Thinking about experimenting with double ball loads. I have never tried it am but curious to see the effect on bullet drop and accuracy. I searched the threads here and was unable to find any related discussion. Does anyone have experience?
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Double ball loads
- Thread starter Tom A Hawk
- Start date
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Comfortably_Numb
The Evil Mike Brooks
Bad Idea. I have had to rebarrel or reline several customers guns due to double balling.
Double ball loads are close range loads, generally not allowed for hunting and are at best kinda, sorta effective accuracy wise. It is an interesting station in a woods walk to try a double ball score. Often this is a tie breaker target since the score is mostly based on luck. The same applies to a buck and ball load.
In double ball load, you would patch easy ball individually and carefully load the gun to be sure both balls are seated on the powder at the breech. This is a difficult step and a separation will act like an obstructed bore and rung or burst barrels may result. For that reason, I discourage double ball loads. I don't forbid their use, but I do emphasize that care be used when loading a double ball.
In double ball load, you would patch easy ball individually and carefully load the gun to be sure both balls are seated on the powder at the breech. This is a difficult step and a separation will act like an obstructed bore and rung or burst barrels may result. For that reason, I discourage double ball loads. I don't forbid their use, but I do emphasize that care be used when loading a double ball.
Comfortably_Numb
The Evil Mike Brooks
When I experimented with it I found the second ball generally is with in 1 1/2 or so @ 50 yards.
arcticap
54 Cal.
It was fun to try it once as many folks have just to see how it prints on a target and to be able to say that I was able to try it safely.
Can't think of much use for it unless loading for self-defense, and even then it would probably be frowned upon by the legal authorities
in at least some states if ever actually used for that purpose.
Can't think of much use for it unless loading for self-defense, and even then it would probably be frowned upon by the legal authorities
in at least some states if ever actually used for that purpose.
The only reason I can see to using a double balls is if you are shooting line "Limited Time Fire" matches.
In these you have so many minutes to shoot 5 shots. If you know for sure you are going to run out of time to get the last shot off, need to shoot 2 balls, a pair of fives beats a single 5 on the target.
In these you have so many minutes to shoot 5 shots. If you know for sure you are going to run out of time to get the last shot off, need to shoot 2 balls, a pair of fives beats a single 5 on the target.
I made a short starter with a powder measure cut in it. And a ball board with seven spaces in it. Starting with a loaded gun I got eight shots fired in to the black at fifty yards in three min in forty seconds. That was loading from a horn and bag.
I primed, charged, started ball and ran home, aimed and fired.
Silly to load a primed gun.... yup. I would never do it again, but I was young and stupid. However with a little prep few events are so short you can’t get five shots in with out loading a dangerous load.
I primed, charged, started ball and ran home, aimed and fired.
Silly to load a primed gun.... yup. I would never do it again, but I was young and stupid. However with a little prep few events are so short you can’t get five shots in with out loading a dangerous load.
Herb
54 Cal.
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Tom A Hawk, I have experience with this subject and wrote about it on this forum. My friend Carole hunted mule deer but did not have the hand strength to reload her .50 Thompson Center for a follow up shot, if needed. She asked me to build her a .40 caliber rifle to her size and length of pull. She shot it well, but its 90 grain ball was not legal for deer in Utah, where the projectile weight must be at least 170 grains. I could not find (in 2004) a .40 caliber conical. A game warden friend, a muzzleloader hunter, suggested using double ball loads. I experimented with double ball loads in my own .40 caliber flintlock and learned how to use them. Carole then went on to kill a mule deer buck with her .40 caliber and a double ball load. The following threads explain all this: first go to http://muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showpost.php?post/1067920/. Then go to http://muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showpost.php?post/857645/. Those post should answer most questions on this subject.
Same amount of powder and two balls means each has half as much potential energy as a single ball.
Plan to fail and you have failed. One good shot is the way to go; with one round ball.
Plan to fail and you have failed. One good shot is the way to go; with one round ball.
In the beginning of Robinson Carosoe in order to be sure his guns a killer he loads five ball in his firelock.
I have done it often in my 45 smooth rifle.
Bare balled it works fine for me over the short distances I use the smoothrifle.
I separate the two balled with oiled leather wads.
Bare balled it works fine for me over the short distances I use the smoothrifle.
I separate the two balled with oiled leather wads.
drobs
32 Cal.
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More reading on the double ball load:
http://www.namlhunt.com/ml-doubleball.html
I tried it with my Lyman Great Plains 54 percussion rifle using patched round ball. They print right next to each other:
2 shots in the bullseye were single loaded. 25yd target was from my 1st go at shooting the gun. Lyman's manual recommends a 6 o'clock hold on the target. I found a center or mass hold on the target works a lot better.
Mutiple projectiles are against Missouri's deer season regulations - so no double ball load and deer for me.
http://www.namlhunt.com/ml-doubleball.html
I tried it with my Lyman Great Plains 54 percussion rifle using patched round ball. They print right next to each other:
2 shots in the bullseye were single loaded. 25yd target was from my 1st go at shooting the gun. Lyman's manual recommends a 6 o'clock hold on the target. I found a center or mass hold on the target works a lot better.
Mutiple projectiles are against Missouri's deer season regulations - so no double ball load and deer for me.
I'll just leave this here...
One should note, that data was dropped from the TC black powder manual a good long time ago
, ....and yes, it is generally illegal to use except for targets these days.The problem is that most states for muzzleloading hunting specify "a single projectile" for large game, while those that allow you to use a shotgun that is a muzzleloader and buckshot, would thus allow more than one projectile, they often limit that to a smoothbore..., so the folks with smooth rifles and fusils/fowlers would be OK, perhaps. Not the rifle shooters though.
LD
More reading on the double ball load:
http://www.namlhunt.com/ml-doubleball.html
I tried it with my Lyman Great Plains 54 percussion rifle using patched round ball. They print right next to each other:
2 shots in the bullseye were single loaded. 25yd target was from my 1st go at shooting the gun. Lyman's manual recommends a 6 o'clock hold on the target. I found a center or mass hold on the target works a lot better.
Mutiple projectiles are against Missouri's deer season regulations - so no double ball load and deer for me.
Wonder what your target would look like at 50, 75 and 100 yards?
That doesn’t look like a shot that will keep its accuracy over any range. At twenty five yards though your deer is sure to be deader then it would be from one single well placed ball.
Comfortably_Numb
The Evil Mike Brooks
In my experience the balls were only 1 1/2" apart at 50 yards. Never tried it past 50 yards.
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