What is the difference between swaged and molded balls.
Way back in the first half of the 19th century the British Board of Ordnance found swaged balls to be 1/64th heavier than cast as they had no air bubble in them and they invested, in modern terms, about a million dollars in a large multi crewed swaged ball making machine to make millions of swaged balls for muskets and the Brunswick rifle. They thought it money well spent and used swaging (period 'swedging') in all lead bullets thereafter. Believe me they didn't spend money easily on new ideas; they were still brazing percussion bolsters onto flintlock muskets at the time. I have copies of the drawings of the machine and it (actually they) were huge and complicated.
Way back in the first half of the 19th century the British Board of Ordnance found swaged balls to be 1/64th heavier than cast as they had no air bubble in them and they invested, in modern terms, about a million dollars in a large multi crewed swaged ball making machine to make millions of swaged balls for muskets and the Brunswick rifle. They thought it money well spent and used swaging (period 'swedging') in all lead bullets thereafter. Believe me they didn't spend money easily on new ideas; they were still brazing percussion bolsters onto flintlock muskets at the time. I have copies of the drawings of the machine and it (actually they) were huge and complicated.
In my opinion it's just the opposite.Maybe I'm wrong but it would seem to me that the swaged balls would be less apt to have air bubbles plus be more "identical" and uniform to each other in weight.SWAGED BALLS ARE MORE INCLINED TO HAVE AIR BUBBLES AND/OR LIGHT WEIGHT INCLUSONS.
THE MOLDED BALLS ARE MORE INCLINED TO BE SOLID LEAD WITH NO BUBBLES OR INCLUSIONS.
LUMPS OF LEAD ARE SQEEZED INTO SHAPE WITH THE SWAGED BALLS AND ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE ALL SORTS OF DIFFERENT WEIGHTS AND LIKELY TO BE OFF BALANCE AS THEY SPIN DOWN RANGE. I BELIEVE THIS TO BE THE SOURCE OF (FLYERS" AND LESS THE RESULT OF SHOOTER;S ERROR/
USING SOLID MOLDED BALLS EXCLUSIVELY WILL REDUCE THE NUMBER OF FLYER REMARKABLY.
DUTCH SCHOULTZ
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