• This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.



    Sign up here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/account/upgrades

Revisiting Nessler Balls

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Jul 24, 2018
Messages
4,497
Reaction score
5,603
20210724_124445.jpg


I found a guy who sells on GunBroker, that makes Lee Drive Key slugs. Basically the Drive Key slug is a Nessler Balle with a "rib" in the base.

Using my .680 sizer it seems they drop from the mold a little bigger than the molds advertised .680 diameter.

I'm trying to decide if using these in a thin masking paper cartridge I designed last year is worth it vs just hand lubing them and dropping them in like Minies

From what I recall , I saw no difference last time ramming bare .678 slugs down
my .69 bore vs patching them with paper.

The .010 of windage probably won't matter as much in a smoothbore especially when it gets fouled, and paper might just add an unneeded element of failure as I also recall the paper tearing off of the slug in a fouled bore during my last experiment. If the .69 Rifled Musket uses a .685 Minie then .680 seems perfect for a smoothbore.

I guess I'll just have to get out and try it
 
Try it out. Let us know how it shoots.
I can't wait.

2 years ago I had excellent results with a slightly different Foster slug that was .678.

The NC Nessler from Eras Gone molds did not do well at all.

I'm hoping these work like Minies and I can roll cartridges up. Only one way to know and that's to shoot em

I may finally start casting if these work , because the 1 oz Lee Mold is readily available . Whenever I think about casting I find someone who sells what I'm looking for and just buy them
 
I can't wait.

2 years ago I had excellent results with a slightly different Foster slug that was .678.

The NC Nessler from Eras Gone molds did not do well at all.

I'm hoping these work like Minies and I can roll cartridges up. Only one way to know and that's to shoot em

I may finally start casting if these work , because the 1 oz Lee Mold is readily available . Whenever I think about casting I find someone who sells what I'm looking for and just buy them
Does the guy make them in 20 gauge?
 
Does the guy make them in 20 gauge?
He sells what looks like a .58 REAL bullet that he uses as 20 gauge shotgun slugs

I told him if these Lee slugs work I'll be a regular customer, he casts bullets as a side gig so he said if he has molds and lead he'll make as many of whatever you want

These Lee slugs seem to drop at about .683ish but I'm sizing them all to .680 to keep them consistent. Obviously there's no rifling to engage like a Minie so I'd rather be able to shoot them without having to worry about bore fouling , the slug will expand and ride down the pipe.

If I can get "minute of man" target accuracy at 200 and something resembling a group at 100 I'll be beyond excited.
 
FWIW John Boucher, in the rifle musket days, had his own design of a smooth sided Minnie/Delvigne-ishbullet with an iron disk at the base in lieu of a plug. He found that loading them naked (ie with no paper but coated in lubricant) was better than paper patched. The iron disk stopped the base being deformed. The Lee slug internal rib does much the same thing so perhaps loaded just dipped in melted lubricant to coat the outside walls will work? I have found that a little lanolin added to a wax/tallow mix makes it adhere better to naked lead. Just a thought. The purpose, of course, is to control fouling for multi shots.
 
He sells what looks like a .58 REAL bullet that he uses as 20 gauge shotgun slugs

I told him if these Lee slugs work I'll be a regular customer, he casts bullets as a side gig so he said if he has molds and lead he'll make as many of whatever you want

These Lee slugs seem to drop at about .683ish but I'm sizing them all to .680 to keep them consistent. Obviously there's no rifling to engage like a Minie so I'd rather be able to shoot them without having to worry about bore fouling , the slug will expand and ride down the pipe.

If I can get "minute of man" target accuracy at 200 and something resembling a group at 100 I'll be beyond excited.
Thank you for the info. I just emailed him
 
I can hot
FWIW John Boucher, in the rifle musket days, had his own design of a smooth sided Minnie/Delvigne-ishbullet with an iron disk at the base in lieu of a plug. He found that loading them naked (ie with no paper but coated in lubricant) was better than paper patched. The iron disk stopped the base being deformed. The Lee slug internal rib does much the same thing so perhaps loaded just dipped in melted lubricant to coat the outside walls will work? I have found that a little lanolin added to a wax/tallow mix makes it adhere better to naked lead. Just a thought. The purpose, of course, is to control fouling for multi shots.
I can hot dip them and push them through a .690 shotgun choke to strip the excess off

I had at one time considered using air dry clay as a plug but adding another point of failure if they work as is probably wouldn't make them any more accurate
 
Last edited:
20210724_190543.jpg


I found these .680 slugs I must have bought 2 years ago, from Fury Custom bullets. I remember emailing him and telling him I'm using these in smoothbore muskets. I'm missing 2 so I must have fired them.

They appear to be swaged instead of cast. I'll play with them too. He will probably make me more of them.
 
Cabelas used to sell those Lee 1 Oz. Slug molds. I almost bought one to make my own deer slugs for 12 gauge, but changed mind.
 
Just curious, did you try a dab of lube in the base to make the fouling softer on follow up shots?
Don't know if it would work or be worth the trouble as I have the experience of making the dab too big in a .58 (actually fouled up the ignition channel with lube going backwards as well as forwards).
 
Back
Top