Casting : Roundball Sprue

[Pilgrim64]

What do you recommend doing with the sprue or small tag on the roundball that remains after removing from the mold? file it down ? I have heard alot of people say to place it on the top when loading.

 

[bwhoffman]

You heard right!
Place it on top!
LEE molds leave a minimal sprue as compared to other molds.
I have cast and shot .32's and .40's from molds that leave sprue and from lee molds that leave minimal sprues.
...My findings are that both are just as accurrate in my guns (which is pretty good groups).

Your milage may vary, but not by much!

 

[MikeChapin]

I second what Brett_sr said. Just put it on top to keep your loading consistent and you're good to go.

 

[pa woods roamer]

Before I got my Lee mold I would hold the Ball between my fingers , then take a Teaspoon and flatten out the Sprue.Am not that ambitious anymore....

 

[bwhoffman]

My shooting buddy/best friend for the game runs all the balls he makes at my place thru his case tumbler.
It causes pretty much any sprue marks/flat edges pretty much disapear and look like factory swagged like those by hornady and Speer!

I put all mine in an empty shot bag and squish them around for about 5 minutes, same results!

 

[Tumblernotch]

What do you recommend doing with the sprue or small tag on the roundball that remains after removing from the mold? file it down ? I have heard alot of people say to place it on the top when loading.

I always place mine to the top. My Lee molds don't leave a sprue but a small flat spot. My Lymans leave a very short sprue. If you use a short starter with a concave end, when you smack the ball down it pretty much does away with it anyway.

 

[2172]

I'm mostly using a couple of Jeff Tanner moulds. They don't have sprue cutters. I cut the sprue with a pair of nail nippers...leaves me a longer sprue stuff than if I use a Lee or Lyman mold w/sprue cutter. I place them, sprue stuff upwards. I don't see any difference in accuracy with these balls, than with the factory made ones I used to try out the idea (of shooting slightly undersized balls, the reason I have Tanner moulds)
I'm shooting .48 in my .50, .52 in my 54, and .443 in my .45...I am using a .022 ticking patch. Hank

 

[ohio ramrod]

I roll my cast balls between two steel plates to round off the sprue.

 

[Little Wattsy]

What do you recommend doing with the sprue or small tag on the roundball that remains after removing from the mold? file it down ? I have heard alot of people say to place it on the top when loading.

Ill pour up 75 to 100, put them in a plastic quart jar with a lid, and shake them around (like a brass tumbeler would)...Nice swagged look when done.

 

[paulvallandigham]

By now you should begin to understand that the presence of a sprue on a cast ball is not much of a problem for accuracy. At most you might want to weight the balls you shoot for a Target match, to limit the variation in weight to 1% or less of the ball's total weight. A case tumbler, or vibrator, which many shooters already own because they reload their modern rifle, and handgun cartridges, will easily remove the sprues if you load the tumbler or vibratory up with the lead balls, W/O the polishing medium( usually walnut shells, BTW)and let the machine tumbler or vibrate the balls for an hour or so.

Putting the sprues so that they are UP when the ball is seated in the muzzle on top of the patch is the TRADITIONAL way to load cast balls into MLing rifles, and smoothies. However, Recent testing has shown that there is very little effect caused to the ball's flight if the sprue is located in some other attitude than UP.

A round ball will spin around its CENTER OF GRAVITY, whether there is a sprue on the ball or not. The Sprue may add some drag to the ball, or drift, but its negligible when hunting game in the field, where shots are taken at 100 yds, and under. considering the terrible-- I can not emphasize the word TERRIBLE enough- Ballistics Coefficient of any ROUND BALL, attempting to take shots at game at much more than 100 yds. is rarely a wise decision. "Desperation" is the word that describes such a decision, IMHO. :shocked2: :hmm: :thumbsup:

 

[tv_racin_fan]

Can't recall exactly where I saw it but someone posted an answer to this question on one forum or another that I peruse.

