Roundballs

[anchorsawy]

Just received a batch of "Rush Creek" roundballs and they have a flat spot on them. I just want to make sure I have this right, do I load the ball with the flat spot to the muzzle?

 

[RC]

ever hear the sayin "you have a 50/50 shot"? you'll hear both ways... i do it the same way each time...that should matter more,, easier to center on top, ya can't see it on the bottom... :thumbsup:

 

[Mike Vach]

The flat spot is the sprue. You can load it toward the breech or toward the muzzle but you ought to do it the same way each time, for consistency's sake.

My 2 pesos.

 

[ord sgt]

The flat spot should be the sprue, the cut-off point from the casting. I load my cast balls with the sprue pointing up. This way I know where the high spot is and it won't cause the ball to jam while going down the barrel.

 

[anchorsawy]

Thank you everyone. I thought that was how it should be done.

 

[F.G. Ford]

If you put your round balls in a plastic container ( 1/2 full) spray some wd40 in the container.
Then gently shake them for about 5 minutes the sprue spot( flat spot) will be removed, and your balls will have a very consistant appearance, a little like golf balls.
I have been doing it for years.
The wd40 also helps the balls from oxidizing.
Try it you may like it!
Old Ford

 

[Mike Vach]

If you're buying RBs commercially instead of runnin' your own, Hornady makes sprueless ones.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Flat spot up.

'Cause how do you know if it's centered when down? ;-)

 

[anchorsawy]

I wanted .520 balls and Hornady didn't have them in that size. That I could find anyway.

 

[RiverRat]

I just picked up four boxes of Hornady .520 swagged rbs. The lable says 53 caliber. You will probably have to special order them.

 

[jbide]

I put my round balls in a rock tumbler without medium and roll them for 1 hour. It really evens the surface on them. I got the rock tumbler at Harbor Freight. I am tumbling all am different calibers now. Jim :grin:

 

[Dphar]

I put my round balls in a rock tumbler without medium and roll them for 1 hour. It really evens the surface on them. I got the rock tumbler at Harbor Freight. I am tumbling all am different calibers now. Jim :grin:

I use my Dillon vibrating case cleaner. Won't work if the balls are significantly hardened. But adding some WW balls speeds the process of eliminating the sprues on the pure lead balls. Pretty noisey though. Only used it on the 16 bore so far but may try the .395s in it.
The factory swaged balls are tumbled after swaging to take off, pound down, the ridge left by the swage. If you measure them you can usually find the high spot.

Dan

 

[roundball]

I just picked up four boxes of Hornady .520 swagged rbs. The lable says 53 caliber. You will probably have to special order them.

I found that Hornady .520's with .018" pillow ticking is the cat's meow in my GM .54cal smoothbore...extremely accurate

 

[bingo1952]

The vibrating case cleaner is what i use also or you can put them in a coffee can and and ride them around until the next trip to the range. It's amazing what a couple hundred miles and a tin can will do to your balls. :rotf: