Questions About Bare Ball Shooting

[oscarlovel]

I watched a video yesterday by Duelist54 about 18th century smoothbore shooting. In it he was firing a Brown Bess replica by Pedersoli and a civilian smoothbore in .62 (20 gauge). In none of his video did he mention any kind of lube for the wadding, tow or paper. He also stated he was using a .610 ball. It appeared that he had a Colerain barrel on the civilian smoothie, as I do on mine. IIRC, my bore diameter is .615. Who makes a .610 roundball mold, or where can I find some to try? My real question is did they coat the balls in some kind of lube? Was the tow lubed? Did they use any lube at all? I know when I shot N-SSA Smoothbore, I used chewed bare ball that had been twice Alox coated. It worked for maybe ten shots or so before the bore fouled out. Cleanup could be challenging, but it was super accurate in my 1842 Springfield. What do you folks recommend for lubing bare ball Smoothie loads?

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

Hey

I use tow lubed with mink’s oil from Track of the Wolf. I can’t recall reading any period references to people using lube with tow wads, but I have found it prevents smoldering nicely and helps keep the fouling soft.

I use .615s and can fire all day with tightly packed greased tow waddings. A surprisingly large amount of it can be stuffed into a small pouch or tin.

 

[smo]

Track of the Wokf should carry .610 balls..

 

[Rob M.]

Never lubed a bare " naked " ball . Powder wadding , ball , wadding ... Thats it . Never had any problems .

 

[wiscoaster]

I don't lube either. I don't suppose it would hurt to lube the top wad; it might even help to keep the bore cleaner. Try it out and let us know if it helps.

 

[IanH]

Take everything Beliveau demonstrates with a grain of salt.

Me too, for that matter. Anecdotally, my smoothbores foul out in 3-5 rounds using any combination or size of ball and wadding unless some sort of lubricant is used.

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

Using unlubed tow wads can and will leave smoldering pieces of it down range which can be very bad of course. And it helps to prevent any kind of ember in your chamber…

 

[The Crisco Kid]

2 parts lard 1 part beeswax seems to work for me.

 

[earlwb]

I only know that they used a bare ball as a combat expedient when they had to load fast as the Indians or bad guys were after them. They would put the ball in their mouth to coat it with some saliva then drop it down the barrel. They would even have several bullets in their mouth too. Granted accuracy was going to be not good, but up close and personal it wouldn’t matter. That was before we figured out that lead was bad for ingesting though. Nowadays we would not do that. But I suppose if you got stuck in a combat situation that you could do it anyway.

So then you would close the frizzen if a flintlock, pour your powder in the barrel. Then drop in the bullet. Give the stock a thump on the ground to dribble a little powder into the flashpan and help seat the bullet. Then cock the hammer put on a cap if needed take quick aim and fire.

But otherwise it was a patched balls with wads and some kind of a lube.

 

[Cruzatte]

I bought one of these molds a couple of years ago in .610" I like it very well. If you purchase one of them, you'll need to get a pair of handles. But that's no problem. Lee double cavity mold handles fit nicely. Nice thing about these molds is that you can order one in nearly any ball diameter imaginable.

Oops....nearly forgot ballmoulds.com

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

Blow down the barrel after every shot to keep the powder fouling soft. I used to get 40 to 45 shots bare balling before I had to pour water down the barrel and swamp it out. With out blowing you'll be lucky to get a dozen shots.

 

[Brokennock]

I watched a video yesterday by Duelist54 about 18th century smoothbore shooting. In it he was firing a Brown Bess replica by Pedersoli and a civilian smoothbore in .62 (20 gauge). In none of his video did he mention any kind of lube for the wadding, tow or paper. He also stated he was using a .610 ball. It appeared that he had a Colerain barrel on the civilian smoothie, as I do on mine. IIRC, my bore diameter is .615. Who makes a .610 roundball mold, or where can I find some to try? My real question is did they coat the balls in some kind of lube? Was the tow lubed? Did they use any lube at all? I know when I shot N-SSA Smoothbore, I used chewed bare ball that had been twice Alox coated. It worked for maybe ten shots or so before the bore fouled out. Cleanup could be challenging, but it was super accurate in my 1842 Springfield. What do you folks recommend for lubing bare ball Smoothie loads?

My smoothrifle bore is .615" and I shoot .610 balls cast in a Lyman mold. I'm loading either 65 or 80 grains of 3f depending on application.
The ball is sitting over a combination of cards and lubed wadding.
Most often it is powder, thin card, lubed felt wad, ball, thin card. Sometimes I loaing powder, thin card, lubed tow wadding, ball, thin card. I like using some type of material, either felt or tow/faux-tow to "carry" the lube. Some folks, like @Britsmoothy just add it to the barrel, as in,,,, pour powder put in a thin card or two, then a dollop of lube straight into the bore, another card or two, then projectile wither it is a round ball or a shot load. I've also read of people lubeing the ball directly, usually they have "stippled" the ball.

 

[Timber Wolf]

I have played with a home-made lubed Durafelt wad over powder, then bare ball and card to keep it all down. Also tried it just ball on powder and lubed wad on that. Don’t remember the results but I think they all worked at the 25 yard distance I was shooting at.

 

[Dusty_Traveler]

No lube for my balls.

In my 12 gauge (.729) trade gun:

powder, (2) .125" dry felt over powder wads, .720" bare ball, over shot card.

If it ever feels like it might be getting fouled, the next shot I saturate the top felt wad with spit. Its just like a bore scrub. Keep on shooting after that.

 

[hwb13]

In both my bess and 19 ga saxton it's dry felt wad a finger of lube ,ball then a prelubed felt wad. It shoots all day. It's a great friend's concoction.

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

When I shot bare ball it was just powder then ball, nothing else. It was the most accurate load for that particular gun.

 

[hanshi]

The largest ball I had was .606" that I cast. Almost impossible to seat even with a thin patch. So I started shooting them as "bare ball" loads. I put in powder, felt (or some other) wad then the ball on a lubed wad and a card wad over the ball and seated the whole thing as one unit. Lube? Whatever I happened to have; mink oil, possum fat, lard, etc. Accuracy was good at 50 yards but a patched .600" lead ball was better.