undersized balls out of a smoothie

[cayugad]

I was shooting my .62 caliber smoothbore today and just for kicks, I got some heavy patch material, and shot a .570 ball made for my .58 caliber.

What was so surprising was the accuracy I was getting with it. It was very easy to load, I was using 85 grains of Goex FFFg then a borebutter patch and the ball. You could load the thing without a short starter. For safety reasons I still put an over the shot card on the whole works. It was holding a very good group at the 25 yard station. Is this normal? Do a lot of people shoot extreme undersized balls from their smoothbores? I do not mean shot here :winking:

The reason I tried them was when I patch a .600 ball, it is almost necessary to pound the ball down the barrel with a hammer unless the barrel has been swabbed very clean. I have to find some thinner patch material I think.

I was shooting excellent groups today with 85 grains of Goex FFFg, a nitro card, a borebuttered fiber wad, a .600 ball, and then an over the shot card. Out to 35 yards it will shoot a ragged hole most the time. The problems start when I hit about 40+ yards, then the groups start to really open up.

 

[big bore 75]

hey buddie sounds like your having fun with you smoothie,try uping or lowering your powder charge, some of these thigs get real pequliar with loads, I my self have done everything under the sun to get reliable groups with my bess indian gunnext thing for me is to go to a white lightning flashhole liner it cannot take anything less than 2fg holes to big, but in the past i have owned trade guns my favorite is a tulle in 58.cal or 24 ga would you believe it not only likes 570 round balls but shoots even better with 575 round ball and seems to even like 300- 500 grain mini balls, but one thing I have never done is use those card wads your using.have fun and enjoy. Kevin

 

Just a theory but maybe the smaller ball is more closely a sphere when it exits the barrel since you didn't pound it down. In addition, it may be exiting with less imparted spin so you are throwing a fast ball instead of a curve ball. ::

 

[tg]

I have used .535 and .550 in a .58 and .562 in a .62 with enough patch to hold it in place, sometimes it takes a piece of wool, I have found all of my smoothies to be less than particular about ball size.

 

[musketman]

The reason I tried them was when I patch a .600 ball, it is almost necessary to pound the ball down the barrel with a hammer unless the barrel has been swabbed very clean.

Track of the Wolf has .595 round balls, this would give you a little more room...

Quantity: per 50
Part Number: BALL-595-X
Description: .595" round balls, pure lead, hand cast
Price: $8.25

 

[shooter575]

For easy loading try it with out a patch or card.Use the bigest ball that will fall down the barrel.Dip the ball in a melted lube two or three times to add coats. Lube will need to be stiffer than patch lube though. Say 60/40 bees wax and crisco or lard.
With my .69 smoothie I can hit or scare a clay pigon at 50 yd most of the time.I can get off 10-12 shots before the bore gets too fouled to load.
This is what we do in smooth bore comp in N-SSA

Jim

 

[musketman]

I do that when out hunting, the first two shots are with a patched .715 round ball, all following shots are unpatched .735 round balls with a over-shot card in front, the fouling acts as a crude patch...

Since I hold my range to 50 yards or less (because of my eye sight) this works well for me...

 

[cayugad]

Musketman.. interesting you say that after the barrel is fowled you can go to a smaller ball. That is what happened today. I was shooting the .60 and they were fine, then I thought I would try one with a patch and realized it was going to be a real tight fit again. So I had some of the .570 ball sitting there and dropped that into the patch. When I shot, all I noted was they shot about an inch higher then the .60 other then that they were sure a pleasure to load.

I also never thought of coating the ball with layers of lube. I think I will try that too. I have some paraffin wax around the house, so if I mix that with some crisco I can see what will happen. Do you need to put a over the nitro card first? I would be worried that the lube would effect the powder.

Also I found that my smoothie likes FFFg better then FFg except when shooting shot. I have no reason why that would happen, but I can live with it.

 

[musketman]

Yes, use the nitro card, won't hurt a thing...

However, it is another step in the loading process, if the wax is hard and dry, it shouldn't mix with the powder...

