Tri-Ball Revisited!

[faustus]

...

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 last couple of weeks I have been ordering all the components for this Tri-Ball load and today was my first attempt to load a sample with a new 3" Cheddite hull, Blue Dot powder, and .600 balls I cast myself with a Lee mold.

However, when I tried to assembled a cartridge there was not enough room left for a fold crimp ... so I am wondering? Is this load supposed to be roll crimped or is it supposed to work with a fold crimp? Who has actually built this load ... and what did you use? Fold crimp or roll crimp?

Here my stack:
1.) New 3" Cheddite hull
2.) 28.9 grains of Blue Dot (Lee Powder dipper 2.5)
2.) Precision Reloading Orange Wad TUPRW123
4.) I placed a thin 20ga overshot card into the bottom of the wad
5.) 3x 600 round balls
6.) buffer vibrated in
7.) Thin overshot card
8.) And then I had intended to do a fold crimp .... but there was not enough hull space left ...

Any input?

[pipehand]

The 3 inch load requires a roll crimp. The 3&1/2" can take a fold crimp.

[yondering]

I used a fold crimp with these loads in 3" shells, but used slightly different components. Remington 3" "Nitro Mag" hulls, and BPI "multi metal" wads over 28.0gr Blue Dot and three hardened .600 WW balls. IIRC I may have needed to trim the wads to length.

I haven't used that Precision Reloading wad, and did not use any card wads above or under the shot column - that may be part of your problem.

[Moonie]

I roll crimp mine. They kick on both ends...

[GEOMETRIC]

I don't have the knowledge or experience James has but I do have enough knowledge & experience to know James is exactly right. Buckshot is very effective on thin skinned game like white tail deer at close range. How far depends on many variables. It is IMHO, a very poor choice for a big boar hog, which is definitely not in the thin skinned category. That is why the Tri-Ball is such a good load. It combines the multiple hit characteristics of buck shot with pellets big enough to penetrate a big boars armor with enough energy to get the job done. I can tell you many stories about big boars digesting massive doses of lead before going down. The funniest hog story I can think of (depending on your sense of humor) was when a guy I hunted with invited a guy from NC (that had hog dogs) to come hunt with us on a club in the Santee Delta. This was back in the early 70's when hog hunting just started to get popular. The club house was only reachable by boat & a boat was needed for transportation to the hunting areas.
We were leaving the camp house & Jack (my friend) reached for his .32 Winchester. The NC guy said, "What's that for"? Jack replied,"The hog we are after is a bad hog, we might have to shoot him". It was common practice to lead the catch dogs in on a leash. If they thought the hog was too much for the catch dogs, they would either shoot the hog or try to catch the dogs & just leave him.
The NC dude said, "Man, you don't have to worry about that, this dog (his bull dog) will catch any hog that walks".
We took the boat to a point on the river where bad boy was last known to be. Jacks trail dog or bay dog picked up his trail & bayed in no time. We went in with the bull dog on a leash. Jack could see what happened next better than me. Jack said that when the bull dog grabbed the hog by the ear, the hog slung him up in the air about 6 feet then he went after little red (the bay dog). Little Red laid flat on the ground to evade the hogs tusk which surely saved his life. The hogs tusk shaved a jagged shaped trail across Little Red's side about 2 foot long & 2 inches wide. By some miracle, the skin wasn't even broken! I still have a picture of it. The hog trotted off in the swamp & both dogs came out of the woods & refused to go back!
James, there isn't much chance you will remember me but we have communicated before a long time ago. Your posts are a wealth of information. Thank you for sharing you knowledge & insight with us, I know it will help me.

[Hogtamer]

Hello Geo, welcome to the forum. Hate to dump bad news on your 1st post but James Gates passed away some time back. He did leave a legacy of big lead and knew what a bad hog was, seems you do too! My first animal with a lymnan525 was last week, this 120 lb boar; he was the second to run across a sandy road near dark last week in the SC low country.

