Russ T Frizzen said:
A .715 ball weighs 550 grains in pure lead. A Bess weighs about 10 pounds.
A .760 ball weighs 660 grains in pure lead and the DGW 10 bore weighs 7 and 1/4 pounds.
I'd think the recoil in the shotgun might be more noticeable. Especially if you tried to get the 10 velocity up to a serious hunting level. It's going to take more than 100-110 grains of powder to do that.
Actually, the bore dia of a 10 ga should be .775, so it should shoot a ball about .745 dia., using a .015-.020 patch. That .745 ball will weigh about 600 gr.
My hunting load with the bess is 90 gr FFG. That relatively light load still packs quite a punch. Those big balls don't need allot of velocity to do a LOT of damage, so I suspect that a 100 gr load will launch that 600 gr ball with enough authority to punch through a coupla deer at 50 yards. Once large caliber balls get moving, it takes a LOT to stop them.
If one is concerned about the weight/recoil of those .745 balls, cast 'em in wheel weights or a harder alloy. They will be a coupla thou larger in diameter, and somewhat lighter, but still heavy enough to do the job. In a smoothbore, hardness or softness of the ball doesn't make a nickels worth of difference.
That said, the weight difference of hard vs soft balls probably won't make any appreciable difference in recoil, but the slightly larger diameter might make a difference in accuracy...possibly.
Balls cast of harder alloys do penetrate more deeply than soft lead balls, BTW.
God bless