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Hornady .535" round ball users

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Frontier's

Buckskins & Black Powder
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Do your balls have this manure center line? This edge is very noticeable and will make loading them more difficult to center up.

Always wanted to try the 535s before buying the mold, and it seems I got taken.
 

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If you have a micrometer , just for $hits and giggles , measure one of the balls at it's most profound excursions from .535 , record the excursions , and see what Hornady says. Keep one balls for a sample. Could this error be due to the "New Generation's" lack luster ability to perform even simple tasks?:dunno:
 
I have several packets of Hornady swaged .495 and .535 round balls which are about 15 years old , no swage lines but they are now showing a white crust in places , Lead Oxide? , which I have been unable to shift by tumbling them in a Lyman case polisher .
 
I haven't seen that, but IMO Hornady RB quality and consistency is in the ditch. I've found material diameter, weight, and roundness differences. My daughter had gotten me a bunch of boxes for Christmas a couple years ago and when they are gone I'll stick with only my own molded ball. I may even just throw the last couple boxes in the melting pot and be done with them.
 
Irregular pressing I suppose. I've seen a few like this in my boxes. I throw them in the recast pile for the next time I set up the casting furnace.
 
Do your balls have this manure center line? This edge is very noticeable and will make loading them more difficult to center up.

Always wanted to try the 535s before buying the mold, and it seems I got taken.
I have sed dozens of boxes of Hornady .535 balls and have never seen anything like that. Could be this administration has some federal observers in the production facility…
 
Is there a chance someone replaced the original balls in the box with self poured round balls?

Could be Hornady needs too look into their quality control department…
Equipment does wear out with time and use…
 
A guy sent me a mold that cast really lopsided balls on a trade one time, I was really bummed about being taken, when I found this out time had passed and I couldn't remember who sent me the bad mold.

I will be danged; those lopsided balls shoot as good or better than the .535 balls I shoot that I cast out of a Lee mold. The lopsided ones are .526 on one side and .535 on the other.

Shoot a few of those balls, you might be surprised.
 
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If you have a micrometer , just for $hits and giggles , measure one of the balls at it's most profound excursions from .535 , record the excursions , and see what Hornady says. Keep one balls for a sample. Could this error be due to the "New Generation's" lack luster ability to perform even simple tasks?:dunno:

Wonder how they weigh out too.

Both of the Corbin brothers said that round balls are the most difficult form to swage consistently.
 
Do your balls have this manure center line? This edge is very noticeable and will make loading them more difficult to center up.

Always wanted to try the 535s before buying the mold, and it seems I got taken.


So, I bought some roundballs off ebay.

They had an actual keel. I never saw anything like it before or since.


I tried them anyway, before melting them down and recasting.

They worked great.


You might shoot them and see if it actually affects anything.


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I'm astounded at how folks say these funky , odd , strange , and misshaped , balls can shoot accurately. Goes against so much common knowledge. Really doesn't matter to me. Wish this had happened to me when I was young , so I could have experimented , and found a new and amazing accuracy solution. Now I have to go to my collection of stuff, and find an old "Dixie , Turner Kirklin" , hair curling iron , bullet mold , that might cast an odd , misshaped ball , and take some out to try. Can almost guarantee , my accuracy will be just as poor , w/ or w/o, messed up balls.........oldwood ;)
 
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