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Attachment 323923Attachment 323924
I’ve discovered a 0.600” round ball fits snugly in a wad labeled Rex 24, sold by BPI. There are some ribs in the shot cup that keep it centered. It’s cushion section has more substance to resist total collapse vs a Winchester style wad. I’ll keep y’all updated on my progress.
Following.
Initially I put Precision Reloading spherical buffer in the loads. 0.7cc Lee dipper underneath and another 0.7cc on top with a home punched card wad. These loads fit well and crimped great. I twisted the ball down into the buffer to get it seated in the bottom of the shot cup. The spherical buffer acts like miniature ball bearings and reduced the “grip” of the ball and wad interface. The two wads I recovered are the best looking wads I’ve personally recovered from round ball loads.
Next I tried loads with no buffer. The fold crimp looked uglier and two recovered wads had holes pushed in the bottom of the shot cup. One recovered wad with a 20 gauge 1/8” felt wad in the bottom also had a hole with the felt pushed into the hole.
Next attempt will be with different buffers, preferably ones that aren’t as slippery.
Attachment 323949Attachment 323950
Here are the damaged wads from test loads without buffer. Felt wad pushed into the hole in one wad. My home cut overshot card pushed into the hole in another.
Attachment 323951
These wads were from the loads with Precision Spherical buffer. When looking closely, one can see imprint of the buffer in the wad similar to shot imprints.
there are dirt cheap fishing sinker molds that cast round balls..one of them sizes is spot on for the job described ..folk over here been using them for years as bail loads for pigs.
I always put a 20 ga. or 16 ga. nitro card wad into the shotcup then COW then the ball. Your buffer is likely better than COW as a cushion. If the wads hold up with the buffer alone that's good but you should try a nitro card wad in the bottom of the shotcup. With those ribs you may need smaller than 20 ga. nitro card wads though. 24 ga. might fit well.
Good round ball loads can be very accurate from smoothbore out to 50 yards at least.
Longbow
I once built a "Marble Launcher" for testing Painted Surfaces on a Navy Missile Launcher. It was basically cross between a Sling Shot and a Crossbow. It was powered by Surgical Tube and had a Track that had a "Car" on it, that was propelled by the Tubing. The launch was dead strait which is what we were going for. However the Car had a Center Drilled hole in the front face which held the ball in place and let go of it the exact same way every shot.
When I loaded my first .662 Round Balls I used a 1/4" thick Felt Wad in the base of the WAA 12 Clone Wad. This served the same purpose as Center Drilled hole by cradling the ball in the center of the Wad which was centered up in the bore when fired. As the ball was accelerated, it was pushed deeper into the Felt Wad which only centered it up better in the Wad. The result was Excellent Accuracy with a center mass hit on a Silhouette Chicken at 50 Meters on the first shot as well as a few more just for good measure. I didn't even have to change the sights!!!
At the time the gun was my 20" M500 with a Cylinder Bore Barrel with Rifle Sights. Later that gun delivered a 3" group on a Front Sight Target "Shooting Offhand" which I have posted here many times.
My whole point of this post is to make you aware that if a "Perfect Ball" (like a ball bearing) is launched perfectly strait, it will keep going strait until it's velocity decays enough to drop to the dirt. In space it would continue on the same line until it hit something! In the atmosphere it's Windage deviation will be Zero (unless the ball is not perfect like a ball bearing.) IE: the sprue will affect the flight of it due to airflow around the ball.. Even so it will still be close and if you can trim the Sprue down to where it blends with the rest of the ball you are on the right track. Typically what I do when I load balls is to place the Sprue on the front face of ball so you can see that it is centered up. That will yield the smallest deviation other than no sprue at all. At the distances associated with Round Ball shooting. ( 50-75 yards)
The results will be very acceptable.
Randy
https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...ads-for-10-y-o
This was something I tried near a dozen years ago. Used a PR TUPR orange wad cut down and a wad column built from an AA12 wad. Basically i/3 of a Dixie Slugs Tri Ball.
Thanks for sharing and including the link. I have some of those PR wads on hand. Did you use a 20 or 12 gauge card wad between the PR wad and cut petal AA wad?Quote:
Originally Posted by pipehand
I don't remember, but looking at the picture it does appear to be a 1/8" 12 gaige wad.
