sprued ball or swaged

I like and use the Lee round ball molds because they leave such a small sprue but often are hard to find so the sprue can be orientated more or less to top-dead-center when patching.
I have been trying rolling them for an hour or two in a tumbler with other sized lead ball and even ball bearing. It seems to iron them out so you can barely detect the sprue.
I'm wondering if it is necessary to even orientate them any more?
Even when I do they are seldom perfectly top dead center so this would seem to compromise the technique anyway.
I have shot lots of swaged Hornady's in competition and I can't see that they are any more accurate than my cast balls and imperfectly top-dead-center seated, sprued balls. MD

I may still look for the flat spot when loading but I don't think it makes any difference. Supposedly, any voids will be near the sprue and orienting it up will lessen it's affect. But I weigh my cast r/balls and throw any light ones in a practice box. GW

I need to start doing that as well for my competition loads.
I weigh all my black powder cartridge bullets but for some reason never have my muzzle loader balls.
Thank you, good idea! Md

This is one of those never ending arguments. I know people, and have read articles, about experiemnts with the sprue off center. Some of those tests 'prove' it makes no difference. Others have done similar tests and have 'proven' it does make a difference. I am careful to put sprue centered. Works for me.
At a competition this spring I used a rifle that had set in the safe for years. Not having any cast balls on hand I used Hornaday swaged. The rifle is an offhander, weighs 11 pounds and I whooped a couple of genuine bench rest rifles with it at 100 yards. Took first place.
BTW, your statement that Lee moulds are hard to get puzzles me. Everyone sells them, even the Lee company. I prefer to cast my own however and use mostly Lee because of their price compared to the nearly $100.00 Lyman moulds.

1776, I think MD meant that the sprue was hard to find on the balls cast in a Lee mould when he was trying to center them.

Yeah, that's what I was meaning to say. Lee molds are common enough and I have a lot of them for all my various sized round balls.
The point I was making is that there is no way to get them perfectly top-dead-center when doing so by hand as it is always an approximation so avoiding voids by weighing and rolling down the sprue would seem to promote more consistency than trying to center the tiny sprue by eye ball each time.MD

I'm just like you. Even though those Lee cast sprues nearly dissappear, I spend time trying to find the flat spot when loading. Sometimes I swear they are just gone. I've also wondered if tumbling them long enough would cancel out the need to orient the sprue to the top, but I just can't seem to break the habit. :surrender: The world may never know. Bill

Most important, is that all the balls weigh the same.
If there are any viods in the balls, it will show up on the weight.
If the sprue is at the center(centerish) while loading grouping will be consistant.
The problem arrises, when the flat of the sprue aligns on the rifeling, you will get variable conditions, resulting in poor groups.
Many shooters prefer cast over swaged, because of their consstancy.

If you dig out the end of the ramrod and put some epoxy putty in the void and then dead center a waxed ball with sprue in proper position-- you ought to end up with a ramroad tip that will keep the ball lined up correctly. PLUS you don't have to worry about a hard tip deforming the ball as it is seated.

If there is no sprue or a very small one I will use a small punch and make it bigger so I can be sure that the sprue is "up" and that way I will have the best accuracy possible based on many peoples opinions of the sprue placement and its importance for the best accuracy. :idunno: ........I see another sleeping dog :wink:

I always radius the tips of any ramrod or short starter that I make to prevent flatenning the ball when loading . I also "roll " my cast balls to remove the cast sprue. . Does this help? I think so or I would not do it! :idunno: :idunno:

ohio ramrod said:

I always radius the tips of any ramrod or short starter that I make to prevent flatenning the ball when loading . I also "roll " my cast balls to remove the cast sprue. . Does this help? I think so or I would not do it! :idunno: :idunno:

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Yep, concave tips are pretty common if not the norm.
I have found balls kept in leather pouches sorta 'self roll' and lose the sprues. However, for competition my balls are kept in plastic jars and I just load sprue up the old way.

Sprued ball or swaged who cares, I am looking for them to be in the right diameter and free. :redface: :shocked2: :grin: :haha: :rotf: :rotf: :rotf: :rotf: :rotf: :rotf:

Sorry I couldn't resist that!!!!!!!! :rotf:

I have an OLD Lyman .610 mold that the sprue looks like the base of a mountain. I don't roll them or cut them down, I load sprue up and they shoot fine. I sometimes think we make it to complicated, trying to fix something that's not broke.