Used .375 Hornady Swaged balls for years.Always Miked a few form new boxes. Never hd any problems.Same with .44. Not used any .535. Last bought 2021..
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Hornady .535" round ball users
- Thread starter Frontier's
- Start date
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Several posters have commented about surprising accuracy from these out-of-round psuedo-balls.
It would be interesting to shoot a few actual spheres and a few of the weirdo rounds a) in a smoothbore and then b) in a rifle.
I wonder if the accuracy despite irreularity is a result of gyroscopic stabilization and/or the "evening out" of forces as the projectile spins about an axis. (That's redundant, isn't it?) I speculate that, in the smoothbore, they'd be wildly inaccurate, but that the rifle would show better consistency btw rounds and not-so-rounds.
In other words, maybe it's just the inherent great improvement in accuracy brought about by rifling.
It would be interesting to shoot a few actual spheres and a few of the weirdo rounds a) in a smoothbore and then b) in a rifle.
I wonder if the accuracy despite irreularity is a result of gyroscopic stabilization and/or the "evening out" of forces as the projectile spins about an axis. (That's redundant, isn't it?) I speculate that, in the smoothbore, they'd be wildly inaccurate, but that the rifle would show better consistency btw rounds and not-so-rounds.
In other words, maybe it's just the inherent great improvement in accuracy brought about by rifling.
I've found Hornady swaged .54 caliber balls absolutely lacking in quality!
.54 Hawken Flintlock by Sharps Man, on Flickr
Five shots 75 yards
.54 Hawken Flintlock by Sharps Man, on FlickrFive shots 75 yards
But which size do they identify as??
longcruise
70 Cal.
I have a Lee mould that identifies as 530 but drops at 533.
That's the thing about roundball. They don't have to be perfect to shoot well. Those old timers making a few balls in the evening, after supper using a junky looking mold, knew that.
While shopping Midway today blemished .535 Speer roundball were offered at $16.99, a dollar less than the unblemished. I checked Hornady, most of the inventory appeared exhausted including .535, no blemished product was listed.
I'm not sure what blemished means when it comes to swaged lead roundballs unless it was packaging. I wonder if Hornady offered some blemished product for sale.
I'm not sure what blemished means when it comes to swaged lead roundballs unless it was packaging. I wonder if Hornady offered some blemished product for sale.
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The “round” ball isn’t very round once it is loaded. I imagine you re-swage the ball on loadingenough to make this sort of issue moot.
I've pulled and pushed out many round balls and they are still round.
Travis186
Full of mostly useless esoteric knowledge
Your eyes can't measure in a thousandth of an inch. They're not perfectly round anymore, and when they get slapped on the behind by BP they're definitely not going to be a ball when they exit the muzzle. Obturation.
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i have recovered many balls fired, struck cardboard, buried in snow, and still round enough to put in the mold they came out of and close tight. my ball/patch combination is such that any obturation would shred a patch.
Now, i will have to really pay attention and see if obturation is measurable. Sigh. used to be such a simple sport.
Travis186
Full of mostly useless esoteric knowledge
Whether you believe it's happening or not, it's happening. I can see if you're using small ball/thick patch where there is a chance it wouldn't be overly dramatic, but it is happening.
Was able to measure them and that line bumps them up to .540!
No…..because I use Hornady SWAGED RB!!
Good on Hornady, that's some top tier customer service right there .
Shoot a group with the worst of the "bad" ones and a group with the best of the "good" ones and report back; I'm curious of the results.
aussie pete
40 Cal
Hey Frontier. I'm going to go out on a limb here, but first, remember I'm from Australia, and things spin differently down here. We have a fellow at the club who doesn't like the look of sprues on his cast round balls (me, I just place the sprue up each time). What he does is place 100 freshly cast balls inside a sock, yep, you heard right, a sock. Then, holding onto each end of the sock, he runs the balls backwards and forwards for a few minutes while watching TV. Just running them back and forth, mind, not thumping them hard into each other - just let gravity and the balls do the work rubbing against each other. I couldn't believe it when he showed me, but hey presto, a few minutes and no sprue marks, lovely and round. Perhaps give that a go if you haven't sent them all back? Interesting stuff here hey? What a beaut forum!
Pete
aroshtr
32 Cal
I just received a couple boxes from Midway of the .535 hornady balls. Opened one box and they have a similar look to the ones frontier posted. The weird thing is the "ring" is not quite in the middle of the bullet. I also quickly tried rolling them round in a sock. It may have helped a little. I only did it for a minute or two. So might take a little longer to hide the "ring".
This belt measured .540" way too large for a patched ball in a 54cal.