According to him pretty much no matter how hard you try you will get a small air pocket in your cast ball. According to him this pocket will be aligned with the sprue. He claimed to have sawn hundreds of balls and to be completely confident in his finding. According to him the very best thing you can do is to cast your balls as carefully as you can and then weigh them and sort them by weight and discard or recast those that are far out of the norm. This was from a guy who supposedly competitively shoots round ball at long range and according to him at 100 yards it didn't much matter how you arranged the sprue or if you used a tumbler or whatever to rid the balls of a sprue, it pretty much only came into play at ranges beyond 100 so long as you sorted the balls by weight. The idea being that the sprue and the airpocket being aligned if you load the ball sprue up you would pretty much be assured the ball would rotate true as you would be putting the center of gravity in line with the bore.

 

[temple]

I put all mine in an empty shot bag and squish them around for about 5 minutes, same results!

i agree there. most of the round ball i shoot have been floating around in the bottom of my hunting bag for at least a few years. they shoot just as well as any brand new swaged RBs

 

[sniper68]

"MOST" cast balls will have voids of some size in them(except mine!). To chect it out, all you have to do is, cut a couple open along the casting seam. By keeping the spur up, you will be keeping the ball in balance and you'll see no real difference, even when shooting targets if you watch the weights. While this may be nitpicking, it will make a slight difference.

 

[nkbj]

"MOST" cast balls will have voids of some size in them(except mine!). To chect it out, all you have to do is, cut a couple open along the casting seam. By keeping the spur up, you will be keeping the ball in balance and you'll see no real difference, even when shooting targets if you watch the weights. While this may be nitpicking, it will make a slight difference.

All right Man! Finally I'll get to break both clay pigeons!

 

[Billnpatti]

Most moulds such as Lee, RCBS and Lyman leave only a small sprue mark. Most folks simply locate the sprue mark straight up when loading their rifle. I have found a better way of dealing with it. :applause: I have a rock tumbler that I use for cleaning my spent cartridges. I simply remove all of the tumbling medium from the tumbler, wash it out, let it dry and then tumble about a hundred at a time of my newly cast balls in it for only about 1/2 hour. They come out looking like black ball bearings. I don't know why they turn black but suppose it is from the rubber liner in the tumbler. 1/2 hour is all you want to tumble them or instead of coming out with a polished surface, they come out looking frosted from the thousands of tiny peck marks from banging together in the tumbler. It does not seem to affect their accuracy but they are just not as pretty as those that have only tumbled long enough to loose the sprue mark and get nice and round and polished black. :wink: I have mic'd well over a hundred tumbled balls, both before and after tumbling, and have found that tumbling does not change their size. :nono:

I also have a vibrating brass cleaner that I also use for cleaning my brass cases. I have never tried emptying it and running newly cast balls in it to remove the sprue mark. That may work, too but I have never tried it so I can't say for sure. :hmm: But I do know that tumbling newly cast balls for about a half hour in a rock tumbler will make some darned nice polished round balls with no noticible sprue. :thumbsup:

 

[ohio ramrod]

Since the void is caused by the lead cooling and shrinking from the sprue faster than from the sides against the mold, It can be eliminated or greatly reduced by "overpouring" a mold with a buit in sprue cutter. Or counter boring a mold that doesn't have a built in sprue cutter such as the older dixie molds.

 

[410-er]

Checked one of my more than 1 gr rejects today.

 

[Toomuch_36]

What do you recommend doing with the sprue or small tag on the roundball that remains after removing from the mold? file it down ? I have heard alot of people say to place it on the top when loading.

As Paul pointed out in his post the placement of the spru makes very little'if any' difference to accuracy' especially in a rifles barrel. Most shooters like to place the spru on top when loading mostly for "peace of mind".
As has also been pointed out by others once cast and put in your shooting bag or box and "rattled around a while the spru will disapear anyhow.

Toomuch
............
Shoot Flint

 

[Toomuch_36]

This looks to be a case of too cold.
Either the first start of a run when the blocks were still cold, or the lead wasn't hot enough.
Try increasing your lead temp.

Toomuch
...........
Shoot Flint

 

[410-er]

I was casting up to 825 degrees.My 45's I got about 95% good ones.When I cast 50's it drops to about 30% good one.My 45 mold is steel where my 50 is alluminum.Pre heat both with the small propane torch.I'm thinking those steel molds hold the heat much better.