1842 Armi Sport .69 caliber

What diameter of ball mold should I get to shoot this gun with patched ball loads?
I should mention that I am an l advocate of smaller balls and thicker patches in all my guns. The thicker patches load easier and carry more lube.
I may get into shooting paper cartridges later, which I know will require an even smaller ball.

I have one and other .69’s. I like .662

Get a regulation .65 ball. If you wish to run patched ball a .020-.025 patch will get you a good light press fit.

0.662 Lyman ball for patched loads. 0.678 ball for bare ball loads. 0.65 ball for original paper cartridge loads. Actually, all will work for patched ball loads depending on the patch thickness. But for a standard patch the .662 works the best in my opinion.

Bob

Leatherbark said:

0.662 Lyman ball for patched loads. 0.678 ball for bare ball loads. 0.65 ball for original paper cartridge loads. Actually, all will work for patched ball loads depending on the patch thickness. But for a standard patch the .662 works the best in my opinion.

Bob

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Balls should really not be patched to more than bore size.

No matter what the regulators of historical accuracy tell you, try measuring the bore.
My Armisport .69 caliber has a .696" bore diameter. It is rifled and the groove diameter is around .703", eh, but never mind that. We have Armisports so find out what you have and go forth accordingly. The market available gasket punches and ball molds will likely as not dictate what you end up making work and work they will.

nkbj said:

No matter what the regulators of historical accuracy tell you, try measuring the bore.
My Armisport .69 caliber has a .696" bore diameter. It is rifled and the groove diameter is around .703", eh, but never mind that. We have Armisports so find out what you have and go forth accordingly. The market available gasket punches and ball molds will likely as not dictate what you end up making work and work they will.

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Apples to oranges. I know you got your knickers in a wad, but keep it topical. He is talking about a smoothbore. It is after all in the smoothbore forum.

Clark Badgett said:

Get a regulation .65 ball. If you wish to run patched ball a .020-.025 patch will get you a good light press fit.

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What is the diameter to 3 decimal places of a 65 regulation ball?

Clark Badgett said:

Apples to oranges. I know you got your knickers in a wad, but keep it topical. He is talking about a smoothbore. It is after all in the smoothbore forum.

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Hey, I’m open to any and all .69 musket-related info.

Clark Badgett said:

Apples to oranges. I know you got your knickers in a wad, but keep it topical. He is talking about a smoothbore. It is after all in the smoothbore forum.

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The wad is all yours sir. His Armisport is what it is, just like all those smooth bores centuries ago.

smoothshooter said:

Hey, I’m open to any and all .69 musket-related info.

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To be honest. It’s not an incredibly interesting subject. .69 smoothbores were primarily used by the military. Some did get surplussed out and became family fowlers. There were 5 loads for the M1842, ball, buck & ball, buck shot, blank and when they came out there was a Minie load for the rifled muskets.

nkbj said:

The wad is all yours sir. His Armisport is what it is, just like all those smooth bores centuries ago.

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Did I say something against his Armisport?
……didn’t think so

Clark Badgett said:

Did I say something against his Armisport?
……didn’t think so

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My goodness! Every post that I stumble upon by you is snarky, ignorant and rude.

Lighten up. It is no wonder new people think many of us “black powder fanatics” are a bunch of ignorant and inbred jerks.

The gentleman asked for help, and other nice folks are trying help. You insult lots of people, their questions and others advice.

You may be a self proclaimed expert, but many good people (myself included) do not know, and are eager to learn. And lots of nice people on this forum have been very helpful to others ( my self included, I’ve learned so much).

I don’t know what your issue is.

Kyle Kalasnik said:

My goodness! Every post that I stumble upon by you is snarky, ignorant and rude.

Lighten up. It is no wonder new people think many of us “black powder fanatics” are a bunch of ignorant and inbred jerks.

The gentleman asked for help, and other nice folks are trying help. You insult lots of people, their questions and others advice.

You may be a self proclaimed expert, but many good people (myself included) do not know, and are eager to learn. And lots of nice people on this forum have been very helpful to others ( my self included, I’ve learned so much).

I don’t know what your issue is.

