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.32 Cal and .315 mold

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FishDFly

69 Cal.
Joined
Nov 21, 2005
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Bassdog1 posted looking for .315 mold and that he could not find one for a year.

I checked all the places that I know and could not find one.

I always thought .315 balls were the standard for .32. If so, why does no one make a .315 mold. Am I wrong in my assumption?

You can buy .315 cast balls or a .311 mold.

If you take a .311 balls with .018 patching you get.347. If you take .315 balls with .015 patching you get .345. So a difference of .002, not a great amount.

Hornady 32 swaged balls are .315

Thought on molds.
 
Bassdod’s post also made me look and there are no .315 molds to be found. Lee has .311 double cavity molds (on sale right now for just under $20 at Midway). Could try playing with alloy to bring up diameter. From a practicality standpoint I have settled on #1-1/2 buckshot from Ballistic Products. $38 gets me 8 pounds (1280 balls). They are swaged out of a harder than pure lead alloy. Spec is .310 diameter, but the current container I have is running .311 to .316 (typical roundness variation of a single ball). They are very accurate out of my 32 Pedersoli at 30 yards.
 
Like SDSmif, I have been using Ballistic Products for .315 balls. Two of my .32's like the .311's dropped from the Lee mold with .015 patches, a CVA Grey Squirrel, and a 1845 Gibbons rifle. My Pedersoli Pennsylvania rifle likes the .315 with a .010 patch, and my T/C Renegade prefers a .320 ball with a .010 patch. I buy Hornaday 00 buck for the .320 balls. Each gun is different, and over time a larger ball may be called for as the rifling gets smoothed out.
 
I own 3 TC Cherokees in 32 and have tried many patch and ball combinations but two of them shoot a .315 ball better than a .310 by far. Patch and ball seems to be a dwindling sport and hard for most companies to justify tooling for such items. Such a shame cause it’s by far the most fun of all shooting sports in my opinion.
 
I have an ancient .313 Lee RB mold. Pretty much now relegated to casting buckshot for my assorted smoothbores. But back in the day, they worked great in my old Douglas barrelled .32 poboy. This was like 1979.
 
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