Round balls?

[sukivel]

I see alot of guys selling and buying round ball moulds on the site. I always thought they were just for muzzleloaders, can they be loaded for anything else?

Seems to be more guys with round ball moulds than muzzleloaders...


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[rancher1913]

pumpkin balls in shotguns, three ball loads, etc, etc.

[beagle]

They make nice light plinking/gallery loads in both rifles and handguns. I load a 2 ball .38 Special load that's great for in house protection where max penetration is not desired. Good for slogging bores. No end of uses if you use your imaginations./beagle

[NoZombies]

And slingshot ammo..

[tigweldit]

+1 on that slingshot ammo. .40-.45 lead round ball can be devastating from a slingshot. .410 round ball WW work very well with a light charge in my .41 mags for gallery loads (indoor) at 30-40 feet.

[WRideout]

Just for fun I load a .30 cal RB in my 7.62 Russian Nagant revolver over 2.0 gr Red dot. It's about like a 22LR, and actually fairly accurate. Someday I may use the round balls to experiment with a buckshot load in my 12 ga.

Wayne

[yeahbub]

A .440-.450 RB cast of WW over a card wad and lube cookie and a few grains of Trail Boss or something similar in a fired unsized case make good plinking and vermin ammo. Drop the ball on the case mouth and seat it .010-.020" deep, but not so much that it bells the mouth to the point it won't chamber. If you go too far, run them up into the size die just a bit to straighten them some. They'll have a goodly wedding band of engagement after they size down on firing. The same holds true for a .375-.380 RB in a .357 mag. Chambers for rimmed rounds typically have a tapered end to the chamber which sizes them down very well.

Another trick is pushing WW .490 RBs through a .452 sizer and loading these in .45 ACP over a card wad and lube cookie. The weight is 180gr or so, and with the right OAL, they feed reliably and are accurate. Might want to size them within 24 hours of casting while they're still soft.

[BigBore45]

I load 1 and 2 ball loads in 45 colt with black powder and trailboss. Fun to shoot, good for rabbit.

[Jack Stanley]

I used to load a .314" into a .308 Winchester case with a minimal charge of Bullseye for removing squirrels form the limb they were hiding behind .

.729" worked good in shotgun loads .

Jack

[big bore 99]

I've used them in 45-70 with very light loads of unique. Sounds like a cap gun and very accurate at 50 ft and still have enough power to go thru a tin can.

[Texas by God]

A #1 buckshot works good in .30 cal.

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[W.R.Buchanan]

Pumpkin Ball loads for shotguns are a great way to get excellent performance from Reduced Recoil Loads. Or you can run them hot too.

I load .69 caliber round balls in my Standard Trap loads with a 1/4" thick felt wad in the base of the shot cup.

These are @ 425 gr running at about 1100fps and are very accurate out to 75 yards and can easily hit a man sized target at 100 with devastating results.

You need to keep in mind that the Large Round Lead Ball was the preferred firearm projectile for about 250-300 years. They must have worked or people wouldn't have kept using them.

Not saying they are as good as conical boolit, however they aren't that bad either if used within their range limitations.

If you were facing a line of British Regulars in the 18th Century at 50-75 yards you had cause to be really concerned. It took some pretty big cajones to face such a threat! The prospect of living thru such a volley of fire followed closely by another and another was pretty bleak. Those battle field tactics were the standard all the way to WWI ! and if you were "giving" the orders you were probably fine. However the troops took the brunt of the encounter and with casualty rates as high as 90%, desertion would have been my idea of valor.

The main difference between then and now is shotguns can fire many rounds in short order. Not like you have to take 20-30 seconds to reload. You just pump the fore end and let fly again. Once the magazine is empty you port load until there is a lull in the action or you are safely behind cover and you can tactical Reload the gun. Rinse and repeat as necessary.

A good place to see running a shotgun efficiently is to go to a Cowboy Action match and watch the guys shooting Pump guns. The good guys can get off 5 shots in less than 10 seconds.

Keep in mind that the Army's of the world had perfected the art of efficiently Killing People thousands of years ago. None of the weapons they used are any less effective today than they were 3000 years ago, and round balls were a relatively recent invention which worked really well compared to Crossbows with Bolts.

In todays shotguns a round ball is a pretty formidable projectile.

Randy

[Oklahoma Rebel]

how far were you for those head shots, that would have been ugly in real life, that's for sure!!! also, does the 690 cut the petals when it goes through the barrel? I have heard that 678 is better for wads, and 735 for non- petal type wads and cyl chokes

[Bookworm]

30 cal round ball over 3 grains Promo in a .30-30 is a hoot !

