Round balls pushing back out

[tacotime]

Ruger Old Army. Cylinder with powder, 35 to 40 grains Pyrodex, lubed felt wad, rammed, .457 round ball wants to come back out, several times sometimes, even above the rim. Proper seatin with this load seats well below the rim. Balls had been tumbled in Alox.

But the last set was not lubed and one or more wanted to come out anyway.

Is the Alox to blame?

Cone of the ram is kind of rough. That may be gripping the ball a bit and pulling out.

Ideas?

Thanks

[fouronesix]

Well, it shouldn't be doing that. Two things- 1) lighten the charge a little and seat the ball firmly on the wad/powder but without a bunch of compression. And/or- 2) use a slightly larger ball that is a swaging, tighter fit even slicing a ring of lead when seating. Also, no need to use alox on the ball. If you want to use a little extra lube to keep the fouling soft on the cylinder face/forcing cone then just dab a little Crisco on top of each ball.

[John Taylor]

Are you saying it is sticking to the rammer? If so the rammer needs to be repaired, probably has a burr on the nose which the lead is forming around from loading pressure. A 1/2" ball endmill might work to smooth it up and then polish.

[OverMax]

Ideas? You need to PM Beagle 333 for an answer to your questions. He's been a B/P pistol shooter for many years and more than likely has encountered this problem your having himself. Likely resolved it too. If you mention my handle used here on C/B He'll know whom sent you . Very friendly & knowledgeable guy he is. That my suggestion tacotime.

O/M

[fouronesix]

Ruger Old Army. Cylinder with powder, 35 to 40 grains Pyrodex, lubed felt wad, rammed, .457 round ball wants to come back out, several times sometimes, even above the rim. Proper seatin with this load seats well below the rim. Balls had been tumbled in Alox.

But the last set was not lubed and one or more wanted to come out anyway.

Is the Alox to blame?

Cone of the ram is kind of rough. That may be gripping the ball a bit and pulling out.

Ideas?

Thanks

Ya, I guess I'm not exactly clear on what the problem is??? Are the balls unseating themselves during shooting because of recoil?? Or is the rammer pulling/sucking them back out during seating?? Or are they popping back up because of over compressing the charge/wad during seating??

[Uncle R.]

Never had such a problem with my Old Army and .457 balls.
But then I never tumbled my balls in Alox either.
I'd quit doing that - and I'd scrub the residual Alox out of the chambers. Somehow.
Those .457 balls should be shaving lead when you seat them.
Are they coming right back out stuck to the rammer as you withdraw it?
Are they coming out slowly from air pressure in the chamber?
Or are they working out from the recoil as you fire the other chambers?
Inquiring minds want to know.
In any case I suspect that Alox is the culprit...
<
Uncle R.

[tacotime]

They were moving back out when seated, further than the wad could have pushed back, as it stuck to the ram... but oddly didn't seem to move under recoil.

Looking like the rough ram surface, and some leftover alox in there perhaps. I'll deburr and clean the cylinders and try again...

Thanks!

[fouronesix]

OK that makes a little more sense. Still odd though. I've never had or seen a C&B do that with correctly sized balls that are fairly tight when seated. But then again I've never used alox coated balls in a C&B.

I'd maybe pull the ram out and chuck it in a drill and clean off the seating surface with emery and a finger including any burs on the outside leading edge. Try the balls without alox- maybe just a smear of soft lube like crisco before seating. Could be the alox, when pressed between the ram and the ball during seating, is sticking just enough to pull the balls back up.

[tacotime]

I think it turned out to be the Alox-tumbled balls. Retried several cylinders full with dry balls and had none back out. I did polish the ram anyway. Thanks.

[uscra112]

It has never even occurred to me to Alox-lube the balls for my ROA. The grease over the top gets pushed into the barrel and lubes the bore for me.

[DLCTEX]

I never tried Alox in mine as I had read that Alox with black powder or it's substitutes creates a hard tar that's hard to remove. I use a lubed wad under or grease over the ball.

[tacotime]

Alox scratched. Now dry ball, lubed felt wad or lubed card wad under, and now bore butter on top. Just now learning this black... good fun.