You can get a casting seem when the person casting the ball does not hold the mold halves closed, tightly. Those balls should be rejected, and thrown back in the pot to remelt. Always look at the two halves to make sure there is no casting debris that will prevent the mold from closing fully.
If you know any reloader who loads cast bullets, he will probably have either a case tumbler, or a case vibrator. They are not too expensive, and if you are going to cast your own balls, you should buy your own. Look at used equipment sales at gun shows, pawn shops, and gun shops. As long as the motors work, these things are usually indestructible.
As to variations in size/weight, it really depends on who casts the balls as well as what lead they use. I like to keep my cast balls, and swaged balls to within 1 grain in weight, for target work( .50 caliber), and within .001" in diameter for size. This again is for target shooting. For off-hand shooting, and plinking, I use just about anything that fits the barrel. Most of that kind of shooting is done at pretty short ranges, at small targets, but the weight or size of the ball is not going to cause many misses at 25 yds. or less.
Some shooters use a 1% " rule", altho I don't know where they got that "rule". That is, they want the cast balls to weigh within 1% of the mean weight of the balls, for target shooting.
I have some wonderlube, but have not yet finished my old bottle of Young country Lube 101, a predeceasor to your Natural Lube 1000. Mine is not smelly like some of the later lubes are.
I find the old lube works great. I don't understand what you mean by "dirty", because I have used Hoppe's #9 Black Powder solvent and Patch lube, spit( don't have to pay the Arabs), water, crisco, and a variety of liquid lubes, and I don't find any of them to have any effect on how " dirty " the gun is. The dirt relates to the BP residue.
I find that if I use a OP wad made of Vegetable Fibers( Walter's Veg. Fiber Wads), that are 1/8" thick, between the powder and my PRB, the powder charge burns more completely and I get less residue. This is true with Goex FFg, and Goex FFFg, as Well as Swiss FFFg powder. If getting less residue means being less " dirty", then that is how you get there.
The less residue occurs because the OP wad delays the movement of the PRB a few milliseconds, causing the pressure in the barrel to rise, and the temperature to also rise. That causes the granules of powder to be burned more completely, leaving behind less unburned soot and chemicals. If you have ever watched wood burn, and then used a tube to blow air on the fire to give it more oxygen, you understand how raising the temperature makes the fuel burn more completely. Compressing any gas will cause its temperature to rise. That is the principle for a compression fire starter to ignite a burning ember out of tinder inside the cylinder.
The other thing I have done that reduces the amount of debris and residue in my MLer is to screen the powder to get uniformly sized granules. The more uniform the fuel is, the more likely it will all burn completely, from what I have experienced.
I clean between shots, and the cleaning patch always comes out black and shiney, from the moisture and "greasy " residue that is in the barrel. I make a habit of feeling that grease, by first folding the patch between my thumb and forefinger, and rubbing the two halves together. If there is grit in the residue, I can feel it doing this. If I don't, I will often get my fingers dirty by feeling the wet looking residue on the patch with my fingers. They can tell me better just how wet the residue is. On very damp hot summer days, for example, I now expect to have to run Two dampened cleaning patches down the barrel, followed by a dry patch to dry the barrel, to get it clean for the next shot. Experience, and notes, or a good memory, will teach you what you have to do in any given weather conditions. Just remember that what you do to clean will change with the weather, and that there is NO ONE way to clean these guns that works in all parts of the country, in every weather condition.
You can't memorize your way to a clean functioning barrel. Learn instead how to test the gun and components to know when you need to change what you usually do to clean the barrel. Too many beginners want a set group of rules, they can memorize, and use on their guns in all conditions. That just is not how BP works. Sorry, guys. :surrender: :hatsoff:
I keep rags or towels handy to wipe the residue off my dirty fingers. A Jug of water is always in my car's trunk or the back of my truck with a very small bottle of liquid dish soap, to wash my hands, to keep them clean during a match, or shooting session. I offer the use of the soap and water to the guys at my club, when they have forgotten theirs. They appreciate it even more than a cold drink at the end of a shoot. :thumbsup:
)
