Round Ball: Hornady vs. Speer

[FallingCrows]

Happy New Year

Which one do you think is better at making .50 cal lead round ball: Hornady or Speer?

I realize some of you make your own, but I don't have that option so I have to buy my already made.

Coming this Spring I'm going to be shooting them out of my Lyman Deerstalker .50 cal (1:48/ 24" barrel) using 2f real black powder.

I uses to shoot T/C Maxi ball and hunter bullets, but because of poor grouping will be switching over to PRB.

thanks

 

[RADeO]

Happy New Year

Which one do you think is better at making .50 cal lead round ball: Hornady or Speer?

I realize some of you make your own, but I don't have that option so I have to buy my already made.

Coming this Spring I'm going to be shooting them out of my Lyman Deerstalker .50 cal (1:48/ 24" barrel) using 2f real black powder.

I uses to shoot T/C Maxi ball and hunter bullets, but because of poor grouping will be switching over to PRB.

thanks

I've used some of both over the years. In my experience the Hornadays always shot more accurately. Those from Speer were not as consistant in weight and size, and therefore not as accurate. All my shooting is done at targets, both paper and steel. YMMV.

Too bad you don't have the option to cast your own . You could save lots of ca$h money instead of using store-bought balls.

 

[redwing]

Is it the ball or is it the patch? Either one of these products will shoot just fine. Put the calipers on the balls. It matters not who made them. The main thing is is to get the right patch. Thats why the patched round balls is so forgiving you can adjust it with the patch. :thumbsup:

 

[luieb45]

I have never tried the speer balls but have tried hornady and cva. The cva ball is terribly oversized and is not pure lead when it says it is. The ball is like 2x as hard as hornadys and if you have to pull a load it is hard to drill into. Normally hornadys are the best ball and you can always trust a good quality product from them.

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

I use only Hornady's--if it ani't broke, don't fix it!

Maix's in the cold sometimes don't shoot well. I know this to be a fact in our league where no less than four of us tried to shoot them in the cold, and then I switched to PRB's the next month and won the match. Funny thing is that we were all shooting "tweeners" with 28 inch tubes, but the same bullet!

Dave

 

[Barney]

I've noticed some pretty good variance in the Speer balls also. Shot up what I had and stayed with Hornady. Did notice better grouping.

 

[Otter]

I used either/both when I first started shooting MLs - didn't notice any big difference between the two. I haven't used the "plated" ones, but my personal intuition says they would be good to be avoided. I cast my own now and am happy with the results over the last 15 or so years.

 

[necchi]

Speer, hands down.
actually got tired of both of'm, and the cost!!
Started casting my own,,one of the best moves I've made in years

 

[Idaho Ron]

I just ran a test on some old CVA 45 cal round balls. They were softer than the Hornady or speer RB. These balls are about 20 years old or more. Ron

 

[BrownBear]

Yeah, there's a difference. One box is yellow and the other is red.

I've never miked or weighed them, but for hunting loads I certainly don't notice any accuracy difference.

 

[roundball]

I started out with Hornady's...and also shot the occasional few boxes of Speer .440s and .490s whenever I'd run across them at a gun show at a good price.
Never noticed any difference and since Speers are always more expensive, just stayed with Hornadys all these years

 

[Vaino]

Have been shooting .530 and 535 Hornadys and found them to be very accurate. Also have 2 boxes of .530 Remingtons and the POI is the same as the Hornadys but don't know where to buy more. Really like the plating....no oxidation....Fred

 

[Snow on the Roof]

Put me in the camp of no difference. Red box, yellow box...green box never noticed any accuacy or performance variations :idunno:


John

 

[wvbuckbuster]

My nephew bought his two sons Lyman Deer Stalkers this fall and they both shot Hornady .490 rb with 70grs. Goex 3F using TC pillow ticking patch that was pre-lubed. If not casting I use the Hornadys.

 

[agill]

I've used both. I buy the least expensive box.

 

[mykeal]

Wow.

I bought Dutch Schoultz's accuracy system and started down the path. One of his tenants is that when shooting for accuracy you should only use balls that are within 1 gr of the heaviest in a batch - removes the effects of voids in the casting.

I measured and weighed 35 balls from a brand new box of 100 Hornady .530 round balls. The results were (all numbers in grains, weighed on a Lyman reloading balance scale):

Heaviest: 226.4
Lightest: 222.5
Average: 224.6
Standard Deviation: 1.0
No. of balls within 1 gr of 226.4: 11 (31%)

Those results are terribly inconsistent. That box of Hornady balls is unacceptable for accurate target shooting.

I then weighed 30 balls from a brand new box of 100 Speer .535 round balls. The results were:

Heaviest: 230.6
Lightest: 229.0
Average: 229.9
Standard Deviation: 0.4
No. of balls within 1 gr of 230.6: 24 (80%)

Those results are much, much better.

On the basis of those two boxes (yes, I realize one box does not a population make) Speer round balls are vastly superior to Hornady. But, that's only one box of each, and anyone can have a bad day. Perhaps this winter I'll have time to weigh some more and see if that result holds true over a larger sample; somehow I think they'll get closer together.

 

[Stumpkiller]

All I ever see are Hornady's and few of those on the shelves anymore. I haven't seen .54 offerred in years and years.

Usually cast my own now, but when I bought it was Hornady.

 

[necchi]

I bought Dutch Schoultz's accuracy system and started down the path.

+1,,My results exactly! And you can duplicate the same over and over and find the same conclusion.

There is the arguement of oburation of the ball at ignition and bore travel, that does have some merit IMO, and we can't deni that good shooters use hornady, but for box to box consistancy Speer is a higher quality.

Put away the mic and the scale and simply roll a hornady across the kitchen table with a flick of yer finger,,they don't act like something round.

 

[roundball]

"...roll a hornady across the kitchen table with a flick of yer finger,,they don't act like something round..."

It has to be remembered that a snug fitting PRB combo requiring a short starter will deform from whatever it was when you had in your hands prior to starting it...so not real sure of the validity of a "table top test".
:grin:

Plus, if Speer balls were better than Hornady, that fact would have emerged long ago as a given in the industry and be common knowledge among muzzleloader enthusiasts on forums like this all over the Internet.

But...thats never been the case...certainly not during the past 10-15 years I'm aware of.

 

[steve nagy]

I have only used Hornady and always been very happy with the performance of the swaged round ball.