round ball and wrap question.

[tommag]

I have .690 and .715 molds. I thought about teflon wraps to fit my .730 bore, but .010 wrap on a .715 would be .005 oversized. That might not be a big deal, but that got me thinking about other materials.
Not sure if this would work, so asking for input.
What about mylar, or cheaper yet, would paper, either dry or lubed, work?

[cpileri]

Others more learned than me will sure chime in, but let me start.
.005 is generally too OVERsized for a smoothebore. generally speaking.
paper works, lubed paper works for getting them up to size, accyracy is another story. i am fiddling w that myself right now using ZigZag papers w round balls. but nothing to report so far.
Mylar is probably a no-go without pressure testing equipment or known loads: it is durable and good for inserting inside wads to protect from hard pellets, btu it is much "stickier" in the bore than teflon and if wrapped around a ball in contact w bore can raise pressures.

let some of these really smart guys chime in as well.

C-

edit: James gates recommends oversizing lead projectiles according to bore size, with .003 being max for a 12ga. and less for smaller bores. he was talking abt full bore slugs, not patched up slugs. But still .005 seems too much.

When you shoot it, if you've shot it, does the paper stay attached or release cleanly, or get shredded?

[tommag]

cpileri, a .010 wrap would result in .735 with a .715 rb. The thinnest Teflon I found was .010., and it would be .02 by the time itwas on both sides, right?
Thanks for the sticky mylar info. I didn't know that. I've done very little loading for shotguns, and then only published recipes.

[cpileri]

Duh.
Yup, bad math/not reading/not thinking.
Sorry.
I'll fix it.
C-

[tommag]

I haven't tried wrap,yet, just wondering about what would work and what won't.
Lots of time to think on the road, but no time to do.

It would seem paper would press somewhat into the ball, preventing a clean release. I'm sure it would shred a bit, given that the front bead protrudes into my bbl by a few thou. One more thing to correct.

[longbow]

I have tried all sorts of wraps and not had any sort of success using o.690" RB's. Some seem to be able to make them work but I have failed. I have successfully paper patched Lyman Foster slugs with mixed results but too many fliers for my liking. My suspicion is that rough hull interior and/or opening the crimp is damaging the paper patch. Same sort of thing is likely to happen with round ball.

I have read of people using cloth patching when loading the ball in the hull and they report it works. I have not tried that. When I read it I could not figure out how the patch makes the jump through the forcing cone and remains on the ball but they say it works. Easy enough to try and no harm except poor accuracy if it doesn't work.

0.005" is a bit over size, though I have had good results shooting 0.735" round balls in my 0.729" smoothbore. If you want to try a wrap I would suggest paper and get things to bore size. Paper should let go and I often cross patch undersize slugs with paper to fit into shotcups. Not quite the same because the shotcup is there too but I never have trouble with paper not releasing.

Better is probably to get some BPI brush wads which are double ended cups. Alternately some gas seals are deep cup shapes so one of those cut off and set on the wad (petals removed) should center the ball in the bore. Again, I have not tried it but read it works.

Look through Ajay's posts on ball/wad fits as he has lots of good suggestions.

Also, BPI publishes a load using one of their shotcups with 0.690" RB so the petals must be thin. I have as yet to find a shotcup that works with my 0.690" RB's though (haven't tried BPI's). I load mostly 0.662" or 0.678" into shotcups or use 0.735" naked on a hard card wad column.

I plan to order some of the BPI brush wads to try though they are pretty slick.

If you are itching to shoot with what you have then I suggest trying paper rolled into a short tube then folded under the 0.690" or 0.715" ball. make sure you have a slide fit to bore and cylinder bore only. I'll also suggest a small scoop of COW under the patched ball as a seat.

Not sure if that helps or not but that's all I've got. Hah! And after my last slug shooting session you might not want to take my advice anyway.

Longbow

[tommag]

Yeah, Longbow, I saw that post. I've messed around with punkin balls off and on since I read about it in an article from Ross Seyfried in handloader some years back. Never had much success, let it drop, then go back to it every now and then.
Funny thing is, no need for it, can hunt with any rifle I desire, just somehow fascinated with 12 guage rbs.

[longbow]

Yeah, I don't know what it is but I love to cast and shoot big 'ol round balls and to 50 yards or so they are very accurate ~ speaking smoothbore here as that's what I like.

I like am seriously thinking about building a rifling bench to make slow twist deep groove choke tubes to make and retrofit Cutts Compensator type muzzle brake and rifled choke tube system to my old single shot so I can shoot naked bore size balls. Easy to cast, easy to load and fun to shoot. I just want to stretch accuracy out to 100 yards.

I really have no clue why but I do like round balls, and I like what they do when they hit stuff at 1500 or so FPS!

Longbow