today i got out my side lock .448 1/28 twist muzzle loader to shoot my 6 inch circle gong at 35 yards. had severl 335 paperpatch bullets made up as it is a tack driver with these. they are sized to .338 with the paper on them. well as i always do i like to fire a fouling shot even with the 209 powder i use, andit has a shot gun primer nipple. i have a bunch of .445 swaged round ball i got from track of the wolf for another gun. i put 80 grains 209 powder down with a 60 thousands tight poly wad over it an carefully tapped the rounball into the barrel with out a patch. was tight but went down easy. in steasd of just shooting it off into the field i aimed at the 6 inch circle gone and hit it dead center. i was very surprised and did it several times in a row. their was not leading in the barrel and it was very accurate. i have a old discarded wheel barrel at about 25 yards out so i picked a spot on it and hit it in the exact spot i was shooting at. i done this about 12 time with no leading at all and one was just as accurate as another. so why do we use a patch if this works so good? i can see the tight poly wad protecting the roundball but you would think the ball would strip out. it has to be going at leaste 1700 ft. per sec. when we have our local shoot in a week or so im going to take that gun and shoot round ball at the 25 yard target as they dont accept a bullet. wow i still cant believe it. now i can shoot even cheaper at my gongs. also i set up some water filled milk jugs both gallon size and 1/2 gallon size and those roundballs blew them all apart at 30 yards dead center. any body else try roundballs with out patches?