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I just ordered some Hornady .57 lead ball. I want to load - 4 - .57 in a 3 ½ 10 gauge. Does anyone have experience with such a load? Each .57 lead ball weighs 278 grains 1,112 grains total 2.54 oz. Does anyone have experience with other lead 2.5 oz. loads that might help? Thanks for the input, its appreciated.
10 Gauge
Are those made for muzzleloaders by chance? If so, those are pure lead and you may end up with a serious sidewall pressure issue from the soft lead smashing into each other.
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I agree with Trail. Those swaged RB's are pure lead and so soft you an finger nail cut them.
I would use WW. Maybe even test water dropped WW. With caliber .58 (and larger) you do not need expansion. But I know through "it happened" a 40-1 caliber 58 40-1 RB will penetrate two (2) does standing side by side snapping the near spine and full chest penetration the far doe. They were about 4-5 feet apart. Range about 25 yards on a very foggy morning.
you should talk to AJay first.... or... Hogtamer.... does not sound like a good thing to try with soft roundballs.
Load those balls in a wad for a 20 gauge. I loaded 2-ball (.610) in a steel wad for 12 ga. While it shot fine it pounded me so bad I quit. Could have cut back velocity a bit but found a single projectile to be much more effective. Launching 2.5 oz of lead at a decent velocity barely qualifies as a shoulder fired weapon! And remember the energy of each ball is diminished for every one you add. Welcome to the forum!
Thank you everyone for the advise. I'll have to reconsider my project. I really enjoy reading all these post, very informative.
A single round ball in a wad would probably do well, but fit is everything.
A Lee 69 call roundball mold is cheap. I have loaded two 69 cal roundballs in an SP10 over a decent charge of Blue Dot. I use a hardball alloy and towel drop the roundballs. The two balls weigh almost 2 1/4 oz. My son loves shooting these from an H&R 10ga turkey gun with a screw in cylinder choke. I personally wouldn't 'shoot this load.
BB
I've got a .562" double cavity mold I'd sell you for $15. You could cast them of a more suitable alloy. Pure lead would be safe, but they would be leaving the barrel shaped like coins. Not a good performer by any means. Water quenched wheel weights or similar is what you want. It's not nearly as common as 2 ounce loads, but there are 2 1/2 ounce and 2 3/4 ounce 10 gauge 3 1/2" data floating around. I think my BPI mighty 10 gauge manual has some. At one time there was even 3 ounce data, although that is likely taking things too far. You will likely want to go with the BPD 10 wad, and powder would almost certainly be Bluedot. Triball loads can be cool, but I think of them more of a slug than buckshot. They are devastating though.