Bare Ball In A Smoothie ?

[54ball]

Are you using wads? I have had good sucess with bare ball over a wad colunm.

I was speaking of those who use powder and ball only.

Ball and powdah only ... we didn't need no stinkin' wads or patches!

... it's much messier it clean up, but it's nit a big desk.

You might wish you had a patch or wad if that ball rolls half way down the barrel. :shocked2:

For loading and Immediately shooting, it may be OK. Or if you were defending yourself and your hair against 5 Shawnee Warriors, I could understand it.

There is no way in Hades I would hunt with such a load. Something has to secure the ball on top of the powder.

 

[Musketeer]

My Jackie Brown fowler has a .600 bore. I have to pound patched .600" balls down the barrel to shoot. Might be a good candidate to try the bare ball thing.

Reminds me of the book "Rifleman Dodd" where Forester describes Dodd using a mallet to hammer the ball home in his rifle. The Brits apparently issued the mallets with early "Baker" rifles. :thumbsup:

 

[Grandpa Ron]

One cannot argue with success and if ball and powder work for you, then I understand why you use it.

If you have been doing this for a while I will assume you have figured out a way to keep the ball in place against the powder.

 

[jethro224]

For accurate target shooting and hunting I use a patched ball. When speed counts and the distance is short a bare ball over just powder works fine.

Last fall during a post shoot I started with a patched ball on the first shot, then went to dropping a .715 bare ball (.750 bore) down on the powder, thumping the butt on the ground, priming and firing. When the barrel started getting really fouled I started using the ramrod. My team won by a fairly large margin.
I don't know how many times I fired, but it was way more than anyone else and all of my shots hit the post. The barrel on my Bess was so hot I couldn't touch it.

 

[MacRob46]

A bare ball will get you lots of "blow-by", reducing your velocity and consequently your energy and produce more fowling. The PRB in a smoothbore will move some of the fowling down the bore, improving accuracy a bit but a naked ball is one of the most inaccurate projectiles you can use. I have shot my Bess with both PRB and naked ball and the difference between the two is easily detected, from the felt recoil to, of course, the even worse accuracy than usual. I agree with MK that there is really no compelling reason to do it even though it may have been common in the past. A wad of tow is a pretty good substitute for a PRB by the way.

 

[kingsax26]

I ahve been experimenting with bare vs patched. My fowler shoots a .570 ball with a .010 patch. and is a bear to load...but its super accurate. will shoot clover leafs at 25yds and about a 5-6 inch group at 50...75yards is about the farthes i would shoot as the group averages 8-10inches at that point. when I tried a bare ball..everything opened up....alot. since I only use the gun for hunting I want the cleanest kill possible...i decided to stick with a patched ball.. may not be HC...but im happy knowing im doing best by the deer

 

[larryp]

My smooth bore is just the opposite. I've tried patched balls with only moderate success but with a wad, ball and then thin card I get my best groups.

 

[Grandpa Ron]

I guess I will chime in again. My best load with my 28 ga. Tradegun, at 50 yards offhand, is 70 grns. 3F, and a ¼ inch lubed wad, topped with a PRB.

Every gun/shooter combination is different. You need to shoot a lot to discover What works for you. That is what make them fun. :grin:

 

[hanshi]

[/quote]
Every gun/shooter combination is different. You need to shoot a lot to discover What works for you. That is what make them fun. :grin:
[/quote]



Very true, indeed. Patched ball does pretty good in my smoothbore. Bare ball does well enough until around 50 yards or so where it starts to open up. The bare load is always with a 1/2" lubed cushion wad or 1/4" felt wad over the powder, the ball and an os card wad.

 

[Curt]

To those that shoot bare balls ,how hard is it to clean all the lead out of your barrel at the end of a day of shootin.Or do you not worry about it .I use PRB so im just currioss .Curt

 

[hanshi]

Honestly, I've never had a problem with leading by shooting bare ball. Maybe the cushion/felt lubed wad beneath the ball makes a difference; I don't know. I shoot mostly WW ball so the harder ball might figure in.

 

[jethro224]

I shoot wheel weight ball in mine too. Whenever I have shot bare ball I try and shoot a few patched ball after. Seems like the patched balls shoot most of the lead out. I really hasn't been a problem. I get more leading from shot loads.

 

[Leatherbark]

To those that shoot bare balls ,how hard is it to clean all the lead out of your barrel at the end of a day of shootin.Or do you not worry about it .I use PRB so im just currioss .Curt

Yeah shot loads lead something fierce, but when I use a jag and hot water it comes out on the patch. Wheelweight balls with the lubed wads don't seem to lead. I actually think if the barrel is straight the ball probably doesn't touch the barrel much if any after the wad molds itself to the back of the ball and the ball imprints itself into the lubed wad in front of the ball with both wads scraping the bore with their lube.

