Dimpled balls again

[coloradoclyde]

The real question is what would it do to a round ball fired from a smooth bore and what role does velocity play in the equation? :grin:

 

[Col. Batguano]

I guess that depends on the spin. My hunch is that a RB isn't spinning very fast in what ever direction it's spinning. And, it has a pretty heavy weight to diameter ratio. In that vein, I doubt the spin affects the ball's flight all that much, nor is it imparted consistently the same way. But, there's probably enough to keep it from becoming a knuckle ball.

A 170 yard 7 iron shot imparts between 7000-8000 rpm of backspin on the ball, of giving it a surface speed of 211 mph as it leaves the club. Add to that the club speed of 120 mph and you have about 330 mph on the bottom, and -90 mph on the top. The dimples add to the ball's ability to "catch" the air and increase and decrease the pressure on the ball, which has a substantially lesser sectional density than a lead ball. No wonder it bends so much when hit!

It actually doesn't bend more the further down range it goes, but it accumulates a sideways or upward momentum that gets added to from the air pressure differential the further it goes down range (actually the sideways force is decreasing as drag slows down both the velocity and the spin).

 

[coloradoclyde]

Keep in mind that we can only draw parallels between golf and musket balls so far! :wink:

 

[Grandpa Ron]

There are times I feel I would score better with golf balls and clubs.....and I do not golf. :grin:

 

[bpd303]

I shot a round of golf once, couldn't figure out how to cook the little suckers. :hmm:

 

[coloradoclyde]

They are a bit chewy! :rotf:

 

[ord sgt]

I have fired minies at golfballs, 50 yards away. Saw one golfball try to attack the shooter by flying 50 yards back to the firing line.

 

[Grandpa Ron]

I do not know much about hunting golfs but they must be really tough and mean. People stand by the holes to their dens with a selection of clubs waiting to bludgeon them when they show themselves. :hmm:

I did find one of their eggs once but you could not crack it. :shocked2:

 

[coloradoclyde]

Yep! they got some freaky teeth too, ever notice how short the grass is around their holes. they chew it off so short ya can't pluck it with a tweezers.

 

[Richard J.]

What if you powder coated a round ball. I know some people that are doing it with BP six shooter pistols. How I know is he borrowed my double cavity mould. They look nice and he seems to shoot well with them

 

[coloradoclyde]

It's a fad not suited for this forum in my opinion.

 

[StewartLeach]

For many years I was a dedicated- some might say fanatical- NRA and CMP service rifle competitor. Distinguished Rifleman, many time President's Hundred, Camp Perry every year, etc. Fired circa 4,000 rounds a year.

Started moly plating the Sierra bullets,a process involving tumbling the bullets with moly powder and steel BB shot.

Has anyone tried dimpling plain lead balls by tumbling with BBs? Maybe I'll give it a try- still have the equipment in the garage.

White Fox, in the People's Republic of Boulder

 

[Billnpatti]

Go for it. Those steel balls will likely make deeper dimples than just tumbling them by themselves. Give us a well controlled experiment so we can see what difference, if any, it makes to tumble the balls with steel shot. If you have different sizes of shot and/or steel balls, maybe you could try different size steel balls and shot to see if that makes any difference. There is an opportunity to do a lot of fun research here.

 

[paulab]

I tried moly coating cast grease groove bullets. The bullets didn't come out dimpled at all. The edges of the grease grooves and bullet base were very slightly rounded. That's all. No dimpling.

 

[Billnpatti]

Being that design of a bullet, they were probably made of a significantly harder alloy than my pure lead balls. Being made of a hard lead alloy, they would be much less susceptible to dimpling in the tumbler. Also, time in the tumbler is a significant variable. In the case of the balls that I used, they had been left in the tumbler for about 8 hours to the best of my memory. I would have to look up the data in my book of experimental data to be sure but to the best of my feeble memory, that was how long they tumbled. It was an accident, I was called away and was gone for a while and the balls were forgotten. I usually only tumble them for 30 to 45 minutes.

 

[Grandpa Ron]

I am game for all kinds of tinkering. But in all honesty I have not noticed any difference between the balls I cast and those swaged ball that you buy that are anything but round.

I am going to try some dimpled and dipped in bees wax when the weather breaks.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Ok guys consider this;
Molybdenum does not begin to exhibit lubricating properties until well beyond the velocities and frictional temperatures achievable in a muzzleloader....so moly coating a muzzleloader projectile is a waste of time and money.

When dimpling a ball and trying to make golf ball like correlations one key factor has to be observed ........the projectile's time-of-flight.
The affects of dimpling are more pronounced on a golf ball because it is in the air longer and therefore has more time to be affected.

 

[Col. Batguano]

That is an excellent point. And, one other thing to consider. Taking what is maybe a 1 MOA bullet down to a 1/2 MOA and shooting it through a 5 MOA barrel with 5 MOA sights, with old 3 MOA eyes controlled by a shaky human AND getting consistently measurable results that show improvement over your control group(s) may present difficulties. You know the old saying; a chain is only as strong as its' weakest link.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Indeed! There are many variables and all must be considered. There are no "magic bullets" (pun intended).
One must also consider expected gains as a matter of percentages in relation to their investment.
Example:
A 50% improvement in group size yields more improvement when applied to a 10 inch group than it does when applied to a 1 inch group. and when applied to an average of situation, gains at the 1" level become negligible.