Revolver- Cast Or Swaged Balls?

[FishDFly]

Most likely this has been covered before, but I could not find the answer when searching.

I know the sprue is loaded up when loading a revolver so there is no reason to cover that aspect of the differences between swaged and cast.

Is there an accuarcy difference between cast and swaged balls when shooting paper, competition?

Practice with cast and shoot competition with swaged or just shoot cast all the way?

Thanks

RDE

 

[brubincam]

-----did you say the sprue goes up when loading a revolver-- :hmm: :hmm: :hmm: --

 

[Blizzard of '93]

I shoot cast balls (as pure lead as I can get) out of my '58 Rem and ROA. swaged (I bought some Hornadys) don't do any better.

 

[Raider2000]

I shoot mostly my own cast .457's in all my revolvers with an occasional Christmas Gift of Hornady Swedged balls & get the same accuracy either way, just keep the sprue up like you mentioned & it'll be all good.

 

[renovato]

Even when shooting off a rest for the tightest groups, I've never noticed any difference between swaged and cast in revolvers. The loading process tends to normalize the sprues anyway, so that they're the same on each ball. The biggest issue is making sure that their weight is the same.

 

[Emet Huntsman]

Have shot both and can't really tell any difference.

 

[Cage Dodger]

I'm kind of new at this, but I've been told that if a cast ball has a sprue, it goes down when loading (against the wad or powder). Is this correct or not? I buy Speer .457 RB and none of them have a sprue. I was just wondering what is the correct way to position the sprue if the ball has one...

Cage :hmm:

 

[FishDFly]

I am new also,

I heard that the sprue goes up, but then again I am not experienced.

I have been shooting all swaged balls and I am trying to learn what is correct for pistols.

In rifles, the sprue goes up, pistols I am not sure and the assumption was that it should be the same as a rifle.

mykeal and Jim/OH where are you? Help please.

RDE

 

[FishDFly]

Okay, I just went into the Archives of my room and did a physical search of old books.

Via the "Black Powder Gun Digest", copyright 1982, page 105, "Slightly oversized soft lead ball is placed sprue down or up over the charged chamber. Cylinder is then rotated until ball is directly below loading lever and seated.

Guess that takes care of my questions.

Thanks

RDE

 

[Zonie]

Darn! You beat me to the draw (or to the "type" in this case). :grin:

The sprue can be either up or down and that is only because the lump would cause excessive interference with the chamber mouth when its loaded with the sprue to the side.

The sprue of course is the remains of the "gate" that the melted lead was poured thru into the mold and many cast balls have voids in the material right under it.
Some folks feel that these voids can cause some imbalance in the ball as it spins towards the target but at the short range that pistols are shot at I am sure they will have no effect on accuracy.

In fact, tests have been made to see if loading the ball sprue up or sprue down has any effect on cast balls when loaded into a rifle and shot at long ranges.
Almost all of the tests results agree that the sprue's location when it is loaded doesn't make any difference even at the distances that a rifle shoots.

This basically means that as long as it isn't interfering with the chamber in a revolver or the bore in a single shot pistol it will shoot as well as a swaged ball or one without any voids in it.

I guess I should amend this a little.
If one is competing then it is a good idea to have everything as consistent as possible so the weight variations a cast ball with voids in it might effect the final score.

 

[FishDFly]

Zonie,

I will send you a PM in the morning to see what I can learn. Over time I have learned that you are a wonderful source of information and have a couple of things for you to consider.

Thank you

RDE

 

[mykeal]

Here I am - I agree with Zonie and Richard Eames. Either up or down. On the side would perhaps result in an open path from muzzle to powder - a chainfire possibility.

 

[Cage Dodger]

Thanks for all the info, guys. I was told that the sprue goes down so as not to interfere with the aerodynamics at the nose of the bullet. But I guess it doesn't really matter. Now I know.

Cage :thumbsup:

 

[pondoro]

Sprue up can interfere with the aerodynamics in front, but sprue down can interfere with the aerodynamics at the rear, so it is six of one, half a dozen of the other. Remember when the ball is exiting the barrel and for a few inches there after it is flying with a "tail wind" of hot, high velocity gas. If there is no concensus among serious target shooters that one way is best then I am guessing that up or down is either a wash or insignificant.

Regardless if you are casting your own you want to make the sprue as small as possible.

 

[Pork Chop]

Here is a thought. Why not put the sprue 90 degrees to the bore so that it is sheared off when loading into the revolver - sheared off means no sprue to alter the flight path...

 

[FishDFly]

pondoro,

I was going to send Zonie a PM, but will go ahead and ask here with your statement of "Regardless if you are casting your own you want to make the sprue as small as possible".

I have 2 Lyman molds, one leaves a small sprue and the other mold leaves no sprue and actually takes a small amount of the round off the ball.

I use Cream Of Wheat as a filler. I was taught to mark the loading lever to get the same amount of pressure on the ball when it's seated each time.

What I was wondering with balls from the mold that have a sprue, the sprue most likely should go down so the sprue is pushed into the COW a small amount and the pressure remains the same, the sprue has a place to go. If the sprue is up it will increase the pressure on the ball with it's seated to the mark on the loading lever.

In all probablity, it will not make enough of a difference when shooting off hand.

My pistol scores are going up each match and looking for ways to make small changes to get a point here and there.

Thanks for your help.

RDE

 

[Zonie]

Richard:
In a case such as yours where you are striving for consistency I agree that you would want to load the ball with the sprue down (assuming it has a projecting sprue).

If the ball was loaded with the sprue up and you were using some marking on the loading lever the projecting sprue would force the ball deeper into the chamber thereby increasing the crush on the powder/filler.

For most folks who are just enjoying shooting their revolver though, I still feel that the location of the sprue will not have much if any effect on the accuracy they expect.

As for intentionally loading the ball so that the sprue is sheared off by the chamber mouth during loading I feel that this will only serve to increase the amount of pressure that will be needed to load the ball.
Some of these replicas have fairly soft or weak parts in their loading lever systems and the increased ramming pressure may cause excess wear or shear off the small screws that are used to hold the system together.

 

[Jim/OH]

Ok Richard, here's my two cents worth. :grin: As far as accuracy goes, it does not really matter which way you load the spur. Some feel to "make sure" the spur is turned the right way, load it "up." As someone else said, I have noticed, the loading lever pretty well mashes the spur flat anyway. Also the accuracy of swaged balls is the same as cast, just more expensive. :thumbsup: And there should be no voids in cast balls anyway if you do it right. :hmm: Howsever, I do keep some swaged balls handy to use in "Timed Fire" matches. Where the time spent fooling with getting the spur right is done away with. Since you need to save all the time you can during a timed fire match, a few swaged balls on hand are a good idea, but they will not shoot any better than the cast ones.

Hope this helps Richard. See ya, Jim :hatsoff:

 

[FishDFly]

Jim/OH,

Thank you sir,

All your efforts and help are apprecicated.

Thanks, I shall no forget.


RDE

 

[FishDFly]

Zonie,

Thanks for your repsonse, your knowledge is valued and appreciated as well.

Thanks

RDE