The Curse Of The Sprue

[Sun City]

Hornady sells round ball up to .58 cal but, my smoke stick is .62 cal or .600 so Hornady is no option for me.

Exactly WHY I didn't opt for a .62!

 

[Pete G]

Exactly WHY I didn't opt for a .62!

A man has got to know his limitations.

 

[Carbon 6]

It's only a problem if you let it be one.

 

[Griz44Mag]

Casting not an option? There is a big selection of molds available.

 

[Crow-Feather]

If you flatten the sprue, where does the excess lead go? Simple, it goes on the area of the ball where the sprue was. You now have a round ball with a weighted side on it. I have shot store boughten round balls that didn't shoot half as good as my molded balls loaded with the sprue facing at me. I weighed store bought balls and was amazed at the variance. I did not check their width. I weigh my ammo and it stays within 1 to 2 grains variance. (Since I learned the word "variance" I had to use it a few times.) Since all of my competitions are off hand, the sprue is on my long list of "What the Hell".

 

[George]

In case anyone is interested, swaged balls were available as early as 1822. Here's a description of the way they were made at the national armories at Springfield and Harper's Ferry, according to William N. Blane in _An Excursion through the United States and Canada, during the Years 1822-3 by an English Gentleman_.

"Another very ingenious machine forms musket-bullets by mere compression. There are two wheels of steel, the circumferences of which are pierced with small cups, each of sufficient size to contain half a musket-bullet. These cups are close to one another, and have at the bottom a very small hole to allow the escape of air, which would otherwise prevent the lead from completely filling the cavity. A small strip of lead, somewhat thicker than the diameter of a musket-bullet, is introduced between the circumferences of the wheels, which nearly touch one another, and which by revolving force it into the cups, from whence it afterwards falls out on the opposite side in the shape of complete spheres."

Spence

 

[Crow-Feather]

Another thought:
I own two rifled percussion rifles, one .50 cal and one .54 cal. I always placed the patched round ball with the sprue up when loading. However I own a flintlock .62 cal smooth boar rifle that I have not yet fired a ball through. I just received lead round balls (.600 dia.) and will play with different thickness patches. Darwin Johnston's article was on rifled barrels. I think the sprue will play a bigger role in smooth bore barrels, especially if shooting with no patch or a very thin patch. The ball has a greater chance of roating around in the barrel when loading. This is the reason I want to remove the sprue in purchased lead balls. A .600 ball has a much bigger sprue than say for .50 cal rifle.

track of the wolf - 610 round ball - 25 for 9.99

 

[Robby]

When a flint requires bevel up, the sprue is down, when the bevel is down the sprue is up. It has made all the difference.
Robby

 

[Griz44Mag]

When a flint requires bevel up, the sprue is down, when the bevel is down the sprue is up. It has made all the difference.
Robby

Now I am in a real state of loss of confidence. What are we ever to do?????
Beam me up Scotty!!!!! Set course for Vulcan - we need the wisdom of the ancients.....

 

[Robby]

A wize man is but a fool in his own home town.
Robby

 

[Grenadier1758]

And sometimes on these forums, one who thinks he is wise learns otherwise.

This old fool thinks sprue up is the more observable method of loading. That said, I have some 0.350 lead balls cast in a Lee mold with almost no sprue and a dark patina that it is nearly impossible to find the sprue to load sprue up.

 

[FishDFly]

Was talking with a couple of the better pistol shooters last week from Friendship about shooting round balls.

They said that weighing balls was not needed as they felt that there was no advantage in pistol shooting, but possibly in the unlimited bench guns.

One said his wife would find imperfect cast round balls (voids and such) as she was loading. She would put them in a container and she would not shoot them. He would later use them in matches and could see no difference in his scores.

He said in "Limited Time Fire" matches he would use "store bought" swaged balls. He said he did this so he did not waste time getting sprues up while loading.

They load sprue up in their cast balls and see no need to use swaged balls.

Lots of experience there.

 

[Griz44Mag]

And sometimes on these forums, one who thinks he is wise learns otherwise.

This old fool thinks sprue up is the more observable method of loading. That said, I have some 0.350 lead balls cast in a Lee mold with almost no sprue and a dark patina that it is nearly impossible to find the sprue to load sprue up.

I like my Lee molds best for just that attribute......
And they seem to have a very consistant weight as well.
If you place a ball with a pronounced sprue on a hard flat surface it will roll to a sprue down orientation.
A Lee ball doesn't - that tells me something...!

 

[Spikebuck]

If you place a ball with a pronounced sprue on a hard flat surface it will roll to a sprue down orientation.
A Lee ball doesn't - that tells me something...!

That there is gravity?

 

[Robby]

When I hunted deer with a smoothie, I cast the ball using a Lee mold and made a tumbler from an old stainless steel mixing bowl and a variable speed motor, when they were done they were speckled with tiny dimples throughout. Some thought it a sprue ball idea, but I was able to achieve good consistent accuracy and meat with them.
Robin

 

[LRB]

If you flatten the sprue, where does the excess lead go? Simple, it goes on the area of the ball where the sprue was. You now have a round ball with a weighted side on it. I have shot store boughten round balls that didn't shoot half as good as my molded balls loaded with the sprue facing at me. I weighed store bought balls and was amazed at the variance. I did not check their width. I weigh my ammo and it stays within 1 to 2 grains variance. (Since I learned the word "variance" I had to use it a few times.) Since all of my competitions are off hand, the sprue is on my long list of "What the Hell".

Not necessarily heavy on one side. If you can flatten the sprue, and then true the ball, truly round afterwards, it will not have any side heavier than any other. Solids cannot be compressed. When you hammer metal, it does not compress, it moves. Years ago I miked balls from the two main suppliers of swaged balls, and none were perfect, but one was more consistent than the other. Been too long, I don't recall which was better.

 

[griffiga]

I’ve also read of people placing them in a can and tossing them in the bed of the truck for a bit. The rattling and rolling does the same thing they’ve said.

I've actually thrown them in a case tumbler with varying degrees of success. Smaller sprues work pretty good, larger ones, not so much.

 

[hanshi]

I still have a supply of .36 ball I cast up from a mold I bought prior to getting the .35" Lee version. That old mold cast up ball with a sprue like a stem on an apple. Tumbling helped but the sprue was still large. I just loaded them sprue up and got sub 1" groups at 40 yards.

 

[George]

I don't worry about the sprues unless they are very big. Even those can be trimmed off with nippers to a reasonable size. Back when, though, I tried tumbling some to see if it made a difference in accuracy. It didn't. Here are some .600" balls cast with a Rapine mold and then shaken hard for 20+ minutes in a plastic bottle. They shot the same before and after as far as I could tell.

Spence

 

[Tom A Hawk]

Yes, elongated bullets have an advantage. However, out to normal round ball ranges, I don't see a big deal in this sprue business. I load the sprue up and centered and I can hit a deer every time. Sometimes, when I do my part, even a clay pigeon at 100 yards.