Cast vs. Swaged

[Buckskinquin]

Hate admit it, but I never knew how swaged balls were manufactured. Still not sure how they are made commercially. However, a company in Oregon, Corbin, makes staging dies for reloading presses and presses they make. Based the cost, I’ll stick casting my bals and tumbling in a rock tumbler. I have purchased and used swaged. I usually find the issue with accuracy is me, not the gun or projectile.

 

[smoothshooter]

You don’t have a spru on a swaged so you just plop the ball on your patch.
I understand in average they are more uniform in weight then cast, but lots of folks weigh their cast balls anyway
A draw back is size
I’ve had three .54 over the years and all liked .526 over .530. In my first a green river barrel I couldn’t find a patch to work .010was too loose, and the gun shot all over the map.015 was too tight to load, but .526 and .015 was perfect.
Howsomever you can’t get that choice in swaged
.530 the recommended soze for your gun, but a .535 or .526 may well shoot better

Lee molds do not leave a sprue. I sometimes tumble them in powdered graphite for a few minutes just to make them look uniform.
When loading balls cast in molds that leave a sprue bump in percussion revolvers and my flint long guns, I pay no attention to sprue location. The loading and firing process deforms the ball so much that a sprue protrusion has little to no effect, in my humble opinion.
I still get good accuracy if I do my part.

 

[hanshi]

I've always cast everything I shot from .32 to .62. Always had good results with them and it is much cheaper.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

I've always cast everything I shot from .32 to .62. Always had good results with them and it is much cheaper.

I don’t go to shoots much anymore, I cannot remember that last time I shot a swaged projectile. Everything I shoot now is caste. I have an 11 year old grandson, loves to cast RBs, Conicals…etc.