The Casting Void

[BrownBear]

...worst effect would be that the ball would rotate about a point that was only 3/32" off of sphere's true center.

That would make the hole it pokes into a target 3/32" off of hitting exactly where the gun was aimed when the bullet left the muzzle.

I'll have to think about that more, but I well remember a football that broke a lace when we were kids, and we replaced it with some heavy cord. The extra weight on the side caused the weirdest spiral you ever saw- more like a corkscrew than a wobble. And the further the ball traveled the wider the cork screw and the further off course it flew.

At the time I wrote it off to the center of gravity being shifted to one side of the "axis" of the spin of the ball.

My reasoning is that a light spot off the axis of spin (same as creating a "heavy spot" on the opposite side, would case the ball to corkscrew around the axis of it's travel, getting worse the further it went.

Dunno. About the only way a guy could really check it would be to drill a hole in a ball, then load it so the hole would be in contact with the bore, kind of on the "equator" of the ball, then see what happened. Interesting idea for an experiment.

 

[M. De Land]

There is a"ten dollar" phrase folks throw around who apparently know more about bullet flight than do I and it is (dynamic stability) which I understand has to to with a bullet and lessor degree balls, spiral movement about its trajectory axis and center of gravity.
A bullet nose will wobble around this axis which is called procession and will either settle down and go what is know as "to sleep" or it will increase until it tumbles.
Now we usually deal with balls and as they do not have the form shape to be as influenced by the air around them, they will probably never tumble to the degree a conical can.
Still there must be some procession involved that I would think should influence accuracy just not on a scale that a conical does.
Remember a shot ball is not really a perfect sphere in flight but rather a short cylinder with some what of a radius at both ends.
I'm wondering if a ball can have procession which might move it off the axis of trajectory more than just the amount of void diameter.

 

[pab1]

I wonder how many people throw these balls back into the pot but then bounce/slam their ramrod repeatedly when they load deforming the ball. :haha:

 

[Donny]

I wonder if the pounding causing deformation would make little difference, if the rr tip covers the ball well so it may be a little oblong but still mostly consistent.

 

[Twisted_1in66]

***SNIP***
No way to prove it (again, cuzz without xrays you couldn't spot them),
***SNIP***

You couldn't even spot them with an X-ray machine either because lead stops X-rays. That's what is in that heavy cover they sometimes put over you to protect the rest of your body from the X-rays when you're having X-rays taken.

Twisted_1in66 :thumbsup:
Dan

 

[sidelock]

Xactly right. Keep on shootin.

 

[pab1]

I wonder if the pounding causing deformation would make little difference, if the rr tip covers the ball well so it may be a little oblong but still mostly consistent.

I just don't see the need for it. The tip does not fill the bore completely so its not going to impact the ball perfectly when slammed down. It deforms the ball and causes wear in the barrel. I've always just seated the ball firmly. The same shooter might reject the ball with a void but then cause damage to the ball he just loaded so its no longer "perfect".

 

[M. De Land]

The ball you load is not the same shape when it exits the muzzle anyway.
It will extrude into the bore wall from acceleration any way so I see little harm from bounding the ramrod although I have never done so.
Actually it might be a safety factor for getting the ball all the way down on the powder when the bore gets fouled.
Most folks don't mark their ramrods for full load depth that I have seen.

 

[pab1]

The ball you load is not the same shape when it exits the muzzle anyway.
It will extrude into the bore wall from acceleration any way so I see little harm from bounding the ramrod although I have never done so.
Actually it might be a safety factor for getting the ball all the way down on the powder when the bore gets fouled.
Most folks don't mark their ramrods for full load depth that I have seen.

You missed my point. Of coarse obturation takes place due to the pressure placed on the projectile. I'm saying someone who rejects a ball for a small void might not consider the effect slamming the rod can have on the ball. They reject an imperfection but then intentionally cause imperfection in the ball. Both the ball with the void and the slammed ball can still be accurate.

As far as seating the ball, whether you are bouncing the rod or seat it with firm pressure you still have to insure that its seated against the powder. Its a safety factor if you don't verify that its seated. A lot of people mark their rods. If people choose not to mark their rod then they risk destroying their gun or becoming a Darwin Award candidate.

Its always a good practice to occasionally check that the ball has not moved off the powder while hiking/hunting. A marked rod does that easily. Bouncing the rod for verification would be loud and counterproductive to hunting quietly. :wink:

 

[tenngun]

Wow, I bounce a rod. Not the throw down from the muzzle that I've seen some boys do, just a drop and bounce from a few inches under gravity. I don't think it's ever scared any thing off. If the sound of a big boom just didn't scare things off I don't think a bounce would :idunno:

 

[pab1]

Wow, I bounce a rod. Not the throw down from the muzzle that I've seen some boys do, just a drop and bounce from a few inches under gravity. I don't think it's ever scared any thing off. If the sound of a big boom just didn't scare things off I don't think a bounce would :idunno:

But you're not doing it like me so you're obviously doing it wrong. :wink: :grin:

Not trying to get ff with a seating method debate. :v

 

[Billnpatti]

You said ".....lead stops X-rays." This is true of medical X-ray machines but industrial X-ray machines.......that's a horse of a different flavor. Given sufficient time and power, those suckers can penetrate Super Man. I've seen them in action and they have to put up a bunch of shielding and clear the area of all personnel before starting the X-ray machine. They use lead blocks for shielding and still have to clear the area. A lead rifle ball would be no challenge at all It ain't your doctor's or dentist's machine. :shake:

 

[Twisted_1in66]

And you're going to have a more powerful x-ray machine than your doctor or hospital does to check for voids in your round balls??? Really????

Twisted_1in66 :thumbsup:
Dan