.350 Balls

[FishDFly]

For those who look for .350 balls and cannot find them, next time you go to a LGS, look for Hornady 000 Buckshot.
They are .350 and come in 5 pound boxes. Don't know how many are in a box, but it's a bunch.

Hornady No. #64000

 

[dragnetbill]

For those who look for .350 balls and cannot find them, next time you go to a LGS, look for Hornady 000 Buckshot.
They are .350 and come in 5 pound boxes. Don't know how many are in a box, but it's a bunch.

Hornady No. #64000

Assuming 65 grains per ball you will get about 538 per 5lb box.
I know I may have mentioned this before, but, I went this route several years back and found the buckshot somewhat lacking in performance. The buckshot balls have a slight "belt" and seem to be somewhat harder than their standard roundballs. I found it impractical (impossible for me) to attempt to load with the "belt" in the same orientation. I shot them out of my Pedersoli .36 Frontier and my T/C Seneca and found them to produce groups less consistent than Hornady Round Ball. Sometimes the buckshot gave me "good" groups, sometimes not.
I only tested them once side by side and that was out of the Pedersoli. On that occasion the buckshot group was about twice the size as the roundball.
I suppose that I would still consider using the buckshot if I was just plinking at cans or gongs, but, if I am going after squirrel heads I want the roundballs.
I'm interested to hear from others as to their expierences with the buckshot.

 

[Grimord]

I have a box of the 000 buckshot, and I do not see the belt that was mentioned on the balls. They seem to be perfectly round, with no deformation. They are somewhat harder that pure lead balls, so they do start harder in the bore, but I have had good accuracy with them in a .36 Shenandoah, and a custom Blivens flint lock.

 

[FishDFly]

Granted, they are a bit harder than home cast balls.

Even if they are not as accurate as cast balls, they sure beat not having any to shoot.

 

[dragnetbill]

I have a box of the 000 buckshot, and I do not see the belt that was mentioned on the balls. They seem to be perfectly round, with no deformation. They are somewhat harder that pure lead balls, so they do start harder in the bore, but I have had good accuracy with them in a .36 Shenandoah, and a custom Blivens flint lock.

The hardness wouldn't bother me if the batch I have was round; I'm sure the squirrels wouldn't notice the difference.
I tried to photograph a few to show what I'm talking about, but, I couldn't get my camera to focus on the little buggers good enough to show the deformation that I'm talking about. The "belt" is not uniform from buckshot to buckshot, but is evident on most to some degree. It appears as if the two halfs of the swaging mould didn't quite line up. Maybe I got a Quality Control day off batch.
My intention was to make a frame with heavy plate glass to roll the buckshot to see if I could smooth them out, but, that project is in my procrastination file. Luckily I came across a couple of boxes fo .350 round ball at swap meets before the world changed and don't have to use the buckshot for now.

 

[Grimord]

The hardness wouldn't bother me if the batch I have was round; I'm sure the squirrels wouldn't notice the difference.
I tried to photograph a few to show what I'm talking about, but, I couldn't get my camera to focus on the little buggers good enough to show the deformation that I'm talking about. The "belt" is not uniform from buckshot to buckshot, but is evident on most to some degree. It appears as if the two halfs of the swaging mould didn't quite line up. Maybe I got a Quality Control day off batch.
My intention was to make a frame with heavy plate glass to roll the buckshot to see if I could smooth them out, but, that project is in my procrastination file. Luckily I came across a couple of boxes fo .350 round ball at swap meets before the world changed and don't have to use the buckshot for now.

I use the plate method on my home cast balls, but you can also use a tumbler to take out the sprues, or in your case get rid of the belt.

 

[user 34300]

I use Hornady buckshot in a Kibler SMR. The groups are around 1" at 50 yards off the bench. They shoot better than what I cast. Not fiddling with orienting sprues with such tiny balls is good.

As previously stated you can tumble cast balls remove sprues. While your tumbling add some graphite and make them look black and shiny.