[GEOMETRIC]

Thank you. I am saddened to learn of Jame's passing. IMHO, any decent deer cartridge will kill any hog with a well placed shot. Where the Tri-Ball shines is up close & personal at close range. I have yet to get any hog I have killed on a scale so all I can do is guess about weight. I can tell you I shot the biggest one 7 times running across a rice field with a .32 Winchester, which is basically a necked up 30-30. I believe I hit him all seven times & he went down 3 times, but he wouldn't stay down. I finally caught up to him standing not far from my john boat near death but he was still on his feet. The rifle was now empty so I finished him off with my Ruger Blackhawk. If he hadn't fell close to the boat, I would never have gotten him out of the field. I got his head over the side of the boat using poles I cut for levers. I was alone! Again using poles, I pried his body over the side & into the boat. He was a battle scared bruit. His right ear was sliced in half from fighting with another hog & there were numerous scars on both shoulders. I killed one other boar about the same size with a 400+ grain cast bullet out of a Ruger No. 1 in .45-70 at about 1800 fps. This hog was much younger & didn't have near the tusk. The bullet went through the heart/lung area & exited on the far side. The hog didn't drop! We found him dead in heavy cover some 6 hrs. later. I think he was dead seconds after being shot but had he come after me rather than running, I would have been in big trouble! I don't have any statistics but I don't think it would be hard to show that a large percentage of hunters injured or killed by dangerous game are by animals that had been mortally wounded. Two people could barely drag him & we couldn't load him in a pickup truck. We had to go get a trailer with a winch.

[SuperBlazingSabots]

Greetings, information for you all to benefit, a lot of good stuff out there but all scattered around.
Use it to your advantage.
Should not have to go looking for this on page 26 come on, make it a sticky !
Best regards,
Ajay K. Madan
Super Blazing Sabots

[Bob Fleming]

The lee 0.595" double cavity mould is in stock at Track of the Wolf!
https://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categ...2/3/LEE-595-DC
This is the best mould for the money for the tri-ball load.

[SuperBlazingSabots]

Some great people will never be forgotten to name a few, like:
Tri-Ball Revisited by Sir James, was always very transparent and shared his loads openly:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...Ball-Revisited!
Have fun reading it.
Will always be remembered in our hearts.
Happy New Year 2021

Warmest Regards,
Ajay K. Madan
Super Blazing Sabots

[SuperBlazingSabots]

Greetings my friends, we still have time to prepare if and when all hell breaks loose.

In Sir James memory load up some Tri-Ball.

Load up, far better to have and not need, than need and not have, you decide ! !

Best regards,
Ajay K. Madan
Super Blazing Sabots

[LeonCarr]

I have a few extra laying around. Took another whitetail doe this year, looks like Axis Deer will be next.

They work.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

[warren5421]

This was an eye opener on shotgun use. Now I have to explain to SHMBO why I need a new Mossburg 935 Magnum.

[Bob Fleming]

The Dixie Tri-Ball load will sure test how soft shooting it is!
Let us know how it goes, I am looking for an excuse to "need" another shotgun.

[SuperBlazingSabots]

This is the very official TriBall post by Sir James, all post relating to TriBall need to be posted here below !

[rigrat]

Please excuse my newb question but this 12 gauge tri-ball and 2 ball loads use .590 and .600 diameter round balls?

[Bob Fleming]

Posts 36, 31, 10, 9, 5 and 1 (and probably more) of this thread have your answers straight from the man that engineered the tri-ball load.

[rigrat]

Thanks, I appreciate the straight forward answer. I was looking for clarification as I already read that. Seemed on the small side to me reason I asked. But hey thats what I get.

[Bob Fleming]

Small as those 60 cal balls may seem, that load kicks really hard. Follow the recipe exactly and you will see that the fit is good. Rigrat sounds like an oil field name. This is the load for you!

[rigrat]

Thanks yes it is way to many years. I like the buck and ball and the 2 - ball loads. I just wasn't sure if I was reading it right on the size.