Sprue on 12 ga Round Balls

[GBertolet]

I had been orientating the sprues on the .735 round ball up when seating in the hulls. I was kind of wondering if they stay centered when fired, or do they cock to a side before they engage the rifling. I believe this would cause a slight imbalance during the projectiles flight.

I had filed off some sprues to test with, but had not had a chance to fire them yet. Removing the sprue lightened the ball by about 15 grains, or about 2.5% of the 600 gr RB weight. I had been consistently getting groups in the 2 inch range at 50 yards, sometimes even smaller, with sprues intact, and I am trying to better this accuracy if I can, even though this level of grouping is satisfactory.

I am using a NEF slug gun with rifled barrel. My load is 40 gr of Blue Dot, BP Air Wedge gas seal + 1/2" hard wad +.125 hard wad + AA White gas seal, cut off a shotcup, inverted to form a cup for the RB + .735 RB wrapped in 7 inches of 1/2" teflon tape. Chronographed velocity of 1300 fps.

Has anyone done any testing themselves on this?

[jmort]

I put them in sprue down

[Bullshop Junior]

Usually with round balls, I throw them in a tumbler for a few hours it helps knock the sprue down, and gives the balls small dents, lole in a golf ball. I have had pretty good luck doing that.

[missionary5155]

Greetings
I cut off my RB's sprue with a side cutter. Then rotate the ball 90 degrees and snip the remaining sprue"nub" again. This leaves a more pointed little nub. Ball gets loaded "nub" up.
I have tried "nub" up and down and did not see any improvement in my Double Fox B so I load nub up as it is far easier to verify the "nub" is centered up.
I used to "trim" with a sharp Gerber all the nub completely off making a near perfect RB. But again I found no accuracy gain out of my Fox B.
Maybe with a rifled barrel at more than 50 yards something would show up. But the river bottoms I frequent when up north there I have never fired on game past 34 yards.
Mike in Peru

[nanuk]

I wish I could find the article on ball shooting (Fadala?)

the experiment started with deformed noses on J-words, then deformed bases

then moved on to round balls by cutting a X into the ball and seating it up, then down.

IIRC, UP was a disaster, and down was irrelevant.

theory was (memory has faded) that the ball was not moving fast enough to create a buffered shock wave, and the air slip on the misshapened nose of the ball was disrupting airflow, causing flyers.

again.... glimpses of memories long past

[MarkP]

Sprue up about 8 inches at 80 yds with a smooth bore under 3" with rifled bbl. That is how I always loaded my muzzle loaders. My Lyman .690 RB has a larger sprue as compared to my .690 Lee RB. Have not noticed any difference but would need to shoot several more to really prove that.