Not a proven theory but it seems to work for me somewhat.

Bob

 

[54ball]

With lubed wads, IMHO leading is a non issue as the wadding, especially loose fiber or even blanketing takes up the windage.

Bare ball over powder... with a simple wad on top of the bare ball, should still take care of the windage.

Bare ball no wads at all... As I said I do not like this load except for maybe load and immediately shoot. Since the the ball is sub bore size gas will escape around the ball and lead to bbl contact will be limited so IMHO leading will not be an issue even with a totally naked unwadded unpatched ball.

Now Minnies with that skirts that expand and somewhat engage rifling and seal the bore or centerfire where the bullet is swaged into the bore or where a oversize slug or ball is driven down the bore, I could see leading as an issue.

 

[Bougalee]

I have access to some good ole La. Spanish moss. Should the moss be dried or used green (gray actually). How do you lube it?

Thanks

 

[54ball]

It should be dark and thin like hair. I suppose you could use it green but personally I do not like to harvest it while it's still living. You can find the dried stuff towards the bottom of trees and sometimes in mats on the ground.

If you are on public forest land you may be ticketed for harvesting it live off the trees whereas they may not say much about the dead stuff especially off the ground. The dead stuff is what the Indians used as wadding and stuffing for cushions.

I mix up a mixture of bees wax and olive oil. My last batch was the consistency of Turtle car wax. It just needs to be soft enough that the wad will take wax when you rub it and hard enough it does not run out of the tin on a warm day.

Do this outside or have a broom or dustpan handy.

I guestimate about much moss I need to make a ball at about 1/3 bigger than the bore. I pull or cut the moss then I simply rub it into a ball between my palms. All trash and dirt will fall to the ground or floor as you roll the moss balls. You will often have to pick sticks other debris out during this process.

Once rolled you can compare size if it's too big you can pull some out and re roll it or simply roll it tighter. It compacts in the bore easily so you need it larger than bore size to make a good seal and cushion.

After rolling I simply rub the moss wad balls through the wax lube in my tin. They tighten up some when you lube them and they do not need to be lubed through and through, just a little on the outside.

I keep them loose in my shooing bag and pull them out when I need them.

They will not all be exactly same size. Really it makes no difference in my experience. I use the larger ones over the powder and the smaller ones over the ball.

The ball in my son's 20 bore is a .610 in a Colerain .617 bore. The ball requires just a minute bit of pressure to get past the muzzle then it will fall down the barrel. Any type of patch would be impossible on that size ball in that bore.

I start the wad and push just a little down the bore, then I place the ball on top and ram it down then I ram down the over ball wad. This type of wadding wraps around the ball plus it seals the bore. That may be why with a tight ball it is as good or sometimes better than a PRB.

Now you can ram the whole load down easily on a clean bore and it's pretty easy to load shot after shot without wiping but it can get difficult to ram the whole load down on a fouled bore.

I dare say I could have rolled at least 50 or so up in the time it took me to type this, but I am a slow typist. LOL

 

[Bougalee]

Many thanks, I'll try it when I get my TVM fusil de Chasse in March. Until then I'm stock piling the items I'll need to make it go bang. Moss was the first item collected, it grows in the yard.

 

[Bougalee]

I remember my Grandfather Pierre Dufrene telling me stories of how he use to hunt ducks with his Dad or Grandfather. He indicated that they would pick moss as they poled their pirogue through the swamp, some of the moss they put on sticks to use as decoys and some they used as wadding for their shotguns. Wish I would have paid better attention to those stories. Moss played an important role in their lives. They used it as I mentioned before, but also the sale of it to moss drying warehouses, as a supplement to their fishing, trapping and hunting incomes.

On another note how do you think Crisco would work as lube, I use it in all my other bp applications.

 

[Bougalee]

Why lube the moss? Wouldn't subsequent loading of the moss conform to the barrel, fouling and all? Couldn't the fouling just be dealt with upon cleaning?

I'm just looking to speed up the loading process.

Inquiring minds want to know.

 

[smoothshooter]

Most of the smoothbores I have owned shot well with either a patched or bare ball, with the patched loads USUALLY being the more accurate.
Sometimes when out hunting or just walking around with one of my smoothbores, and I don't really expect to get a shot, I will load with bare ball and wads only because I can pull the load when I am done much more easily than pulling a patched load and I don't have to clean the gun. I doubt if this point about bare ball loads being easier to pull so the components could be saved for another day was lost on our ancestors either.