Round ball "roundness"

[newton]

Here is a question I have. How much out of round can a ball be before being useless? I have seen balls somewhat out of round and am curious. Also, what about little dents all over, like a golf ball? And the sprue? I have not shot a round ball much except for plinking and such, never for accuracy or hunting. What's the opinion on these questions?

[HARRYMPOPE]

i find they can be pretty wrinkled and with weight variation and still have reasonable to good accuracy.(a least to 1.5" at 50 yards)I have tumbled bullets to flatten out the srue in a metal can that were all dented like a golf ball and they shot very well.As far as out of round i have never tested that.

George

[izzyjoe]

i have a lee .490 mold that i got two week's ago, and i was gona send it back to lee. cause it leaves a ring around the ball at the parting line, it mic's .495. and it mic's .492 across the other way. i cast about a 150 balls, and thought i had a dud. well today i went to the range and shot them, and they shot a 2" group at 75yds. i thought it may be a fluke, so i put up a new target and darned if it did'nt shoot a smaller group. so i guess i'm keeping it. i may try to tumble them, just to smooth them out some.

[HARRYMPOPE]

i have a lee .490 mold that i got two week's ago, and i was gona send it back to lee. cause it leaves a ring around the ball at the parting line, it mic's .495. and it mic's .492 across the other way. i cast about a 150 balls, and thought i had a dud. well today i went to the range and shot them, and they shot a 2" group at 75yds. i thought it may be a fluke, so i put up a new target and darned if it did'nt shoot a smaller group. so i guess i'm keeping it. i may try to tumble them, just to smooth them out some.

I too have been finding less than perfect RB's shoot very well.It goes against all of the stories that they must be weighed to within a 10th of a grain to shoot well at all.

George

[Fly]

GREAT QUESTION!I have wondered that for years.More from cap & ball revolvers
than anything else.Most guy's like to seat there balls buy shaving a little lead from
the cylinder.Now we have a out of round ball.

I know there are cowboy shooters that can comment on this.I'm no exspert, but
would like to hear from some on this.

Fly

[izzyjoe]

i don't know, but i would bet that back in the ole days they did'nt cull to many balls. if they dropped from the mold and looked like a ball, they got shot!

[newton]

Well that's why I asked. Lol. I too have a combo mold, REAL and ball, that is throwing a RB with a "ring" around it. It looks much better when put into a container and knocked all together. Lol. I just wonder how they would shoot. I don't have a RB .50 barrel yet, so I cannot test them myself.

I figured golf balls are made that way to help with flight so you just have to wonder it all the little dents in the lead ball would do the same...

[Fly]

Well even in a muzzle loader we compress them some when rammed.This can't
be the first post on this subject.Some one will come forword & put some insight on this.

Fly

[newton]

GREAT QUESTION!I have wondered that for years.More from cap & ball revolvers
than anything else.Most guy's like to seat there balls buy shaving a little lead from
the cylinder.Now we have a out of round ball.

I know there are cowboy shooters that can comment on this.I'm no exspert, but
would like to hear from some on this.

Fly
I never have thought about that. Shaving lead for sure would make it out of round. I wouldn't think that accuracy would be affected in the short range, just when you get out a ways. But from the sounds of it there probably isn't much to write home about.

[newton]

Well even in a muzzle loader we compress them some when rammed.This can't
be the first post on this subject.Some one will come forword & put some insight on this.

Fly


True. And that makes me wonder about the initial "blast" of the powder against the "bottom" of the ball. On conicals this forces the base out just a bit to seal somewhat. Why wouldn't the same thing happen to a ball.

Interesting. This started wondering about my mold, and now has lead to things I had never thought about before.

[newton]

Maybe this is why RB's seem to do better with lower charges sometimes.

