Tri-Ball Revisited!

[Dixie Slugs]

For some time now, many of you have been developing your own Dixie Tri-Ball loads indeed!
We have have had some fine discussions on wads, powder, etc. Some of you have refined your loads to match Dixie's.
However, there is one point I want to stress![I] Do not use the pure lead muzzlel loading balls in your loads![/I]
These balls will upset, swage out, and cause too much sidewall pressure! We saw one barrel that had a bubble in the full choke area from a reloader trying to use ,575" pure lead balls!
Again....any hard cast balls from .575" to the ideal .600" diameter will work with the recipe I posted. Lee makes a good mold for a .600" ball...not the best, but will do for the reloader.
Follow the exact recipe I gave you and all will be well
Regards, James

[yondering]

I'll second this. I ran into pressure issues from using balls cast from air cooled wheel weights. Same load with water dropped wheel weights was fine and shot well. James' load is a real thumper!

[Dixie Slugs]

What many reloaders of shotshells do not realize is that soft cheap shot will do the same thing, everything else being to same components......James

[mikenbarb]

James, Is this whats considered the buck and ball loads? If so can you supply a link to your recipe for this load please. I have a Lyman duplex RB mold but no data to load them and im not the type to play around with developing one for a shotshell. Thanks.

[Dixie Slugs]

Hello Mike! The Dixie Tri-Ball is not what is considered a Buck and Ball load, but rather a multi-ball load. The original Buck and Ball load has one round ball and various mumber of buck shot. As a military round, it was issued to those that had smoothbore muskets. A fine example was the loads issued to the 26th Georgia Infantry at Fredricksburg. The shot the Irish Brigade to pieces in their three charges against the stonewall. It was a close range load indeed.
The recipe for Tri-Ball is as follows:
(1) 12 ga 3" Cheddite, Fiocchi, or Federal Gol Metal hull
(2) 28/29 grs of Alliant Blue Dot
(3) Precision Relooding Orange Wad TUPRWW123
(4) Three .600" hard cast round balls
(5) Precision Reloading buffer
(6) Thin overshot wad.
The buffer is to be vibrated around the balls. The ball tapped tight in the wad so the bottom ball is snug in the wad. Wads are dusted with Motor Mica
Regards, James

[mikenbarb]

Thanks James.

[Pete D.]

I realize that it has been well over a year since the last post. I followed a link from another forum where this was under discussion.
Question: The wad......where to find it?
I did a Google search for Precision Reloading Orange wad TUPRWW123.
Nothing came up. (well....this thread came up but no source info.)
Pete

[BABore]

I Googled "Precision Reloading" and it was the first one. Here's the link to the wad is question.

http://www.precisionreloading.com/mm...PREC_REL_STEEL

Pay attention to what James says on vibrating the spherical shot buffer in and tapping the balls down tight. Evidence of an improper job is a split in the bottom of the wad cup. A real hack job is a blown wad. I had to do a bunch of testing to find the right choke constriction for accuracy. I started with tight turkey tubes in my Mossberg 500 and had poor results. I progressed to more and more open chokes til I hit it on an extended, IMP Mod, steel shot tube. 50 yard accuracy was a 3-4 inch spread. I handed a couple to a buddy's kid to try in his 870. He had an IMP CYL deer bbl on. At 40 yards he put one hole in the target. I told him the other two balls must have went wild. We looked. All three in one ragged hole. Had to be a fluke so I had him shoot again. He made a 1 1/4" group with that shot.

[Dixie Slugs]

Another little trick in loading Tri-Ball.....drop a 20 gauge thin overshot disk into the bottom of the Orange Wad.
The sequence of loading the balls into the wad (in the hull) should be:
(1) drop the balls in and tap them.
(2) vibrate 2.2 cc of the buffer in.
(3) Hold a wood dowel on top of the balls and vibreate.
(4) add enough buffe to just cover the ball.
(5) Tap again
The key to the entire operation is to be sure there is no buffer under the bottom ball....or between the balls.
As the man says...try different choke constrictions! If you get two ball cutting out in the target, but one ball out a few incches....too tight a choke! Ideal is when the balls make a nice even triangle.
Regards, James

[Dixie Slugs]

Based on the emails I have received on reloading the Dixie Tri-Ball....I feel that I should warn the reloader again about not using soft lead balls in the load.
The reason for this is that soft lead balls will expand and cause side wall pressure.....simple fact!
Again....follow the posted recipe exact! The reloader has a tendancy to jazz up any posted load and that can get you in serious trouble with specialized loads like Tri-Ball. I ran into this situation with the Dixie Tusker load (and the smoothbore barrels for the load). It got to the point that I removed it from our production line.
REgards, James

[Geraldo]

In this era of fear of litigation, you've got to like a company owner that will give you his load data.

[dogbert41]

[Catshooter]

Dixie Slugs,

Thank you very much for posting your receipe!

Would you define "hard lead balls" please? Wheel weights? Linotype? Thanks.


Cat

[5Shot]

I re-read it - I see now. You want lead to lead contact and lead to wad contact without buffer in between.

[Muskrat Mike]

I'm confused and that is easy to do sometimes but just where is the buffer going if and I quote"The key to the entire operation is to be sure there is no buffer under the bottom ball....or between the balls."????

[5Shot]

It is everywhere except where the balls contact each other and where the bottom ball contacts the wad. You want lead to lead contact (or wad to lead contact), which is why you need to hold them down while you vibrate the buffer in. I am not sure why it is so important, but I will do as told.

[Dixie Slugs]

Let me be crystal clear on this matter of sharing recipes here on Cast Boolits. I do not agree with some posts that do not include pressure testing from a recognized test group...period! I have seen enough of that type jazz!
Now.....It is a fact the most reloaders do not buy factory ammo. By posting interesting recipes here does not cost us any sales. And.....any recipe posted here is the recipe were may our ammo to.
I am, and will always be, a reloader at heart. tThere are about 100 vaious recipes we have tested and arepressure tested.....ous ammo represents only a partial list of the total recipes.
Regards, James

[RMc]

Hello Mike! The Dixie Tri-Ball is not what is considered a Buck and Ball load, but rather a multi-ball load. The original Buck and Ball load has one round ball and various mumber of buck shot. As a military round, it was issued to those that had smoothbore muskets. A fine example was the loads issued to the 26th Georgia Infantry at Fredricksburg. The shot the Irish Brigade to pieces in their three charges against the stonewall. It was a close range load indeed.
The recipe for Tri-Ball is as follows:
(1) 12 ga 3" Cheddite, Fiocchi, or Federal Gol Metal hull
(2) 28/29 grs of Alliant Blue Dot
(3) Precision Relooding Orange Wad TUPRWW123
(4) Three .600" hard cast round balls
(5) Precision Reloading buffer
(6) Thin overshot wad.
The buffer is to be vibrated around the balls. The ball tapped tight in the wad so the bottom ball is snug in the wad. Wads are dusted with Motor Mica
Regards, James

Pressure tested.

[Arisaka99]

Do you have a load for 20ga?

[Dixie Slugs]

At present Ralph and I are working on a Tri-Ball 20. The problem is finding a study enough wad......James