Sprue down to where it blends with the rest of the ball you are on the right track. Typically what I do when I load balls is to place the Sprue on the front face of ball so you can see that it is centered up. That will yield the smallest deviation other than no sprue at all. At the distances associated with Round Ball shooting. ( 50-75 yards)

The results will be very acceptable.

Randy

[pipehand]

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...ads-for-10-y-o

This was something I tried near a dozen years ago. Used a PR TUPR orange wad cut down and a wad column built from an AA12 wad. Basically i/3 of a Dixie Slugs Tri Ball.

[Barry54]

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...ads-for-10-y-o

This was something I tried near a dozen years ago. Used a PR TUPR orange wad cut down and a wad column built from an AA12 wad. Basically i/3 of a Dixie Slugs Tri Ball.

Thanks for sharing and including the link. I have some of those PR wads on hand. Did you use a 20 or 12 gauge card wad between the PR wad and cut petal AA wad?

[pipehand]

I don't remember, but looking at the picture it does appear to be a 1/8" 12 gaige wad.

[Jack Russel]

I use a .690 round ball. Suits my paper punching habit. Big Holes

[G W Wade]

I use a .690 round ball. Suits my paper punching habit. Big Holes

What kind of wads are you using with the .690 ball? GW