Swaged balls?

[centershot]

Off and on I have heard comments concerning swaged round balls and how drewadfully inconsistent they were. I never believed those comments. How could it possibly be that a ball swaged from pure lead would be less consistent in weight than a cast ball? Well....... I was rummaging in the loading room yesterday and found a box of Hornady .530 swaged balls I didn't know I had. I turned on my electronic scale and began weighing them. Extreme spread was 1.9 grains. Hmmmm..........I was surprised! I ordered a .530 RB mold from Lee, we'll see if cast balls are really less consistent.

 

[Ames]

You can get swings in weight from both. Weigh them for match shooting. For punching paper or hunting at 50 yards I don't bother. Just re melt the wrinkles.

 

[Big Rviers]

I went thru this some years ago and found little difference between my own casts balls (.530 an .495) and swaged balls form Hornady. I didn't feel the weight difference amounts made a significant difference to accuracy and liked the convenience of buying over casting for plinking or hunting.

 

[hanshi]

I cast all my ammo; but a few years ago a friend gave me a box of Hornady .530" swaged ball. I found zero/0/no difference in loading or accuracy. In general, simply a "weight difference" makes little or no difference in accuracy. But if you're one of those dedicated "targetists" that wins only 3rd place in a match because of a 1/8" larger group on your target than the shooter getting 1st or 2nd place; it will make a difference.

 

[brewer12345]

I can't see well enough for a 1/8" difference in group. That said, I have found no difference I could determine between swaged and my cast with 490 and 530 balls. Since I can cast for about 3 pennies in lead per ball, that is what I do. I snagged a well used Lyman 4 banger 490 mold and it is just a pleasure to have the balls rain out of that thing.