Ball Bearings???

[Russianblood]

I have a bag of .590 steel balls from one of my kid's games that they no longer play with (mouse trap I believe). I plan on giving them a try with a thick pillow ticking patch.

 

[asabai]

I would stay away from steel for all the reasons already mentioned. I like it for shot because you get more pellets for the same weight compared to lead, but that wouldn’t make a difference with a single round ball.

 

[USBP_1969]

Hey Many, I was re-reading your post and saw that someone had a barrel wear out while shooting ball bearings in lieu of lead. Was he shooting a rifled barrel (if that's possible) or a smoothbore?

kent

 

[USBP_1969]

"There used to be an old barrel maker supposedly here in Indiana that always shot ball bearings. When he shot out a barrel in a couple of years, he'd make a new one."

Hey Many, was he shooting a smoothbore?

Kent

 

[CoyoteJoe]

I wouldn't expect accuracy from a rifled bore but if encased in a heavy patch that won't abrade through I don't see as there would be any excess wear on the bore, rifled or smooth. A steel ball will not upset to seal the bore so there should be no more stress in firing it out than in pushing it down. I don't see any problem with firing a steel ball in a thick patch but I'd make it a very thick patch, like old blue jean material. :grin:

 

[Many Klatch]

Yeah, he was shooting a rifle. It only took a year or two of regular shooting to take the rifling out.

BY THE WAY - AND THIS IS IMPORTANT!!

Let me tell you a story. A crazy friend of mine used to travel the world on the cheap. He thumbed or walked everywhere looking for cheap muzzleloaders that he could sell for a profit.

He was in Africa and was shown a muzzleloading shot gun that had been loaded with ball bearings about the size of 00 Buckshot. The owner had shot it and wound up on the ground. The balls had kind of wedged themselves into the barrel and grooved the barrel on the way out. My friend said that the barrel looked like a piece of rope from the outside. I guess that the shooter was very lucky that the gun didn't blow up.

I have never shot anything but a single ball bearing and I don't think it would be a good idea to try anything smaller. :nono: I don't think that steel shot is good for a blackpowder barrel without a plastic cup and I am darned sure that steel buckshot will hurt you and the gun.

Many Klatch

 

[USBP_1969]

Very interesting gentlemen. Thanks all.

That means that a smoothbore has the advantage of shooting a perfectly round ball at a very high speed. :hmm:

Kent

 

[CoyoteJoe]

That means that a smoothbore has the advantage of shooting a perfectly round ball at a very high speed. :hmm:

Kent

Well is there really an advantage in that? First I would doubt the "very high speed". There is only so much energy in a given amount of powder and black powder is not a high velocity propellant, it is most efficient when pushing a heavy projectile at rather low velocity.
Let us say that these .593" steel balls weigh 218 grains and that a lead ball of the same diameter will weigh 314 grains.
Now let us assume that a given load of black powder will drive the lead ball out the muzzle at 1400 fps with a corresponding energy of 1370 ft.lb.
Knowing that the efficiency of black powder will decline as the velocity increases we can assume that the lighter steel ball will certainly not produce any higher energy. So if we take the same 1370 ft.lb. and reverse the calculation we find that for a 218 grain ball to produce 1370 ft.lb. its' velocity would be 1680 fps at most, in reality it would be less, probably not over 1600.
Not a great deal of increase and considering that the steel will shed it's velocity much faster I suspect that at fifty yards the lead and steel would be doing about the same speed and the lead is still heavier and thus have greater retained energy. And as others have mentioned, a ball of hardened lead alloy will probably out penetrate a steel ball.
So, while this has been an interesting discussion, I don't see any practical application.

 

[Many Klatch]

I just noticed that the ball bearing has a lot less drop and that I could hold dead on at 100 to 200 yards and still hit the target. It will surely clang a gong at that distance.

Don't know about penetration, never tried it. Well that isn't entirely true, once I shot it at a cast iron Chevy pickup clutch plate at 25 yards, the steel ball cratered it about 1/2". That was when I started wondering about richochets.

Many Klatch

 

[CoyoteJoe]

I just noticed that the ball bearing has a lot less drop and that I could hold dead on at 100 to 200 yards and still hit the target. It will surely clang a gong at that distance.
Many Klatch[/quote
There must be some voodoo involved because the laws of physics cannot explain such a flat trajectory with any sort of round ball. :grin:

 

[Many Klatch]

I don't know about voodoo, although I would use it if it worked. I just figured that since the gun was sighted in with a lead ball and its trajectory, that the steel ball was moving faster, therefore straighter and had a point of aim that was a lot farther off.

I didn't do any math on it or figure velocities. I just shot and saw where it hit. Maybe I was too dumb to know that it wouldn't work. :haha:

Many Klatch

 

[paulvallandigham]

Manny: Juist be very careful shooting at metallic gongs. Those steel ball bearings are so hard, they do not deform on impact, as lead does, and they ricochette fast and far. They can even come straight back at you. On rebound its not likely to travel back 200 yds, but it can 100 yds. I have been on a commercial range where they used huge gear blanks as gong targets at 100 yds. They forbid the use of .22 rimfire ammo on those targets because they had the small bullets recochette all the way back to the firing line on more than one occasion. The range would never have allows ball bearings to be fired on the property.

It would be interesing to see what velocity and energy remains for those ball bearings at the longer ranges. That .590 ball is rather large, and would certainly retain some energy at 100 yds, and probably at 200 yds.

 

[Deadeye]

Back when I was a kid and we had no rifle larger than a .22 we would take the shot out of shotgun shells (this was before plastic wads) and put in a ball bearing, shot pretty well (as well as most slugs)and would kill anything that got in it's way. Never did any damage to the barrel.

 

[Many Klatch]

Paul, you are correct about the danger on a shooting range. I usually save my ball bearing shooting for a woods walk where the target is back in the trees.

It sure is fun to the see the face on a newbie rifle shooter when the old guy with a smoothbore hits a gong way out there that the rifle missed.

Many Klatch

 

[Scota4570]

Back when I was a kid and we had no rifle larger than a .22 we would take the shot out of shotgun shells (this was before plastic wads) and put in a ball bearing, shot pretty well (as well as most slugs)and would kill anything that got in it's way. Never did any damage to the barrel.

I have seen several shotgun barrels ruined by shoooting BBs. It will cause grooves in the barrel. One was a very fine Merkel, very sad.

Steel is in an inferior projectile to lead. It will not retain energy as well. This is why steel shot shot shells are inferior to lead. As for shooting flat, this is impossible and the product of imagination. They will slow down faster than lead, it is like shooting ping pong balls by comparison. Bearings are expensive too. They may damage your gun. Shooting bearings is a very bad idea.

 

[USBP_1969]

Howdy Scota4570.

Sectional density would be down with the lighter stainless steel ball bearing and initial (muzzle velocity) up. in reality, It would sort of a trade off. If one is planning to shoot a very long ranges sectional density and ballistic coefficient become quite important, but at ranges of 200 yards and less, they are not much of a factor.

A similiar comparison might be the 405 grain .45-70 and the 300 grain .45-70.

Kent