[Plastikosmd]

Mine have a flat sprue cut and require hammering down through a false muzzle, then some moderate pressure to ram and seat. I would say they are pretty mishapen by the time they are launched. Generally hold 1"or under at 100 yards, for 5 shots (bench guns-aperture sites.) I worry more about wind, seating pressure, bore condition and site picture

[HARRYMPOPE]

I worry more about wind, seating pressure, bore condition and site picture

I cant agree more

George

[Fly]

Mine have a flat sprue cut and require hammering down through a false muzzle, then some moderate pressure to ram and seat. I would say they are pretty mishapen by the time they are launched. Generally hold 1"or under at 100 yards, for 5 shots (bench guns-aperture sites.) I worry more about wind, seating pressure, bore condition and site picture

Yea me too.Never seemed to be much of a problem.But still a great question.

Fly:coffeecom

[wgr]

round balls are not round after you ram them down a barrel.so unless your target shooting i wound,nt worry about it

[trapper9260]

What I do for the spure on the ball I roll them that I have and it is between 2 steel plates and it takes the sharp or high points off and it takes care of the problem .I done some 00 shot that I cast and shot some in my 410 with out rolling them and the shot went all over then I try them after I roll them and I had a set pattern and I had no problem after .Just thinking it will help someone . As for lines on the ball I did not worry about it they all shot good .

[Jim]

Years ago, when I was shootin' a GPR, I wanted to remove the seam marks and sprue cut marks from the RBs. Messin' around with different methods, I found out I could do it by puttin' some in my case vibratory tumbler. You can't put a whole lot in there 'cause tumblers have weights limits. It's loud as all get out, but it works.

[newton]

Years ago, when I was shootin' a GPR, I wanted to remove the seam marks and sprue cut marks from the RBs. Messin' around with different methods, I found out I could do it by puttin' some in my case vibratory tumbler. You can't put a whole lot in there 'cause tumblers have weights limits. It's loud as all get out, but it works.

Does it make them look like little golf balls? Did you notice any difference in their flight/grouping?

[KCSO]

A BALL from a cap and ball pistol is more like a bullet when it comes out the barrel, ro roundness isn't much of an issue here if the ball is big enough to shave lead when loaded. As to round ball rifles if you have a sprue on the ball and iit's up or down in the SAME sport e ery time it won't make a big difference. I discard any balls with big wrinkles or any voids as it's too easy to cast a perfect looking round ball. In addition I built a balll mill and I milll mine round and sprueless. For top notch target shooting in a cross stick rifle I wil weigh the balls but I am talking about a rifle that is going to group under 2" at 100 yards with round balls. A 4" group at the same range doesn't require quite as much effort. Now bear in mind that all this rounding and sorting is for match shooting. When my eyes were good I thought that 47 at 100 yards was a poor day at the range, now if I can keep them all in the black I feel pretty good about myself.

For huntiing and close range shooting I have killed game with some pretty poor balls. I dropped a squirrel with a head shot at 25 yards with a ball that had a good size voind in it that somehow ended up in the bag instead of discard. I just put the void on top and by golly it worked.

M/L is just like anything else it depends on how picky you are and what standards you want to live up to. I have a friend who wouldn't shoot a cast bullet thaat wasn't within 1/10 of a grain of the batch, he sorts his cases by weight and has each marked for position in the gun. We shoot military rifles together and I sort by the if it aint ugly it gets shot method. His groups on average from the bench are an inch or more better than mine but whan it come to stand up and shoot we are about evenly matched.

Bottom line is shoot what YOU can hit with and whaqt ever suits your standards.

[Jim]

Does it make them look like little golf balls? Did you notice any difference in their flight/grouping?

Yeah, but not bad. The surface is just barely dimpled. I noticed no difference in accuracy.

[Boerrancher]

My .60 mold leaves a nasty looking sprue, and my .495 mold leaves a slight ring at the parting line. Both shoot quite accurately on paper, and I know that both are slightly out of round. My .311 mold has a slight parting line as well and it will shoot dime sized groups at 30 yards easily. I never worried about cleaning them up I just shoot them.

Best wishes,

Joe