.38 special and round ball help!

[Loki610]

So I went to try out my first round ball plinking loads at the local range today. First I fired 6 loads of double ball which worked flawlessly but when I loaded and fired the single ball load all I got was a hiss of escaping gas! I dumped the cylinder and used my cleaning rod to gently poke out the ball which was just past the forcing cone. I loaded a second round after shaking to make sure of powder load, same thing just a hiss!
I'm using a lee .36cal ball mould that drops at a consistent .359 (same as my slugged bore) they were loaded with 2.4grains of Clays and crimped in the middle of the ball.

Could it be that pressures aren't getting high enough and the gas is just escaping around the ball?

[fecmech]

By crimping in the middle of the ball you have made it undersize. That coupled with a very light load is what happened IMO.

[EDK]

I think you diagnosed the problem in the last sentence.

You might want to read up on cap 'n ball revolvers and apply some of the loading techniques used with them. They use an over-sized round ball that gets swaged into the chambers. There have been various magazine articles on how to improvise loading equipment for obsolete calibers. Interesting to read and really not that hard to accomplish if you "think outside the box."

For starters, I'd try a larger diameter ball so it could have more neck tension. You didn't mention it, but I'll bet you have a lot of soot on the casings for the single ball loads because the brass doesn't expand fast enough to seal up either. Your double ball loads probably sealed up and a lot less soot because of the inertia of a heavier projectile AND the lower ball going into a smaller diameter near the case head.

My solution would be to use a .375 ball (from a 36 caliber NAVY COLT type black powder revolver) or possibly 000 buck shot...IIRC, we bought a 5 pound bag of 000 with the 1851 NAVY replica. Set the ball on the case mouth and gently run it into the seater die OR use a LEE factory crimp die in the same fashion OR tap the over sized ball in with a small mallet and then re-size the whole cartridge through your re-sizer die or the LEE factory crimp die.

A lot of the early cartridge revolvers used a hollow based slug so it would swell up and engage the rifling. Hollow base wadcutters would be another option for use, but at a lot more cost than the round balls if you don't have a mould.

:redneck::cbpour::2gunsfiring_v1:

[Loki610]

Well at least the double ball load worked! I mainly wanted to just see what kind of accuracy I could get from a single ball. I think I'll go back to the 105grain SWC for the plinking load (my wife loves these) and I'll save my ball mould for double shot or just use in the slingshot!

When I loaded the double ball I placed them so the sprue flats are together, at 7 yards I was getting 1- 1.5" of dispersion between balls.

[thegreatdane]

Loki, what load did you end up with?

[Loki610]

For the double ball I've only tried one load and its 2.4 grains clays, but I'm gonna increase slowly and see where I end up.

If your referring to the 105grain SWC I've settled on 3 grains of clays, it gives good accuracy in my 6" S&W 10-5 and I got 8 more lbs of clays I got in a trade for cheap!

[leadman]

Try pushing the single ball down into the case farther. The pressure will be higher when you do this put it might be what is needed.

[stubshaft]

I gotta look around because I still have some of the Remington Triple Ball loads for .357. I never thought to measure their diameter.

[a.squibload]

10-4 on deeper seating, no experience with 38 round balls but
used to load 44s (.433 rb) with single ball pushed down flush with the case mouth.
Pretty good tension. No crimp as I recall.
Then scraped a lube stick with the case mouth leaving lube ahead of the ball.
Loaded slow enough we could watch 'em fly! Giant BB gun.

Had similar results as yours with 2-ball loads, about 1" apart at 20 ft.
One ball at poa and the other low and right, every time.

[beagle]

Take a look at castpics/articles/ Round Ball Loads. I experimented with round balls in various calibers for a while when I wrote that article.

I had best results when I "bumped" the RBs in a .358" sizer using either a rounded or a flat TP. The ones done with the flat punch went in first on a 2 ball load with the ones done with the rounded TP (a #430) on top. The bumping filled the bullet out to .358" and I beleived enhanced accuracy.

I used a card wad under the ball and the balls were dipped in Lee's liquid alox cut with lighter fluid and allowed to dry before loading.

I wasn't impressed with the single ball loads but they shot nice and were accurate but the two ball loads performed beyong my expectations./beagle