Round balls in .38 SPL?

[tacotime]

Anyine had any luck with round balls in .38 Special brass case loads?

Seems like I recall an old Speer manual had loads for these.

Are they .358?

What about lube?

Any loads turn out accurate?

Thanks.

[williamwaco]

I use 000 buckshot it is .360.
they are cheap and fun but don't expect accuracy.

I don't remember the load but I once concocted a load that would not penetrate a sheet rock. I intended to shoot rats in the garage but I never managed to connect.

[geargnasher]

I think the accuracy could be improved drastically with powder coating, might have to try that. PC as-cast and shove through a Lee .358" sizer die, load over a pinch of powder and blaze away. I've used 45/45/10 lube but always had leading unless I used a Dacron filler with a blob of soft boolit lube on top before seating the ball.

Gear

[Outpost75]

Better results using a .375" ball sized down to .359-.360" so that you actually have some bearing contact with the rifling instead of just a tangent point of contact. Flush seat in case mouth, roll crimp, over 2.7-3.0 grains of Bullseye, and wipe a pea-sized dab of ordinary white lithium grease over the ball and case mouth.

Point of impact will be low relative to the sights, but sized balls for a .36 Colt Navy will work fine in soft alloy.

[Texantothecore]

Try lubing the ball with johnsons paste wax.

Start with a normal load of powder and work your way down and you should find some sweet spots.

[Dave C.]

I load two balls over 2.7gr of BE.
Never had one tumble!

Dave C.

[dondiego]

Dave - Are the balls right on top of the powder or is there an air space?

[dbosman]

I've loaded 000 shot, for fun. Lots of air space.

Remington, at least used to, sell multi-ball rounds. Accuracy was decent. Pattern was a couple inches at 25 feet.
94863
http://www.americanrifleman.org/BlogEntry.aspx?id=1790&cid=25

[Dave C.]

Dondiego:

I seat the so that the ball is just a little deeper than half way and use a moderate crimp.
The balls are in firm contact with each other as the secound one seated pushes the first deeper in the case.

Dave C.

[thumb bum]

This place is great! I've gotta try this.

[NSP64]

I got good results loading 2- 30 cal round balls over a cardboard spacer, 2.0 gr of 231 with a .360 cal ball crimped at the equator. I got 4" spread at 6'.

[dudel]

I take round ball, squash them a bit in a press, give them a bit of Lee ALOX, then run them through the .358 Lee sizer, and a last bit of Lee Alox. That gives me something that looks a bit like an aspirin. I can load two of them into a .38 spl case (and I suspect three in a 357 Mag case; but not tried that yet). Not a lot of powder. Running them through the sizer gives them a bit of bearing surface.

Results aren't too bad. Lots of stuff written up on multi projectile rounds. Not a fast process, don't plan on making them on a progressive. I find making .38spl shotshells easier.

[DLCTEX]

I use .375 balls sized. 359 lubed with Aloxand one ball seated over 3 gr. BE.

[Harter66]

I have an aircraft rivet squeezer and sqashed 00B to 360 sized to 358 and loaded 3 in both 38 and 357 and 4 000B in 45 Colts . The Colts would put 3 in a 3'' triangle and the 4th 5'' out at 30' . I lubed in the gaps/shoulders w/Darrs.

1 might pop for 1 of the 380 moulds.

[Lever-man]

I've loaded .360 RB in 38 and 357 cases using 3 grs of BE, crimped at the equator, no lube. Fun load to shoot in my Ruger SP101 357 mag. very accurate load at 15 paces, but for some reason it shoot about an inch to the right compared to my 125 gr semi-wadcutter loads, loaded with 6 grs of Unique. I was using a Crimson trace sight and at 15 paces it would shoot one ragged hole with the .360 RB. Just had to remember to put the laser spot about an inch to the right of where I wanted to hit.

[Texantothecore]

The .38 was a black powder round and you just fill the case, push the ball halfway in and crimp. It should work well.

[beagle]

Look on Castpics/Articles by members/Round Ball Loads and it tells how to make 'em. I load lots of 2 ball loads in the .38 Special. One of my favorite loads./beagle

[Bored1]

Look on Castpics/Articles by members/Round Ball Loads and it tells how to make 'em. I load lots of 2 ball loads in the .38 Special. One of my favorite loads./beagle

Anyone find this? Attempted to find it and couldn't?

[bangerjim]

Got my 000 shot mold (.360) today. Am going to try casting some, PC as cast, and then size to 358. Probably leave the 2 balls connected.....if they will squeeze thru the die that way?!?!?!?

Will have to do some measuring down in the case to see where the 1st ball is at and may use a bit of Dacron wadding. Planning on using about 2.5gn of TightGroup for starters.

Just playing around! After reading several threads on here both new and old (2010), there are a lot of combos of balls and powders people play with. Looks I may be the 1st to try PC and no grease on the end?

bangerjim

[bangerjim]

Well...........the 1st step is done. Fired up the 4-20 and brewed up some 9.5bhn soup to make 000 shot. With an 18 cavity mold, it goes VERY fast!

95880

Now to coat them and size down to 38 cal.

Will try both ES and DT to see which one is easiest and bestest!

I plan to keep some for loading in my 410 shells also.

