What's your .62 roundball load?

[Nessmuck56]

.600 ball .18 thou greased crisco patch and 65 grains of FFF GOEX ...but still tinkering

 

[Tinker2]

My smooth bore deer load is .595 patched round ball 55 grains. of 2F true black powder




William Alexander

 

[Wes/Tex]

85 gr. 3F
1/8" hard card
1/2" lubricated cushion wad
.600" ball
.018" ticking patch lubed with beeswax-lard
Spence

Had been using 80 grains when I saw Spence's site some years ago and tried another 5 grains en voila, groups tightened up! Only difference is switch to lubed chamois for ticking...only cause I'm contrary!

 

[Darto]

Same as 54ball, only with tow instead of moss. Don't need no patches!

Or a .575 ball and .18 pillow tick patch sometimes.

Accuracy is the same either way 2"+ at 50 paces (matchlock, elbow on knee, sitting).

 

[rwiliff]

.562 ball and cotton duck patch, 70 gr. ffg.

Warmest Regards,
Robert

 

[Peter LeRay]

Robert i have .570 balls and die and figured I'd give it a try first before buying a .595 die. By bore is .615 so I'm thinkin 2 .018 patches or denim. Whatya think?

 

[roundball]

Just offering an observation, unless my math is at fault seems like that would be too loose...would lack about .010" of even filling the windage mathematically...suspect it would result in gas blowby / accuracy issues / fouling, etc. And all that is before even considering that a typical good fitting snug PRB then compresses the patch material some.
Just to mention it in case it's a possibility you're not aware of, Track of the Wolf offers experimental bags of different size cast balls, I think 25/bag.

 

[Grenadier1758]

615-570=45

You will have 4 thicknesses of patching surrounding the ball. We won't consider the effect of the bunching up of the patch. Doubling up two 0.018 patches will take up 0.072" of windage.

Should work.

 

[roundball]

Yes, my math was wrong...forgot to add the other side, thanks
:redface:

 

[rwiliff]

I don't know how thick my patches are for the .562 balls, but they shoot as well as the .600s that I used to shoot. Sometimes I use an over powder card.

Warmest Regards,
Robert

 

[Peter LeRay]

I just sacrificed an old pair of the walmart tan cotton duck pants. It's .025 thick so I made some patches out of it. We shall see.

 

[rwiliff]

Bet it loads easy and shoots good.

Robert0110

 

[jackpine54]

80 grains 3f - .010" lubed patch (mink oil) - .600 ball seems to work good in mine.

 

[Artificer]

Same as 54ball, only with tow instead of moss. Don't need no patches!

Or a .575 ball and .18 pillow tick patch sometimes.

Accuracy is the same either way 2"+ at 50 paces (matchlock, elbow on knee, sitting).

Is that 50 paces with a roughly 30" pace or are your paces longer? Just curious to figure out what distance that would be?

Gus

 

[Peter LeRay]

.570 rb with .025 cotton duck patch lubed with tallow and 80g 2f. Freehand at 50yrds. I think that'll work!

 

[buzz]

Mine same as jackpines .60 ball .010 patch but i useing 80 grain
Gotta try the.570 with double patch
My current load at 50 yards i need hold high of ceter on target

 

[hanshi]

Guess I should mention this and it does seem unusual, at that. At 50 yards I fired somewhere around 15 shots with 3F charges ranging from 60grns to 75grns and they all fell into the same group. 80grns was no different. 75grns is what I've been using in the field.

 

[tenngun]

Most every one here was 60-80 grains with a 110 thown in. When we look at besses or charlies the charges don't get much bigger. When we read old loading data we find besses were loaded at 50 shots or less to the pound, 140 or more grains. I wonder if that was doneto make a bigger cartridge...easier to handle by nervous hands on the battle field. Looking at loading a man rips open a cartridge, spills 10-20 grains, thows 10 gr or more into the pan and ground at his feet and still have 70-90 grains left behind the ball.
Most of us have shot through and though a deer or bigger with our loads. but Nelson stopped a charly ball at trafalgar, Jackson's hand stopped a US smooth bore bll at chancellersville. Sword cases and pockt bibles stopped shots alot that seem to have been fired close by. Makes you wonder how much powder was left laying on the ground.

 

[larryp]

Remember though that the military loads used greatly undersized balls for easy loading at high speed with a heavily fouled barrel. A lot of the gasses blew by the undersized ball cutting down on it's power.

 

[hanshi]

And it doesn't even take a reduced load to have a ball stopped by things carried in vest pockets, etc. I have personal knowledge of a deputy who was shot with a 30/30 while answering a call. His belt buckle saved him. Was he hurt? Would it still hurt to take one on a bullet resistant vest? It hurt him but he ended up okay.