I use a .690 round ball. Suits my paper punching habit. Big Holes
What kind of wads are you using with the .690 ball? GWQuote:
Originally Posted by Jack Russel
I've been using a short collar strip cut from old shotshells to go around the ball, kinda works.
The buffer sounds like a good idea, thx.
What an excellent idea! Thank you!Quote:
Originally Posted by a.squibload
I have some 0.440” round balls I acquired in an auction and was trying to figure out ways to use them in 12 gauge. Buried in shot worked but is wasteful and recoil goes up with payload weight. Curling up paper is aggravating. BPI Teflon wraps are expensive if you’re gonna use several per load. I’ll have to try some inside a steel shot wad, and see how much it takes to fit?
Old shotshells are brilliant! Affordable, pre curled, thick yet pliable.
Attachment 326523
I did a baseline accuracy test today. 5 shot group at 40 yards. Roughly 3” when compared to the empty hull. No special effort was put into assembly. Used a 27 MEC bushing with TiteWad powder. The REX 24 wads again with psb buffer again. Hulls were cheap Winchester’s I got out of the trash.
I did however use a scope and sandbags on the bench. The wad and ball pushed through an ic choke with a little effort. I decided to go with cylinder bore for this test though.
That is looking pretty good! A nice simple load too.
In past shooting I found that with good loads it seemed that 3" to 4" groups out to 50 yards or so was not too hard to achieve. Beyond 50 yards groups start to open up "quickly" giving something like 6" tp 8" groups fairly dependably out to 70 yards or so but pretty random by 100 yards. My experienbce is with 0.662", 0.678" and 0.735" RB's.
It is hard to beat the good old round ball out to 50 yards or so though from smoothbore.
I got a 0.600" RB mould a while ago but have only loaded those up as double ball loads in 2 3/4" hulls. I am going to try this single 0.600" RB load though!
Thanks for posting.
Longbow
I’ve been pondering a double .600 ball load. The tri-ball is impressive! Maybe even excessive. Single .600 ball is nice. 44 mag carbine territory. I’d like some tips for your double ball recipe if you feel like sharing. Or have a link to an existing thread?
I intend to test past 40 yards. My back was hurting yesterday and didn’t feel like driving T-posts and moving the full size target...
I thought much the same about Tri-Ball. I am sure it would be a good load for a charging grizzley, tyrannosaurus or similar but a bit excessive for most things. A two ball 2 3/4" load seems more "practical".
I have not followed up yet but will eventually.
I think James Gates brought up a good point with the TUPRww123 wads for his Tri-Ball load. He said nothing else worked. The CSD wads I used were a fairly soft plastic and with quite uneven thickness petals and some with bubbles in them. Not a good quality wad but what I had. I am thinking I may try using some scrap hull cuttings to wrap the balls or cardboard/paper tubes with slits. I have to order everything in as there is no local shotgun reloading supplies. If I know what I want I don't mind ordering in but ordering random bags of wads to try isn't something I want to do.
Anyway, yes, I posted a thread back in 2019:
https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...-Two-Ball-Load
Probably not a lot of help as there is nothing new and exciting in the load. Aparently Blue Dot is not readily available and I am running low so I will have to find another powder for slugs when I get back to it. Longshot seem okay and maybe steel.
You might try PM'ing Blood Trail (Leon Guthrie) as he has done a lot of slug shooting and posting results. He has loaded Tri-Ball and will likely have some advice.
As for wads, James said the TUPRWW123 were the only wads to stand up to his Tri-Ball loads but for a two ball load and possibly less damaging to wads some other wad may work. The TUPRWW123 could be cut down for two balkl loads but they also make a smaller wad for 2 3/4" that might suit a two ball load:
https://www.precisionreloading.com/c...#!l=TUPR&i=W12
Likely any thick petal steel shot wads would be okay but I'd advise against using CSD wads though!
Now that you have posted good results with single 0.600" RB I am thinking that a double 0.600" RB load might be even nicer than double 0.662" RB's. It is much easier to find load data for 660 grs. than for almost 900 grs.
Good luck!
Longbow