ball roundness

i have ordered 3 round ball moulds from a custom mould maker and every single one of them is 4-5 thousands out of round. How much will this affect accuracy in my smooth bore. im shooting for score with this gun so need the best.

You might want to consider something like this:

https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/shout-out-to-forth-armoury.170431/

Respectfully, the best way to answer that question would be to try them. I’m not being a smart aleck… it’s just that if you are working up a load for serious target competition, that’s part of the process.

I would suggest that there may have been and may still be a lot of people shooting out-of-round balls without knowing it. Antique moulds were not always perfect.

Good luck with it! I think a lot of us would be interested in the results of your testing with these balls, so I hope you’ll re-post after trying them out.

Notchy Bob

i have tried them and im just wondering if it would improve if it was less out of round

Well my 20 gauge fowler was just mic'd out and its .616 one north to south, and east to west its .611 so barrels often are somewhat out of round too.

1861 Springfield said:

i have ordered 3 round ball moulds from a custom mould maker and every single one of them is 4-5 thousands out of round. How much will this affect accuracy in my smooth bore. im shooting for score with this gun so need the best.

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In a smoothbore, the out-of-roundness will have little effect. Accuracy will be improved by finding the wadding or patching loading methods along with the powder charge and using the same holding positions than the balls being slightly out of round.

1861 Springfield said:

i have ordered 3 round ball moulds from a custom mould maker and every single one of them is 4-5 thousands out of round. How much will this affect accuracy in my smooth bore. im shooting for score with this gun so need the best.

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Another thing you can do that my buddy who is very particular about accuracy. He puts the balls back in the mold rotating the ball in the mold numerous times and squeezing the mold tight. He swears it makes it more accurate in rifle shooting. I have never seen the need to go the extra effort. But it could fix any out of roundness issues if you use actual soft lead.

Bear in mind that cast balls will have a flat spot for the sprue, and some may have a slight nub at the gate where the molten lead was poured into the ball mold. Can't get much more of an out of round than that. The sprue is compensated for by loading with the sprue up and centered. Weigh the balls to have the same weight ball used for each shot and to eliminate the cavity that sometimes is drawn into the ball as the molten lead cools. Some will roll the freshly cast balls between two plates to smooth out the sprue. Some just take care to always load with the sprue up and centered in the bore, relying on the concave loading jag to smooth the sprue. And of course, with soft lead there is the factor of obturation as the ball is slightly compressed on firing to conform to the barrel within the patch. Since these balls are being fired in a smooth bored barrel, I don't think that the slight out-of-roundness will have significant effect.

Simple .. tumble them in a suitable tumbler ...

I believe if we all carefully measured the balls we are using we would find almost none of them perzactly round. Keep in mind, when we shove a prb down the bore we are smashing/mashing/distorting it into something other than a ROUND ball. Results that come out of that bore is what is important. Sometimes life is happier if one does not sweat the small stuff.

Flint62Smoothie said:

Simple .. tumble them in a suitable tumbler ...

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This. They did that back then.

Flint62Smoothie said:

Simple .. tumble them in a suitable tumbler ...

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If you don’t have a tumbler, put them in a container with enough room for them to roll around and place said container with the balls in it in the back of your vehicle. Your driving habits and mileage driven will determine how long it will take to smooth them up.

SDSmlf said:

If you don’t have a tumbler, put them in a container with enough room for them to roll around and place said container with the balls in it in the back of your vehicle. Your driving habits and mileage driven will determine how long it will take to smooth them up.

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i tried that last week while it didnt change much except make the balls slick

Accurate is a null term. An X, a deer chest, a gong, are all the same. Can you hit your target?
Any variation might upset an X shot, but that same won’t count to Bambi, and probably won’t effect a gong.
For my shooting a slight variation by off round ball won’t matter.
I doubt very many perfect ball make it down the tube

tenngun said:

Accurate is a null term. An X, a deer chest, a gong, are all the same. Can you hit your target?
Any variation might upset an X shot, but that same won’t count to Bambi, and probably won’t effect a gong.
For my shooting a slight variation by off round ball won’t matter.
I doubt very many perfect ball make it down the tube

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I shoot N-SSA not using this for hunting

1861 Springfield said:

I shoot N-SSA not using this for hunting

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Then you will have to experiment.
I understand some of them NSSA boys will outshoot me with a rifle
I hate them

tenngun said:

Then you will have to experiment.
I understand some of them NSSA boys will outshoot me with a rifle
I hate them

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yea they are serious lol

Put them in a coffee can install lid, and shake for a while.

Dave

1861 Springfield said:

I shoot N-SSA not using this for hunting

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You are absolutely welcome here, and your question is an interesting one for us to ponder. Thanks for bringing it up!

However, the N-SSA has a forum of its own, and they are serious about target accuracy. Maybe post your question there also. Chances are pretty good that somebody there has considered this topic before, and may be able to give you the information you seek.

If you conduct any carefully controlled experiments, though, comparing perfectly spherical balls to out-of-round balls, I would be interested in the results.

Are your three moulds for the same sized balls? What size are they supposed to be?

Notchy Bob

Notchy Bob said:

You are absolutely welcome here, and your question is an interesting one for us to ponder. Thanks for bringing it up!

However, the N-SSA has a forum of its own, and they are serious about target accuracy. Maybe post your question there also. Chances are pretty good that somebody there has considered this topic before, and may be able to give you the information you seek.

If you conduct any carefully controlled experiments, though, comparing perfectly spherical balls to out-of-round balls, I would be interested in the results.

Are your three moulds for the same sized balls? What size are they supposed to be?

Notchy Bob

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all 3 moulds are from tanner in london. 2 were supposed to be .684 but came in under size and OOR the other was .687 and OOR This page gets way more traffic than the NSSA so i asked here