Bare balls in the backwoods

[SDSmlf]

Had damp wads in a revolver for bit too long once. Ignited, kind of a slow bottle rocket type whoosh. Ball didn’t clear the barrel.

 

[Irishmusket]

The practice patching musket balls was not at all common and rarely done in the day.The practice patching musket balls is from the modern era people trying re invent the wheel .Muskets are not rifles their more related to cannon from which they evolved.The ball should be from .10 to .15 under 20 gauge should be a maximum ball dia of 60cal that is assuming that your 20 gauge .615 to .620 .starting load of 60 gr ffg real gun powder.Drop unpatched ball down barrel. place wading of tow Paper wading etc In muzzle and ram It down on top of the ball seating wading and ball firmly against the powder.The wad is now holding the ball against charge this is called the Tampion .When the powder is set off the explosion will surround the ball and push the ball out the barrel With Out The ball bouncing out the barrel This is the historically correct and best way to load a musket with ball

 

[Runewolf1973]

The practice patching musket balls was not at all common and rarely done in the day.The practice patching musket balls is from the modern era people trying re invent the wheel .Muskets are not rifles their more related to cannon from which they evolved.The ball should be from .10 to .15 under 20 gauge should be a maximum ball dia of 60cal that is assuming that your 20 gauge .615 to .620 .starting load of 60 gr ffg real gun powder.Drop unpatched ball down barrel. place wading of tow Paper wading etc In muzzle and ram It down on top of the ball seating wading and ball firmly against the powder.The wad is now holding the ball against charge this is called the Tampion .When the powder is set off the explosion will surround the ball and push the ball out the barrel With Out The ball bouncing out the barrel This is the historically correct and best way to load a musket with ball

I'm using .60 cal roundballs for my 20 gauge NW trade gun. So I don't need to put a wad between the powder and ball, just one wad on top of the ball? Also, was newspaper available back then that could be used for wadding? Thanks!

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

If using tow, it could be gathered about the tines of the worm and plucked free of the bore, allowing our round ball to roll out of its own accord.

 

[Brokennock]

I'm using .60 cal roundballs for my 20 gauge NW trade gun. So I don't need to put a wad between the powder and ball, just one wad on top of the ball? Also, was newspaper available back then that could be used for wadding? Thanks!

You don't "need" to put a wad between powder and ball. But, you will have to deal with far more fouling, and a need for a heavier powder charge to achieve the same result as having used one.

 

[tenngun]

Mine are stiff but can be bent cold with some effort, not totally springy. The point can't get at the bore, no problem, there.

Spence

I have some that are brass or bronze, ther’re tough but not spring steel.

 

[Leadball loader]

Rag paper was used but expensive to make and probably not that available in the frontier areas.
I would guess wasp nest and tow fiber would have been in common use.
LBL

 

[Runewolf1973]

I'm thinking shedded tree bark would work pretty good too. Can find it at times very fibrous and stringy.

 

[smo]

Yes Spence I think uses shredded cedar bark if I’m not mistaken..

 

[tenngun]

The practice patching musket balls was not at all common and rarely done in the day.The practice patching musket balls is from the modern era people trying re invent the wheel .Muskets are not rifles their more related to cannon from which they evolved.The ball should be from .10 to .15 under 20 gauge should be a maximum ball dia of 60cal that is assuming that your 20 gauge .615 to .620 .starting load of 60 gr ffg real gun powder.Drop unpatched ball down barrel. place wading of tow Paper wading etc In muzzle and ram It down on top of the ball seating wading and ball firmly against the powder.The wad is now holding the ball against charge this is called the Tampion .When the powder is set off the explosion will surround the ball and push the ball out the barrel With Out The ball bouncing out the barrel This is the historically correct and best way to load a musket with ball

In 1847 an HBC official described putting a ball In to the end of worn out glove finger tips. Now unless you wore our gloves in the time it took to shoot ten shots it stands to reason they were patching ball in thin leather, or this man invented this in’47me thinks patched smoothie balls are older then we oft credit today.

 

[Irishmusket]

Yes Spence I think uses shredded cedar bark if I’m not mistaken..

In the day it was common to use tow some times paper wich was not alway a lot of it around in the 1700s early 1800s leather was used or commonly grass rolled up into a ball and used as wading tried it out it actually works good and helps reduce fouling .