If there was ever a reason to use pressure casting, this is it! That 6 hole Lee mold has gotten some nasty comments about not filling. I preheated it, stuck the pot spigot into the sprue holes and the 1st drop was perfect and shiny!

banger

[Michael J. Spangler]

Nice work man! I need one of the 18 cavity mold. Add it to my long list.
If you're going to try a single ball load try seating the ball all the way down on the powder. I tried dacron and a heavy crimp with no luck with a single ball load. I bet you could get it to work with 1 grain of powder if you pushed the ball all the way in the case.
Some guys on the forum had luck with that method in 45/70 round ball loads.
They said it worked great, consistent velocities great accuracy and no more noise than when it was crimped into the mouth of the case.

[bangerjim]

Tried 12 of the 3-ball ones with HF red DT. Coated beautifully (one coat) but when sizing, the 3rd ball tends to get catty-whompus and the powder is scraped off the sides! Just where we WANT the PC to be.

So, 2-balls is the max to push thru at a time. Single balls go thru no problem.

Now to load some and make 'em fly.

banger

[happie2shoot]

Anyone find this? Attempted to find it and couldn't?

http://www.castpics.net/LoadData/Round%20Ball%20Loads.pdf

[Michael J. Spangler]

Loaded about 50 tonight.
Double balls coated in hi tek over 2.5 grains of clays. I'll update you all when I shoot them.

[retread]

This has got me intrigued. I have a two cavity 36 cal mold for my Colt Navy C&B. One cavity is round ball and the other is sabot. Gotta try both. PC sounds like the lube answer to me.

[Old Dawg]

I use a .360 diameter HTWW ball seated directly on top of a charge of 3 grains Red Dot. I tumble lube them with JPW as much to keep them from oxidizing in storage as anything.

[tacotime]

Good fun, thanks for the info...

What about loading a single 000 Buckshot pellet being about 70 grains? Any ideas on the charge of Bullseye, 231 or Unique?

And what pros and cons of the various possible one ball seating depths? Seems like the ball would be more stable if loaded at the mouth with the crimp right ahead of it. Seems like a ball sitting further in the case body with no crimp right ahead of it would be more likely to creep forward. I think I will avoid using any fillers.

What about a little bore butter over the ball?

[SSGOldfart]

Loaded about 50 tonight.
Double balls coated in hi tek over 2.5 grains of clays. I'll update you all when I shoot them.
Well how did it go????

[beagle]

http://www.castpics.net/LoadData/Round%20Ball%20Loads.pdf

Here's the address for the castpics article./beagle

[Michael J. Spangler]

haven't shot them yet.
flu had me down for a few days. might be a week or two before i hit the range. that makes me sad to say it

[beagle]

Chambers easier with the radius of the round ball out of the case./beagle


Got my 000 shot mold (.360) today. Am going to try casting some, PC as cast, and then size to 358. Probably leave the 2 balls connected.....if they will squeeze thru the die that way?!?!?!?

Will have to do some measuring down in the case to see where the 1st ball is at and may use a bit of Dacron wadding. Planning on using about 2.5gn of TightGroup for starters.

Just playing around! After reading several threads on here both new and old (2010), there are a lot of combos of balls and powders people play with. Looks I may be the 1st to try PC and no grease on the end?

bangerjim

[bangerjim]

Shot about 50 of them this last weekend in my 38 snub nose and the Rossi 38/357 lever rifle.

Amazing little round. used 2g of Tightgroup with paper disk rammed down to the powder and loaded 2 balls and lightly crimped at the middle of the 2nd one. Relatively quiet and fairly accurate. 3-4" group at ~15' with revolver and same at 35+ ft with the lever.

Loaded just one with only 1.2g and it was almost as quite as a 22lr rifle. Will have to load some more at that lite load and try accuracies.

Nose of 2nd ball HAS to be out of the case 50% for lever gun or it will not cycle!

PC'd with one coat of DT HF red.

banger

[Michael J. Spangler]

hi-tek coating worked fabulous.
double round balls over a light change of clays shot to point of aim at 10 yards and grouped beautifully.
some shots would create one ragged hole but most would be separated by about 3/4" or so.
no leading at all as compared to the tumble lubed rounds. woohoo. time to load up a whole lot

[jjsharpshooter]

Gonna have to try this, been using speer shot shell capsules with 3 #1 buckshot in them, cast balls will be much cheaper.

[Michael J. Spangler]

Yeah a member here let me borrow a single cavity round ball mold.
Now that I've got it working well I need to cast some and ship his mold back.
Then I can order a lee buckshot mold and mass produce some.

Woohoo!

[Bored1]

Glad you guys are getting it to work!!! Now gotta track down a bunch of round balls to give this a go. Was just talking about this yesterday afternoon on the way home from the range!

[bangerjim]

Yeah a member here let me borrow a single cavity round ball mold.
Now that I've got it working well I need to cast some and ship his mold back.
Then I can order a lee buckshot mold and mass produce some.

Woohoo!

The Lee 18 banger shot mold is the only way to go! I leave 2 balls connected and DT powder coat/load them. The extra balls I keep for 410 loads in the future.

You could load individuals, but you need to juggle them around to align the reduced .358 size in the case or you will scrape off the coating. And the double ball connected load keeps the 38 cal sizing in line going down the barrel!

banger