Round ball mold

[Rooster931]

I have cast, loaded and shot thousands of pistol bullets over the years. However I have never cast a single ball for my muzzleloading guns. Looking to purchase a roundball mold for the .45 BP rifle what size round ball is "standard" for this firearm. I can slug the barrel like a pistol however with the patch and all just wonderin?

[myg30]

I know very little about BP, don't own any. Last night I googled a BP revolver model number a friend has to see what size rb his shot, I wanted to surprise him with RB's for Christmas. His pistol shoots a larger dia. RB than a bp rifle in same cal. I found that odd.
Google is your friend. Good luck in your search.

Mike

[docone31]

.440, or .445. Depends on how tight the bore is, and what type of patch you use.
My rifle prefers .440, with pillow ticking. The bore is tight, but it seems to like that.

[bhn22]

I was going to remind the OP that he needs to take the patch thickness into account too.

[MtGun44]

I suggest you check with the maker and buy a box of Hornady factory roundballs and see how they
work before you buy a mold. If the Hornady doesn't work, buy the next biggest size and try that until
you get what you want.

Bill

[Rooster931]

Thanks to all who replied I am going to buy the mold offered in .440 with several differnt patches and if it doesn't work I will move it on.

[Toymaker]

There is no "standard". There is a whole process to finding the right combination for maximum accuracy. Once you find it you're good .... for a while. Suddenly your accuracy isn't what it used to be. Go to a larger ball and you're (usually) good ..... for a while. I do a lot of competitions with muzzle loaders. I have one .54 that started with a .535 RB and then went to a .540 RB. Another .54 started with .535 RB and is up to .545. The .40 started with .395 and now uses .400 Understand, each of these changes happened over two or three years and I literally shoot thousands of rounds, near 10 to 12 pounds of powder, a year.

[fcvan]

My first black powder gun was a 45 Kentucky pistol that took .440 round balls and a patch. They worked really well (I built the pistol from a kit) but I bought factory round balls. When I bought an 1858 Remington copy pistol, I bought a .454 round ball mould because I shot a whole lot more with that revolver. I read recently in the book "The American Rifle" by Townsend Whelen, that the ball was originally rather undersized, patched, and expanded with the ramrod to fit the bore after seated. Nowadays, it seems that a tight ball and patch fit at the muzzle is more the practice. I haven't tried an undersized ball and patch but it would stand to reason that a good fit from the get-go is a good practice. The bore on old rifles would wear and become larger so that the original mold would become undersized over time. Today's steel and cleanin practices would tend to improve bore life over the rifles of days past. Anyway, my 2 cents.

[Dryball]

I may be picking nits but it also depends on the type of rifling in your barrel. If you have round bottomed rifling you can "get away with" a little thicker patch.