!2 ga round ball mold

I have read the glowing results about round balls in fully rifled shotguns and I think I would like to try them. I have looked around but Lyman and MP says they don't have any and don't anticipate making any very soon, evidently. My Hastings barrel slugs .728 and the general opinion is to use the largest ball I can find, which seems to be a .735. I will roll crimp and have a good bit of Unique powder. Does anybody know of a maker that has or will make a .735 mold. Is there a down side to a .732 mold? I have seen Petander's results and they have lit me up!

This is the wrong forum, but I'll answer anyway.

There really isn't a huge downside to a .732" ball. There's no advantage either. That's one of the beauties of a ball is that nothing really matters. I've tried .732", .735", .737", and .743". Size does not seem to be a factor at all, as long as it is bigger than your barrel. I recommend .735" since it is bigger than just about any 12 gauge barrel, but still plenty small you will never run into any feeding problems, plus .735" is a standard size. My current favorite mold is a 4 cavity from Marty's Arms, but they are expensive. I recommend JT Ball molds, but they make them to cavity size. My .738" JT mold drops about .735".

I like Unique for a light load with these. I might even go as far as to say it is to date my favorite low recoil slug load I have ever tried. This is not a pressure tested load, but there is no way this is a dangerous load. Use at your own risk anyway.

12ga 2 3/4" Federal Gold Medal or Gen 3 Top Gun
Federal 209A
18gr Unique
X12X + stack of nitro cards (varies by card thickness, but about 4)
scoop of buffer under ball (I used Lee 0.7cc of PSB buffer)
.735" ball
fold crimp

1000 fps

2 deer killed to date by my brother with this load, rather impressive performance for such light recoil.

Thanks for the info. Is there a way to relocate this to the right forum?

I’ve been messing with roundballs in choked smoothbore guns for a couple years now . Mostly in the 8 gauge . I’ve ordered three from Tanner Molds in the UK the rest have been Lee molds .

mruf205. There is an old thread of mine from 12/7/16 over on "casting & loading for shotguns", in which I lay out my particular venture into using round balls in a shotgun. I used a Jeff Tanner mold (and his company is still in business to make custom round ball molds) to make my .702 round balls. If I were to do it again, I'd probably get a .700 or a .698 just to see if it was any better. Never wanted to invest any more in molds, so I've stuck with my original and have been very satisfied with it. The primary concept I had was to get a RB in a plastic petal type wad (we called 'em power pistons when I was a kid) and have the projectile "package" run tight against the walls of the barrel to center it as it ran out of the barrel. Being tight, I hoped it would be consistent. And it sure is! I get very good accuracy and stunning terminal effects from my home brew. The old thread has pictures and details you may enjoy looking over.

PS: I shoot these from cylinder bores. One a Hastings Heavy rifled 12 ga on an 870, and the other on an H&R 10 ga blank machined to a 12 ga. Would not recommend for a barrel that is choked to any degree.

I will look for that post. I have some Hammerhead slugs and 2-34" primed hulls along with some hi pressure sabots for 50 cal that I loaded with a Lee 50 cast boolit but I never got the accuracy I was looking for even with a Kahles 3x9 scope.Attachment 300302Attachment 300303Attachment 300302Attachment 300303[ATTACH=CONFIG]300304[/ATTACH
I guess I got spoiled by the 2 3/4" BRI winchester factory slugs that shot 1 1/2" from my gun

725, I found the post from 2016 and sure enough, there's a lot to digest, many thanks. Your post where you stated that the round ball might strip the rifling due to small engagement points is well taken and is a question that has been in the back of my mind since I became interested in RB. 6 yrs later, do you still subscribe to that? Your success with wads makes me think that I should try some different components before jumping into the RB loads and buying a mold.

Yep. I think a naked ball will strip the rifling if pushed at all. I'm sure some spin will be induced but I think it will be negligible. I found a combo that won't mess the petals up as the load goes down the barrel, centers the load in the barrel, and imparts a spin sufficient for accuracy. Just a little more powder and the petals show consistent damage and accuracy fails. I have settled on 32 grains of Blue Dot which is mild by book standards. It does produce a fine hunting load for me. !! and I never have to buy slugs again !! Again this is a safe load for my equipment and I've never seen yours so I can comment on it's use for you. I shoot a cylinder bore with this load. Any choke at all will be a problem. I think my basic concept of a tight ball in the barrel is the way to go to craft accurate loads. Experiment carefully & safely. Shorten the hulls so when they are fully opened by the ball running out, the end of the hull isn't "pinched" where the barrel narrows after the chamber. I fold crimp and don't like the idea of a card over the load. Check all this with a good load manual before you move forward. good luck.

Nonsense. I can show you a .735" ball that left the barrel about 1350 fps, and it has very clear rifling marks. It hit what I was aiming at too.

I agree with Mega on this too.^^^ The original ball and shot guns of English manufacture, called Paradox guns only had 2" of rifling in them and were accurate enough at 50 yards to take everything they were aimed at. 8,10,and 12 bore guns were the most common but guns as big as 4 bore were also used. That is a 4 ounce ball driven by a lot of black powder, which would knock down a Brontosaurus !!!

A .735 ball going thru a rifled choke tube will have about a .25-.300 wide ring around the circumference that has the rifling in it.

Everyone talks about stripping the rifling. I doesn't happen. The only way thru rifling is to spin... if it didn't spin it would shear that ring off the ball completely and the ball would be about .725 in that ring and .735 on the long axis.

Randy.

So the better "bite" of the rifling is the reason for .735 balls, right. How hard so you cast them? I would think they would perform pretty well cast soft, maybe BHN 9-11? .728 swallowing a .735 ball is going to give quite a bit of engagement of the rifling.

Yes Murf, the engagement is about the thickness of a hair on either side. or @.004 on each side. Just about any hardness will go thru the hole but the choke tube will wear faster with harder material. I think wheel weights would be fine.

MEGA: can you post a pic of that ball so everyone can see what they look like when fired thru rifling? It would put a lot of the speculation to rest.

Randy

I use a .690 RB in a wad,has good results.