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Cast ball tolerances

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Bushfire

45 Cal.
Joined
Jun 29, 2020
Messages
875
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Location
Australia
Wondering what peoples tolerances are when casting balls.

For my rifles I will accept +-1 grain from the desired weight. No reason other than I feel it reduces a variable I can control.

I've been doing the same for my smoothbore but I'm wondering whether it is really that necessary.

Back in the 1700s I can't imagine bag mould casting was that precise. Out to say 100 yards does a few grains here and there make a difference or was it just that they didn't have the ability/care to be precise then?
 
For me…my tolerances increase as calibre increases…when running ball for my .32 calibre, I want things to be very precise and reproducible. Everything from mass of projectiles, to grains of powder, and seating pressure when loading the ball.

Once you get out of the squirrel calibres…things get less squirrely and are much more forgiving in their performance. +/- a grain here or there isn’t going to have near the impact, as it would with the smaller calibres.

The great thing about being able to accurately shoot a .32 or .36, you will learn to pay attention to details, and they will make you much more consistent in your loading procedure.
 
Wondering what peoples tolerances are when casting balls.

For my rifles I will accept +-1 grain from the desired weight. No reason other than I feel it reduces a variable I can control.

I've been doing the same for my smoothbore but I'm wondering whether it is really that necessary.

Back in the 1700s I can't imagine bag mould casting was that precise. Out to say 100 yards does a few grains here and there make a difference or was it just that they didn't have the ability/care to be precise then?

For my rifles, I do weigh bullets but I shoot competition and care alot about accuracy. For my smoothbore, not so much.

Back in the day, weighing was only done by folks competition shooting so that part hasn't changed. If you're just plinking or some other casual shooting, it's really not necessary.
 
For my rifles, I do weigh bullets but I shoot competition and care alot about accuracy. For my smoothbore, not so much.

Back in the day, weighing was only done by folks competition shooting so that part hasn't changed. If you're just plinking or some other casual shooting, it's really not necessary.
No competition, don't really do plinking either. I just hunt.
 
I often cast round balls from Lyman 4-cavity molds. For the most part, they are surprisingly consistent from cavity to cavity. Nonetheless, I weigh every round ball I cast. I then sort them by weight. I keep, for competition, all that are within 1 grain of the heaviest. I keep, for practice and plinking, any that are down to 2 grains. I re-melt and cast any that are lighter than these, as they are either not fully filled out or may have voids. I like to cast, and the effort to have good, consistent, and accurate round balls is worth the effort for me. I find it relaxing and a better escape than any media (other than a good historical novel).

ADK Bigfoot
 
Back when I was doing serious 'X' hunting, my tolerance was only .1 grain. As I got away from the really serious stuff it went to 1.0 gr. Now, and for a number of years, if it comes out of the mold smooth and looking good, that is what I use. From experience, I am sure that when doing a long casting session there will probably be no more than about 3.0 grain variation from lightest to heaviest.
 
Having shot light bench competition Any ball within 2% is a keeper. My .500 ranged +/- 2%. on a 180 grain ball 3 grains up or down. Never had to cull as all went under 1 grain.

It took at least a difference of 5-6% to be seen on paper. Hunting you will not notice 10 grain differences. If it helps your mind of ocd or anal what ever floats your boat.
 
For 45 caliber and above I want the balls that weigh +/- 1.0 grain from the average. For 45 caliber and below, I keep +/- .5 grain from the average. I have found balls that I cast that sometimes vary as much as 3 grains +/- from the average. I experimented using the balls that fall within my average and those that vary 3 or more grains and found that the lighter balls tended to group about 2.5-3.0 inches high and right from the group of the average balls, and the heavier balls grouped as much as 4" low and left from the average group. That is why I weigh my cast balls, not just for target shooting but also for hunting. 3" from the point of aim will miss a squirrel, and could wound a deer. Add that 3" to the wiggles and wobbles of sight alignment and you introduce a big error. I want to reduce the errors as much as possible.
 
Since Monday, I took the time to weigh my most-recent run of .535" round balls. I kept all but the first 5-6 cast while the mould was warming up. Weight range was -.2gr/+.3gr, so a half-grain range. That's pretty much par, even on the big slugs I cast for some unmentionable rifles.

Some years back I had a run of flyers, so started checking the balls I cast. Some were about 5-7 grains under weight, but diameters were right on. It turned out I was getting voids due to the casting technique I was using--I wasn't leaving a big enough sprue, so when the lead contracted in cooling there wasn't enough molten lead in the sprue to be pulled into the ball. I got pretty serious about my technique after that, and haven't had a repeat of that problem. (Lots of other reasons for misses and flyers, but not that one!)
 
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