Hornady vs Speer ball quality?

I've been asked about the quality and consistency of Hornady and Speer swaged roundballs. I don't know as I cast most of mine now.

I've mostly shot Hornady to this point, some recently, but not Speer.

Anybody have insight? Is one brand just as good as the other?

Thanks, Skychief

I cant see any difference in shooting them. I like Speer better just because they come in a plastics boxes that I can use for different things.

Is one brand just as good as the other?

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Yep.
More better, start casting yer own.

I use Hornady and Speer interchangeably......both have head many squirrels. Swaged RBs have been criticized by some who cast their own.....I used to cast many yrs ago, but the swaged RBs replaced the cast w/o any loss of accuracy and both brands yield excellent accuracy......Fred

juice jaws said:

I like Speer better just because they come in a plastics boxes that I can use for different things.

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That's the biggest difference I've found on forays into the swaged world. My rifles just don't care, but the plastic Speer boxes last longer than the cardboard boxes from Hornady.

My balls don't last long enough for a paper box to wear out.

Both work as good if the size is the same. I have never had a problem with either even though the internet guys have.

Hard to mess up a swaged ball in fact I remember when you could buy dies to swage your own from Dixie.

I learned to cast and then never looked back unless I got a deal on swaged at Wal-Mart end of the hunting season. .530 balls at $2.00 a hundred I will not cast any but buy all I can get.

I also have access to many unmentionable bullet plastic boxes" I do however use more plastic "I can't believe its butter" boxes that work as well holding many more balls each.

Thanks all....Will pass this along.

Best regards, Skychief

More better, start casting yer own.

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Another vote for cast over swaged, and I've killed many deer with swaged. I've switched over to cast since I started seeing too much variance.

LD

Loyalist Dave said:

More better, start casting yer own.

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Another vote for cast over swaged, and I've killed many deer with swaged. I've switched over to cast since I started seeing too much variance.

LD

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:metoo: I was amazed that there WAS a variance until I weighed them myself. I cast my own and weigh each one that goes down my barrel.

The weight variation in Hornady's and Speer's swaged balls is something I've never figured out.

The same companies that make these swaged balls make bullets for rifles and handguns and I've weighed a lot of them just out of curiosity.

I found that swaged, jacketed, pistol bullets and rifle bullets made by Hornady and Speer usually don't vary in weight over 1 grain. :hmm:

I have weighed a lot of cast and Hornaday balls, the variance is no worse with either. Once in a while I find something 2 or 3 grains "off", that is why I weigh them. It really is no big deal.

Michael

Used them both, mainly Hornady, and both are excellent. Only reason I prefer Hornady is I can buy them locally. Also used Traditions .490 round balls and they shoot true as well.

My favorite cast ball container.

I accumulate more empty pill bottles every month than I could ever use. But, the bigger ones are what I use for storing cast balls.

So.. at the risk of potentially missguiding this post, can someone tell me what a "swagged" ball is?
I gather it is a different process of making lead balls other than casting them, but after that, I'm stumped?

Please forgive if my question is out of line for this post..

Swagging uses pressure to form the ball at room temp.

A little more explanation about swaging:

Like casting, it needs a mold, normally called a die in swaging.
Like a mold used for casting the die is split into two or more pieces and it has precision cavities machined into it.

A length of solid lead bar is cut and placed into the die cavities and the die is forced together with thousands of pounds of force.
This squeezes the piece of lead bar into the shape of the die cavity.

Because the process uses solid lead bars, there should be no voids in the resulting product and the product should be very uniform and exact in size.

Although this process seems like it would be slow, modern machines can produce over 200 parts (balls) a minute.

I've watched modern swaging machines in operation at full speed and the item being swaged looked like a river of parts flowing into the collection buckets.

Swaging isn't limited to lead either.
Even steel parts can be swaged.

Swaged balls have been around for a while. Wm. Blane, an Englishman traveling in this country in 1822, said:

"Another very ingenious machine forms musket-bullets by mere compression. There are two wheels of steel, the circumferences of which are pierced with small cups, each of sufficient size to contain half a musket-bullet. These cups are close to one another, and have at the bottom a very small hole to allow the escape of air, which would otherwise prevent the lead from completely filling the cavity. A small strip of lead, somewhat thicker than the diameter of a musket-bullet, is introduced between the circumferences of the wheels, which nearly touch one another, and which by revolving force it into the cups, from whence it afterwards falls out on the opposite side in the shape of complete spheres."

Spence

I've fired both, and noticed not one iota of difference. Granted I've not weighed them and all of that, but I am quite certain they are good enough from both manufacturers that I cant shoot as well as they are capable.

That said, I buy Speer almost exclusively anymore because they are usually a couple bucks cheaper where I buy my round ball at.

Thanks for this!