RB Sprue and accuracy

I bought some cast balls for my 45cal to shoot this rifle for the first time. I started going through the balls to gauge uniformity and found that very few have what I consider a nice sprue. I know to load them sprue up for best accuracy, but I’m curious if a globbed up sprue, or sprue that obviously ran down the ball, would affect accuracy. I really think I am going to start casting my own because I have had issue with every cast bullet and ball sold by this particular place. They don’t shoot well in my 50’s so I’d imagine the sprue might be the culprit. Hornady swaged balls are super accurate in my rifles so far but they get a bit costly after paying shipping. I’m just asking about the sprue for my own education and what to watch for when casting my own down the road, and sorting them now. I usually sort by weight for any serious shooting, but maybe I need to cull the balls with bad sprue also.
The ball on the left has a nice uniform sprue, the 3 on the right look like a mess. Not going to hurt to shoot them at paper, but I only imagine this may effect tight groupings, and since my goal for this rifle will be a downloaded PRB for grouse, hate and squirrel, accuracy is going to be a factor.

I have a Lee .62 caliber mould that virtually has no sprue. They are as accurate as my eyes will allow as far as 100 yards.

Ditto on the swaged balls. Put a few with poor sprues between to hard surfaces and roll them around. I’ve used two clipboards on a sturdy table, tv tray or whatever you have. Try to keep the pressure even. Roll a few and see how they do. Good luck and keep us posted.

ppg1949 said:

Ditto on the swaged balls. Put a few with poor sprues between to hard surfaces and roll them around. I’ve used two clipboards on a sturdy table, tv tray or whatever you have. Try to keep the pressure even. Roll a few and see how they do. Good luck and keep us posted.

Click to expand...

I tried swagged balls. I find their weights to be inconsonant. I weigh all my cast balls and reject the light one's. The same is said for swagged. Light balls likely have air pockets that cause unbalance in flight.

ppg1949 said:

Ditto on the swaged balls. Put a few with poor sprues between to hard surfaces and roll them around. I’ve used two clipboards on a sturdy table, tv tray or whatever you have. Try to keep the pressure even. Roll a few and see how they do. Good luck and keep us posted.

Click to expand...

I thought about that. I have yet to try it myself, but I don’t see what it would hurt.

ElkStalker said:

I thought about that. I have yet to try it myself, but I don’t see what it would hurt.

Click to expand...

It's best to roll the balls when they are still warm to iron out the sprues. I have been doing this for years using two pieces of aluminum in a tray that holds the balls while rolling them.

I get consistently better accuracy with my home cast (with sprue) roundballs than I do with swagged balls. That’s with half a dozen different rifles. Load sprue up, smack it with a short starter and no more sprue by the time it’s rammed home. That’s using pure soft lead. Those balls you have pictured are very poorly cast.

Swagged ball have a lot of voids in them. You need to weight them for serious target work. Inconsistency in shape of sprues is no problem, as a bullets flight is guided by the rear of the projectile. That is why you load sprue up.

TreeMan said:

I get consistently better accuracy with my home cast (with sprue) roundballs than I do with swagged balls. That’s with half a dozen different rifles. Load sprue up, smack it with a short starter and no more sprue by the time it’s rammed home. That’s using pure soft lead. Those balls you have pictured are very poorly cast.

Click to expand...

I thought the same. Unfortunately, as far as cast balls, I don’t have many options. I never see Speer balls on the shelf anymore. So it’s these or Hornady swaged. Have had good luck with Hornady but can’t always find them locally. I went to Cabelas last week and all they had were sabots. What a joke. I’ve purchased 50cal Maxi-balls from the same place and they were even worse than the balls. It’s looking more and more like the wise choice is to buy a pot and a few molds and enjoy the savings and pleasure of making my own.

waksupi said:

Swagged ball have a lot of voids in them. You need to weight them for serious target work. Inconsistency in shape of sprues is no problem, as a bullets flight is guided by the rear of the projectile. That is why you load sprue up.

Click to expand...

I will try them and see what I think. It’s all I have right now anyway.

I suspect your mold is the culprit, those balls look terrible.

ElkStalker said:

I thought the same. Unfortunately, as far as cast balls, I don’t have many options. I never see Speer balls on the shelf anymore. So it’s these or Hornady swaged. Have had good luck with Hornady but can’t always find them locally. I went to Cabelas last week and all they had were sabots. What a joke. I’ve purchased 50cal Maxi-balls from the same place and they were even worse than the balls. It’s looking more and more like the wise choice is to buy a pot and a few molds and enjoy the savings and pleasure of making my own.

Click to expand...

I just use an old $3 pot I got from a thrift store on my stove, a Lyman ladle and Lee or Tanner molds. You can buy an old pot, a ladle and a mold for less than 50 bucks. All you need is to round up some lead. I’d start by melting those horrendous cast balls you bought lol.

TreeMan said:

I just use an old $3 pot I got from a thrift store on my stove, a Lyman ladle and Lee or Tanner molds. You can buy an old pot, a ladle and a mold for less than 50 bucks. All you need is to round up some lead. I’d start by melting those horrendous cast balls you bought lol.

Click to expand...

No kidding! I have a good bit of Maxi-balls from the same place to go in that pot with the balls. Haha

@ElkStalker if you access to a rock tumbler or brass tumbler put your swag balls in and let them tumble. It will smooth them out.

david w said:

I have a Lee .62 caliber mould that virtually has no sprue. They are as accurate as my eyes will allow as far as 100 yards.

Click to expand...

True, I have a Lee .490" RB mould that makes balls with no sprue .I'm casting with melted down swagged balls at the moment.

TDM said:

@ElkStalker if you access to a rock tumbler or brass tumbler put your swag balls in and let them tumble. It will smooth them out.

Click to expand...

I have a brass tumbler, but it’s the vibrating style. Seams like I’d need something more like a ball mill to straighten these out. For the cost of these balls, I expected better quality. $16 paid for the bag which was 98 balls, I could cast 330 balls. It’s time to get set up. I’ll do it after Christmas.

Here is my favorite one of the bunch. It’s basically a sprue and the top 1/4 of a ball. But it’s the nicest sprue of the bunch. Lol. I’m sure it will shoot fine.

ElkStalker said:

I really think I am going to start casting my own,,

Click to expand...

Do that, As soon as you can.
Yes, there is investment, and Yes, there is a learning curve.
(if studied, it's a short one)
But it's the best way to eliminate those pesky variables. And save money.
The only regret I have about casting my own ball, is not starting 10yrs earlier! Truth.

necchi said:

Do that, As soon as you can.
Yes, there is investment, and Yes, there is a learning curve.
(if studied, it's a short one)
But it's the best way to eliminate those pesky variables. And save money.
The only regret I have about casting my own ball, is not starting 10yrs earlier! Truth.

Click to expand...

I’ve been saying I’m going to do it for years now. I guess my only concern, if it’s a concern, is that I will need to do my casting outdoors. I’m questioning if I will be able to maintain a proper temp with the furnace in our cold/wet climate. And that’s the other issue, we get a lot of wet weather which could be dangerous if a snow flake blows into the lead. I’m fairly confident that I’ll pick up on the casting part quite quick, it’s just the other variables that I question. I suppose I can cast a boat load during the warmer months so I won’t need to worry about the weather issues. I’ve read that you absolutely do. It want to cast indoors for health reasons, but then I see videos of guys casting in their closed shop without a fan all the time. Going it alone with all those little things have prevented me from getting started sooner.

If I had cast those I would throw em back in the pot and do em again