Ball sizes- from 4 bore to 140 bore.

These range from 1"(or 5 bore @ 1,455gr. to a ball for a .32 or .33 rifle at 50.8gr.
:

: They run: 1.00"; .735";.715";.684";.646";.598";.531";.445";.390";.360";.320"- all cast.
: Above the 5 bore ball for 4 guage gun is one ball recoved from the 300metre butt of sand, gravel and rocks up to 6" in dia and a .735 from the same butt from a 10 bore Bess.
: Also there are two conicals for the 14 bore rifle, the Minnie at 730gr. and 630gr.HB from the mould I bored, which also works well in rifled 12 guage. Above the 14 bore ball is a flattened ball recovered from the off side of a moose after breaking a rib on one side and smashing the off shoulder. Above that is a cast 1/2 ball for string-cutting.
: Above the.60 to .62 cal ball(.598) is one recovered from a moose after holing both lungs & was under the off-side hide. In between the 20-bore and the .54 balls is a .58 510gr. Minnie and a 750gr. Solid (Barnes) for the .577 Nitro.
: Under the .45 ball is a 200gr. REAL lubed with Lyman lube and a 180gr.Ball-Et from Buffalo Bullet Co. both are accurate in my 60" GM barrel. If they would maintain stability after hitting, I dont' know but would probably suffice for deer. A friend used to use the 200gr. REAL for deer until shoting one with a RB. The RB penetrated just as far & dropped the deer quicker he thought and has since switched to atched RB. The 45-90 Winchester rifles also had a 32" twist for 300gr.factory loads which were barely longer than the 200gr. REAL due to lack of deep grouves & flat noses. The 45-90 was generally a 4" to 6" rifle at 100yds., and know to be innacurate at distances over 100yds. The best recorded accuracy I've found in print is a Winchester claim of 9" at 200yds.
: I expect they worked just fine on light deer, but lacked straight-line stability on Moose or Elk - perhaps due to a marginal twist. I had thought the twist was 60" , but was mistaken on that.
The Sharps 2.4" case had 18" rifling for normal heavy .45 buffalo bullets of the day & had long range accuracy and killing power.
: Quite a difference between the 4bore and 12 bore, eh?
: Missing from the lineup are .58 and .50 balls.
Daryl

 

[musketman]

Daryl, private message me your address and I'll send you a .58 caliber round ball... :winking:

WOW, the 5-bore dwarfs the .75 caliber... :shocking:

 

No problem on the .58 - I'm sure we have a .58 mould around somewhere to go with an old .58 blank that never got used - yet. I think it's one of the rack of blanks I bought from Les Bauska in 1975 on a trip to see him and "Old" John Buhmiller. John passed away not too long after that - he'd been sick for quite a while. Very nice man of incredible amount of African hunting experience.
: BTW - the single muzzleloading 4 bore smoothbore shortened fowler(a pair apparently) that F.Selous used in Africa for Elephant prior to WW1, developed well over 200lbs. of recoil. It broke WW Greener's recoil machine that measured up to 200lbs. The standard charge was the gun bearer's cupped hand full of FG. The shot that broke the stock on one was from 2 handfulls during an exciting charge while reloading the piece. He was hunting with one only that day. The hammer spur cut Selous forehead over both eyes, and the flap of skin fell over his eyes, blinding him. The gun, retrieved by the gun bearer had flown some 15-20'. He managed to get in a killing shot with left hand on the gun only resting on the gunbearer's shoulder as his right didn't work anymore with his collar bone broken. Sounds as if it kicked a bit more than your normal front stuffer. Francis Selous always blamed the 4 bore for destroying his 'fine' shooting - I GUESS it would.
Daryl