People use spit patches and it's wet and right up against the powder, so a little wax won't hurt a thing, unless the barrel is really hot or the gun is setting loaded in the sun all day, then it could melt the wax a bit...

I would start the nitro card about an inch down the muzzle, add the waxed ball and over shot card, then ram the three of them down the barrel in one stroke, after the powder... :winking:

 

[shooter575]

cayugad, Like musketman said It will not mess up your powder. I shoot rapid fire 3 minute events.9-10 rounds.Barrel get real hot.I dump the pre measured charge,Set ball on muzzle,ram home in one motion.Cap and fire.Thats it. I make my own lube.I adjust the hardness so it is harder that SPG,softer than Alox.It is not sticky.Sorta like a candle.Using this method with .010 under bore ball after 10 rounds it gets harder to ram home.With a smaller ball you could shoot more rounds between cleaning.
Anyway this works for me.

Jim

 

[cayugad]

I have some paraffin wax around the house, I will have to work out a lube that I can use for this. I am guessing all you are doing is dipping the lube coated ball adding coats of lube until it gets near the barrel diameter.

 

[musketman]

I am guessing all you are doing is dipping the lube coated ball adding coats of lube until it gets near the barrel diameter.

Yep, you could dip a few at a time if you could work out a strainer of some kind, or make a wire holder for dipping... (like the kind used for dying easter eggs)

Figure out how many coats of wax/lube is required on the first ball, them just dip the remainder of the projectiles the same amount of times...

If you are using home cast balls, set the balls on the spure flats to dry...

 

[Deadeye]

Is this lube hard enough when dry not to wipe off? How do you carry them, what sort of container?

 

[musketman]

Is this lube hard enough when dry not to wipe off? How do you carry them, what sort of container?

It depends on the wax mixture, you can get the lube as stiff as a candle if you like by adding more wax to the formula...

I carry about 10 waxed musket balls in a non-P.C. ziplock bag...

 

[cayugad]

Update on Smoothbore loads:

I made some wax covered .600 diameter ball. I shot them with 80 grain of FFg the nitro card, then the greased fiber wad, then the wax ball, then the over the shot card. Accuracy was not all that great. They were in the general area but hitting all around the point of aim.

I then tried the lube packed round ball with the same cards and charge. Again, accuracy was not the best.

I then tried smaller ball and patches. I thought I had the problem solved then fliers started to appear, and some of them were really bad.

So I went to the old standby of the nitro card, the fiber wad, the plain old ball with the spur up, and the shot card with 80 grains. As before, as long as I stay under 40 yards the accuracy is excellent. At 50 yards it shot almost a 5 inch group. I have decided I have one stand where the shots are "usually" 25 yards or less. I am going to score this year with it on deer. ::

I also did some more shot testing. Would it be normal for the shot pattern to hit low when the barrel has rifle sights on it? I hate to adjust to the sight because then the round ball would be way off....

 

[shooter575]

With my .69 1816 at 25yd. I hold at 6:00.At 50 I must hold 8" under.Ball is still going up.I havent played around to see when it starts coming back down.

Jim

 

[musketman]

With my .69 1816 at 25yd. I hold at 6:00.At 50 I must hold 8" under.Ball is still going up.I havent played around to see when it starts coming back down.

Jim

It would be interesting to know, this will give you an effective range if you hold on the upper half of a deer, you should hit it at all givin yardage's within the arc of the ball's travail...

 

Also shooting up hill or down will make a difference to your site picture even if you don

 

[robinghewitt]

Of course undersized balls were normal for ML cannon, in the 17th they made them 1/4" undersize and called it the windage. Despite this the little 1.5" Rabonet was deadly accurate, there was even an ECW gentleman's agreement that the Rabonets did not target the opposing officers, dashed unsporting. Are iron balls special or does fit matter less as the size ncreases perhaps? 'tis a mystery.

NB: I never pleaded with Musket Man not to abuse my pictures. Please stop sending him hate mail and death threats.

 

[musketman]

NB: I never pleaded with Musket Man not to abuse my pictures. Please stop sending him hate mail and death threats.

The hate mail and death threats only come from my EX-Wife, but thanks just the same Robin...