Ball-mouse

Can anyone help with a photo of a ball-mouse? I make stuff for the guys in the club when they can't find it anywhere. One of them ask me for a .50 cal. ball-mouse and I'm not sure what he's talking about. Says it's half moon shaped and that you have to work the ball a little to get it to drop out. Got a loop on the other end to tie a strap on. I've seen a lot of ball bags, but I'm just not familiar with his terminology and wondered if it was a special type of bag. ::

 

[Stumpkiller]

Shot snake, yes. Ball mouse . . . no. (But I'm sure you'll get at least one image of a logitech roller mouse)

Can't think of anything I've seen that matches your description. I've seen ball bags that have a very hard piece of harness leather (like 12 oz) on either side of the neck opening so that squeezing the neck would let the balls out one at a time and it was stiff enough to seal itself, but even these get loose after time and would spill balls if hung upside down. I think it was CVA that offered one similar to the above but with a strip of spring steel in the leather on either side of the neck that would work, but if upside down it would still dump them all.

I have a bag I made with a tight neck and a doubled over 'ear' of leather on either side of the neck. By lacing a leather thong through small holes in the ears and adjusting the fit I can make the balls slid through loose, a friction fit, or close it off tight.

My favorite is just a simple, very thin soft deerskin pouch with a draw strap run through slits around the mouth that closes under it's own weight but opens easily with thumb and forefinger - allowing me to pluck one ball and just let the rest drop and close the bag again. Simple. I sometimes wear it around my neck or looped and wound over my belt.

 

Finally found a photo of a Ball Mouse. :shocking: ::

 

[Myra lou]

ooooooh........looks like 'golden' Remington balls.......must shoot really good......... :winking:

 

[Stumpkiller]

Well the pattern certainly ought to be easy to cypher out.

I once saw a vey slick set-up for carrying balls. A fellow had a powder horn with a revolving wheel - like a very short Colt cylinder - sandwiched inside the end cap. The acorn for hanging it was a bolt or screw that held the domed cap over this cylinder, on through into the plug. The dome had a single hole at the bottom. To get a ball he cupped his hand under the horn and rotated the cylinder until a ball dropped out the hole. Held six or seven balls is all, but with the little folded and sewed 'book' of patch cloth attached to the other end of the strap he had six shots just by grabbing the horn and the gun. I have no idea if it was a modern invention or a copy of an old original, but it was damned clever and, unless you looked close, appeared to be a regular horn .

 

What's next??
A "Ball Mouse" and a "revolving horn".hmm'
I think they say "kewl" now adays.
hmm',grunt',,must be all the "rage" out east.,,
Keep me posted fellers,,think I'll just go shootin,,,,,

Got flint?

 

[Zonie]

Ah'm a thinkin ole Mooskeetman would hav ta hav a "Ball Rat" ta hold em big ol .75s his Bess shoots. ::

 

[Deadeye]

I kinda like your mouse, might make me up some of those.
Here's one you may not have seen before. Hangs on your belt.
Push in on the rod on the left and a .54 cal. ball drops out the bottom into your hand. Made it myself.