Commercial buckshot in .32 flintlocks

[capnwilliam]

Talk about casting round balls lead me to wonder: How many shoot store-bought double-0 buckshot instead? Does it shoot better / worse? Is it that much more expensive? Seems that it would save a lot of work and time, not to mention the mess. (?)

Capt. Wiliam

 

[TwoShadows]

Well, Cap, according to my chart double nought buck is .330....'n a .32 riflegun would be .320.....wouldnt that be a mite tite? Single nought measures .320.....still a tad tite for patching I figgers. Next closest thang is number 1 and that supposedly is .300, which would be a tad too small I would think, but it might work with thick enough patching. I shot .313 balls and "indian head" patching for several years successfully, until the supplies of the cloth got right scarce. Sold the 32 long about then...wish I still had it of course...it was the FIRST Hershel House East Tennessee he ever built( either in '68 or '69). My pal who owns it now just kinda giggles when I ask him to price it! But I digress....I suppose that bag shot would suffice...just never tried it. Sorry to be so little help.

 

Single Ought or SSG is .32 or .31- and a perfect fit. The small balls swage easily to fit with a .32 ball.
: Bro made a .32 for a client and he uses store bough horneady buck shot.
: Hornady Triple "O" is only .35 instead of .36 so it should be fine for a .36 rifle as well. Even if proper at .36", it would be fine in a .36 rifle with a .012 to .015 patch.

 

[tg]

A friend of mine uses it in his .32 and he rarely misses, the .32 size shot may not be to tight in GM or Colerain barrels I have shot bore size balls in both of these brands with a .015 patch, a .010 or .012 patch could work as well.

 

[TwoShadows]

Hunh....guess the chart Musketman put on this site a few weeks ago is all wrong then...interesting. Are we saying then that the published .330 diameter shot is wrong? Are we saying that they mike less than advertized? If they are "swaged" into the bore at loading, then i'm wondering what sort of shaped projectile we end up with? If the fellar that "hardly ever misses" with this sort of swaged ball, then I be wondering at what ranges he is shooting? Either I missed something major, or as the old robot used to say...."this does not compute!"

 

[musketman]

I suspect that there could be a standard deviation in shot size from manufacture to manufacture... +/- whatever...

I emailed Federal Ammo for this info...

Is there an ISO-9004 system in place for shot sizes?

One brand being tighter than the next, and so on, even though their published sizes differ slightly...

I just relayed the chart in question, I didn't make it, but then there is also a standard deviation in bore sizes and rifling depths, that will allow the use of larger shot diameters as well...

I checked several publisked charts and they all list the same diameters, "American Shot Size Standards"...

 

Could be I was out 1 or 2 "Oughts"- there are three sizes in ought buck- 1 2 & 3 with 3 supposedly .36 but Hornady 3 Ought is .35 instead of .36. As far as I know, there is no .34", so that leaves .31 and .32 or .33. Perhaps it's .32, .33 and .36??
: These sizes mirror the "G" sizes as in SG, SSG & SSSG.
: I know one of them is .32 and shoot quite well in a .32 rifle or .31 handgun.
: With a good crown, there is no problem with loading a .32" ball in a .32 rifle. The ball becomes just slightly elongated and shoots just fine in the .48" twist. The .36 cal. barrel I had back in the .70's had a .48" twist and shot well with a .375 ball with a .015 patch. YES- it was elongated, and snug loading & probably much better than the TC Maxiball for that cal as it was shorter. The maxiball did shoot quite well in my wife's .36 Senica before the barrel rung on both sight screw holes and the wedge dovetail. Even though it was a .13/16" barrel, there was too much pressure in 70gr. 2F. Perhaps she short-stroked it, but I doubt it- not her as she was too carefull for that to happen.
: My deep-grooved .45 shot a .457 ball with a.022" patch without problem inloading although the bore dia. was .448". It's "bullets"(swaged elongated balls) shot very well indeed as they became 155gr. round nosed, round based slugs. The twist was fast enough to overcome the atmospheric drag on the grooves the rifling formed in their sides.
Daryl

 

[tg]

Keep in mind that not all .32 or .50 barrels are the same actual size, I comfortably use a .400ball in my .40 GM and a .500 ball in my .50 Colerain with a .015 patch, in the 70's it was not unusuall to have to use a .437 ball in some .45 guns. Some .32 guns may use a #1 or a #0 shot with patch to meet the need.

 

[riarcher]

In TOW's catalog they advertise .350, .330, .320, .300, .270,(etc.)
All in a 5 pound box for "only $11.50" (pg 430)
Now how many rounds in a 5# box? ::
Cast balls; .300, .311, .315, .320, .323 all at 7.50/100
Know there's gotta be more than 200 rounds in a 5# box,,, if'n they work for you.
Sounds "cost effective" to me. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[Birddog6]

Maybe they size it with the same calibers that Oxjoke does for their patches ? The .015 is actually .013. The .010 is actually .008 etc.......