Accurate at 25yds, no recoil, almost no report, and bad juju for small game.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Rebel: Those shots were at 50 yards offhand in about 10-15 seconds. Gun was actually shooting to the left of POA about 1"-1.5".

I'll re-sight it in after it gets the Vang Comp Barrel work done and get it dead nutz at 50 yards and see how much hold over I'll need for 100 yards..

Rifle Sights are good for shooting slugs. Surprising how accurate these shotguns are.

Randy

[sukivel]

So...what’s the difference or why would I use round balls instead of light for caliber bullets? Wouldn’t they achieve the same thing? Or are balls more versatile somehow?


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[Bookworm]

Near as I can tell, round balls are the lightest one can get for caliber. Anything lighter would be like trying to seat an aspirin tablet in the case.

For example, the .311 round ball that I load into .30-30 cases weighs about 44 grains. 10% heavier than a .22 LR.
The 314-90-SWC is about double the weight.

Does that matter ? Maybe.

I load both, for fun, because I can. And, they are a ball to shoot.

[TAC14]

A three ball load in a 45-70 will keep all 3 in 6" at 50 yds. A lever action tool to clear an alley.

[sukivel]

Near as I can tell, round balls are the lightest one can get for caliber. Anything lighter would be like trying to seat an aspirin tablet in the case.

For example, the .311 round ball that I load into .30-30 cases weighs about 44 grains. 10% heavier than a .22 LR.
The 314-90-SWC is about double the weight.

Does that matter ? Maybe.

I load both, for fun, because I can. And, they are a ball to shoot.

Ok I got it...your example will be what I’m interested in first. A .311 ball


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[sukivel]

A three ball load in a 45-70 will keep all 3 in 6" at 50 yds. A lever action tool to clear an alley.

Now that is interesting. A .458 ball? Do you just use data for the combined weight of the 3 balls?


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[NavyVet1959]

Near as I can tell, round balls are the lightest one can get for caliber. Anything lighter would be like trying to seat an aspirin tablet in the case.

That's probably true with most bullet designs, but there are some "collar button" bullets that are slightly lighter.

http://i59.tinypic.com/15gt254.jpg

Lyman #427130
147 gr, 0.460"

That's about the same as it would be for a round ball, but some of the collar button bullets do not have the rounded nose and are more flat on top, so they will weigh less. Or you could hollow point it to get it to weigh less. Or you could go with a hollow base design and create basically a skirt around the base of the bullet.

The main advantage of round balls is that it doesn't matter if your bullet *tumbles*. :)

[RED BEAR]

I load 12 gauge with all different round balls punk in ball Buck and ball and don't mind experimenting with all different sizes.

[Bookworm]

Ok I got it...your example will be what I’m interested in first. A .311 ball

I went and checked my notes.

.311 ball, sized .311, rolled in 45-45-10 lube, seated into an unsized .30-30 case - sprue up or down.
2.2g Clays.
868fps in a 20" Mossberg .30-30. 34fps deviation, 75fps spread.

It'll hold 1" at 25 yds, iron sights. When i pull the trigger, it goes Pffft. I can hear it smack the cardboard. Then I giggle. Repeat until out of ammo.

I keep meaning to try 2.5g Clays, but according to my notes I haven't gotten to it yet.

[sharps4590]

Speer used to list round ball loads in their manual, for some cartridges.

[mdi]

I have a load for my .44 Magnums that uses a 432" ball over a dusting of Bullseye. I found a used 2 cavity mold that dropped 123-125 gr 432" balls (can't remember where I found it though). My first thought was to use the balls in my Wrist Rocket then I measured one and 44 Magnum being my favorite round, I rolled the balls in alox and loaded them up in Magnum brass (just below center and used a very light roll crimp). Very accurate in my Super Blackhawk; 1 1/2"-2" at 20-25 yds...

[AllanD]

I have percussion pistols and require three different sizes of round balls .451 for my big Colt, .440 with a patch for my pair of single shots and .310 for my "little Remington", but I also cast ,490RB for my Neighbor for his 50cal flinter.

[longbow]

I've run 0.440 RB's through a .434" sizer then loaded into .44 mag brass for my Marlin. They shoot pretty well at up to moderate velocities (about 10 grs. Unique) and little recoil or noise compared to heavier boolits and standard charges. Like shooting a .22 but makes MUCH bigger holes!