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nkBJ brought the attitude from another discussion. And I never proclaimed myself an expert. Just giving out free info from a lot of out of print expensive books.

And we were having a good discussion about balls for a .69 before that.

So what is your issue. You attack for no reason.

smoothshooter said:

What is the diameter to 3 decimal places of a 65 regulation ball?

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.650” or you could even go .648 or .652” 2 thou either way is not going to hurt anything.

smoothshooter said:

What diameter of ball mold should I get to shoot this gun with patched ball loads?
I should mention that I am an l advocate of smaller balls and thicker patches in all my guns. The thicker patches load easier and carry more lube.
I may get into shooting paper cartridges later, which I know will require an even smaller ball.

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Let's think a bit about what you have in your possession. It is a smooth bored military musket. The intent is to have an easy to load firearm.

To start with we should measure the bore diameter. That gives us a place to begin thinking about where we go with our loading procedure.

To get an easy to load round start with thick patches of about 0.020" to 0.025" and select an available ball that is 0.040" less than the measured bore diameter. That will be easy to load and have military accuracy.

A bit more precision on target may be obtained when using a patch of 0.015" that compresses to 0.011". The selected ball should be 0.020" less than bore diameter. that will be in the range of 0.662 to 0.670".

When using a aper wrapped cartridge, make a mandrel for wrapping the ball so that when the mandrel is wrapped with the desired paper, it is 0.003" less than the measured bore diameter. In fact, it can be less than that up to 0,015" or more. After all, this is a smooth bored gun and rifle like accuracy should not be an expectation. The ball should be no bigger than the final diameter of the mandrel and is probably better to be smaller than the mandrel diameter. The crumbled-up paper of the powder side of the cartridge will act as a wad to hold the ball securely in place. I have dipped the ball end of a paper cartridge in melted lube to attempt to control fouling. I have also had success with getting off repeated shots using paper cartridges by spitting on the paper wrapped ball as I load the ball.

It can be quite the adventure to get comfortable with the loading of smooth bored muskets.

nkbj said:

No matter what the regulators of historical accuracy tell you, try measuring the bore.
My Armisport .69 caliber has a .696" bore diameter. It is rifled and the groove diameter is around .703", eh, but never mind that. We have Armisports so find out what you have and go forth accordingly. The market available gasket punches and ball molds will likely as not dictate what you end up making work and work they will.

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Isn’t this the smooth bore forum ? How does this help with an 1842 smooth bore ?

FlinterNick said:

Isn’t this the smooth bore forum ? How does this help with an 1842 smooth bore ?

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Like I said before*, "No matter what the regulators of historical accuracy tell you, try measuring the bore. My Armisport .69 caliber has a .696" bore diameter. It is rifled and the groove diameter is around .703", eh, but never mind that. We have Armisports so find out what you have and go forth accordingly. The market available gasket punches and ball molds will likely as not dictate what you end up making work and work they will."

The point as previously stated is that we have Armisport's. My .69 bore is really a .696" bore. Some Armisport .69 bores are smaller, some are bigger. Because of that the only way to know what ball diameters (or gasket punch) he needs to buy into for patched or bare ball loads is to measure his bore. My Pedersoli is much closer to the theoretical .69.

*With an attitude LOL.

nkbj said:

Like I said before*, "No matter what the regulators of historical accuracy tell you, try measuring the bore. My Armisport .69 caliber has a .696" bore diameter. It is rifled and the groove diameter is around .703", eh, but never mind that. We have Armisports so find out what you have and go forth accordingly. The market available gasket punches and ball molds will likely as not dictate what you end up making work and work they will."

The point as previously stated is that we have Armisport's. My .69 bore is really a .696" bore. Some Armisport .69 bores are smaller, some are bigger. Because of that the only way to know what ball diameters (or gasket punch) he needs to buy into for patched or bare ball loads is to measure his bore. My Pedersoli is much closer to the theoretical .69.

*With an attitude LOL.

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And none of any responses he got prior were deserving of your attitude. A .650” ball with a .025” patch would even work in your .696” bore. Or you could get an appropriate sized minie to use in your rifled bore since that is what the original intent was.

It has always amazed me just how much people supposedly interested in historical arms get all bent out of shape over the historical part.