I have a friend that was sizing some shot some time ago for a .32 cal & if I remember correctly, none of the shot he bought was the size the manufacturer claimed it would be & he bought several brands until he found one that would work.


Custom Muzzleloaders & Custom Skinning Knives

 

[roundball]

Individual shipping can be pretty high for a lot of lead.

The best I've been able to find is a bulk order through my local gun shop for 1000 Hornady .440's, 1000 .490's, and 1000 .530's.

Being delivered to him on a big truck as part of one of his regular deliveries, the shipping was minimal, but there was the doggone 7% NC sales tax. The 30 box average was $7ea. (440's=$6, 490's=$7, 530's=$8)

 

A 5# box of .350's should hold well over 500 balls at 65gr. ea. I think the .350's are lighter than this meaning there are even more of them in the boxes. With .32's there will be way over 600 in the box. @ 50gr. = 700 balls. I just can't remember what the weight of .32's or .35's was. I do think the .350's in cast balls were around 60 or 65gr.
: 7,00gr. per lb. X 5 = 35,000gr. Divided by 65gr.= 538.5 balls.
Daryl

 

[Deadeye]

You folks must have a big hammer to get those large balls down those small bores. A .375 in a .36??? My .32 uses .310 balls and .315s have to be hammered down.
As for buckshot sizes, they are not perfectly round and may be most any size. I recently bought a bag of #1 buck and they measure .378. ::

 

[musketman]

I suspect that there could be a standard deviation in shot size from manufacture to manufacture... +/- whatever...
I emailed Federal Ammo for this info...
Is there an ISO-9004 system in place for shot sizes?

Here is the reply from Federal reguarding their shot standard deviation...

0&00 Buck-Nominal -1 Pellet
1 Buck and smaller-Nominal- -2 Pellets

Shot weight per shell

Game load +4% -7%
Target Load +3% -5%

Pellet count per oz.-28 grams

Nominal +/- 10%

Diameter

Game shot Nominal +/-0.010 inches
Target Shot Nominal +/-0.005 inches
Buckshot Nominal +/-0.015 inches


We have no ISO program in place for shot production.

 

[Dave K]

I call my old rifle a 32 but in reality it probably should be called a 33cal. Hornady 00 buck is .330, Speer 00 buck is actually .319. I looked high and low for a .330 ball and found it in Hornady 00 buck. Shoots great in my gun. Funny, another local guy to me also has an old rifle that takes the very same size ball. I wonder if there is a corralation to this.

 

[tg]

Yeah Dave...old guys have the same size.....oh, that was old rifle...well...never mind.

 

[Dave K]

Well uh, I never really cared to get into that kind of comparison but! I forget where I read it, there was a topic somewhere that talked of how 00 buck or 000 buck would properly nest (?) or stack in a shotgun. Like maybe 3, 00 buck in a 12ga. would neatly nest together flat on the over powder card but 000 buck would not, in a 12ga. but would in a 10ga. Then it makes me wonder if the original owners of a rifle like this that took 00 buck also would have owned a 12ga. so that the same ball would be used. Maybe I think to much. What size ball do you have?

 

[Deadeye]

MM, If I read that right Fed's buckshot could vary as much as + or - .015 which means a total of 30 thousandth. Way more than I would want my balls to vary. I want them all to be exactly the same diameter.

 

[Zonie]

Does anyone have any information on the hardness of Commercial Buckshot and other types of lead shot?

I have a 5 pound bag left from my shotshell reloading days and have toyed with using it for something.
If it's too hard for roundball, I still might be able to feed it to my BPCR .47-70s.

 

Never used a hammer to get the balls down. They were started with a short starter and standard hickory rod used to seat them. Once they are started, they are the proper size and no longer require much strength to seat. They do take a good whack to get started, tough. If the crown isn't radiused enough., the patch will cut at teh muzzle.
: The balls, whether .375's in a .36 or the .457's I used in the .448 cal. rifle become slightly elongated projectiles once seated flush in the barrel.
: It takes deep grooves to be able to load such tight projectiles. Most people have touble with .022"patch and .490's in a buttoned .50, but I once loaded that combination in my .448 bore(.504 groove dia) rifle barrel just to prove a point. He had complained they were too tight for his rifle. This combo was seated with the standard 3/8" hickory rod & shot centre at 25yds., same as it's normal .454" to .457" balls. It does take a proper crown to allow this 'feat'.
Daryl