 

[Jay Templin]

I'm using .60 cal roundballs for my 20 gauge NW trade gun. So I don't need to put a wad between the powder and ball, just one wad on top of the ball? Also, was newspaper available back then that could be used for wadding? Thanks!

There was plenty of cheap paper- modern folks seem to think it was a precious commodity, but notices and broadsides were posted all over the place, newspapers were widely circulated, paper was used for some packaging... I mean, there's a reason that every Army in Europe had adopted paper cartridges by the 18th century.
That said, tow or wasp nest are more authentic choices for civilian smoothbores, and less prone to start a fire... as I have learned through much experience.
Jay

 

[Runewolf1973]

There was plenty of cheap paper- modern folks seem to think it was a precious commodity, but notices and broadsides were posted all over the place, newspapers were widely circulated, paper was used for some packaging... I mean, there's a reason that every Army in Europe had adopted paper cartridges by the 18th century.
That said, tow or wasp nest are more authentic choices for civilian smoothbores, and less prone to start a fire... as I have learned through much experience.
Jay

What I was doing was to crumple 3" square pieces of newspaper into balls and dip each one into boiled water with borax and let them dry out. It makes the paper fire retardant and works quite well.

 

[Irishmusket]

In 1847 an HBC official described putting a ball In to the end of worn out glove finger tips. Now unless you wore our gloves in the time it took to shoot ten shots it stands to reason they were patching ball in thin leather, or this man invented this in’47me thinks patched smoothie balls are older then we oft credit today.

As I wrote patching ball s in smooth bore muskets was not something that was done in the day .Its not to say that some people did not patch them it just was not a common practice as patching ball really did change the outcome it slowed down loading and reloading .More often than not gave no real improvement in practicle accuracy beyond 50 yards .

What I was doing was to crumple 3" square pieces of newspaper into balls and dip each one into boiled water with borax and let them dry out. It makes the paper fire retardant and works quite well.

 

[tenngun]

It seems to have been done in the day, or else R. Levinge ( the officer I referred too) wouldn’t have recorded it. And it must have been done regular enough to have got his attention.
As for advantage I have found it to shoot a little tighter at fifty yards, not much and not an amount that would miss a deer or bigger. But it loads just about as fast as wadding, and you don’t have to worry about it coming loose.
I THINK over the years we have underestimated patches in smoothies. Levinge doesn’t claim to have invented this, and speaks of it as if it’s common.
Was it in loading manuals of the time? No it was not, and we don’t know how wide spread it could have been, but I think this was a ‘thing’ on the frontier, at least where patched rifles were to been seen.

 

[Eterry]

Lets not forget we are talking about 300 years ago. There weren't many Wal-marts around. If you lost your mold, someone stole it, it fell from your pack horse or maybe you couldn't afford one, but your hunting pard did, and maybe his was a size smaller. Each smith made the mold, there was little uniformity. Hell, we see that all the time on here. Your 20 bore could vary in size greatly even today with CNC machines and lasers.

So, your in the middle of BFE, and your running low on ball. You trade or beg or borrow some from a hunting companion, or use someone's mold. Now you've got ball. but they're a smidgen (that's the technical term), too small and tend to have lots of blowby. All you know is they aren't getting it done, and you don't wanna run into ole mossback with that load. So deer hide is plentiful, you cut some small pieces to use as patch. Now the blowby is gone, no more "whoose" when you fire at that deer in the brush, and life is good.

You get to a town and hunt up the local 'smith and get a new mold made, and you go back to shooting bare ball, with some moss or whatever to keep it in place.

Do you think that ever happened??

 

[bigted]

In tight situations, a feller was known to bang the butt on the ground to seat a bare ball rather then take the extra time to pull the ramrod, seat the ball, crunch wadding of some kind with the ramrod, replace the rod and THEN shoot. Banging the ball home in a hurry has been the culprit of busted wrist and butt stock's.

Sooo ... why not just find a fairly soft chunk of wood to thump the muzzle onto till that wet powder load ... or dry balled load came sliding back down the bore it just went into with none more resistance and WALLA ... dry/swab that bore ... reload and get back to the task at hand.

Life and practises were pretty simple back in the day. You can bet yer last chaw that ALL contingencies were thought out and prepared for. Equipment carried for performing any task to come up. Theirs was a known possibility for almost all problems to be encountered ... and the new ones at first killed a few but being a student was to remain alive. Learning at others expense was expected and for sure done so as to put another bit of know how in the proverbial book.