double ball loads

[Wes/Tex]

Thanks to all thar responded.
this was not a hunting plan, but rather a curiosity that I might play with at the range.
the historical accounts were of british soldiers prior to the revolution. One in particular was the Boston massacre.

Capt. Williams Preston's company squad from the 29th Foot probably only loaded standard ball-cartridges that sad day. The last thing any professional officer would do was order his troops to load double-ball in a situation as advanced into anarchy as that. Being cursed, abused and pelted with stones, ice balls and other debris is a sure way to get a "reaction" and the Boston crowd finally pushed these guys into reacting. Sad but stupid.
At Quebec, Major-General James Wolfe is suppose to have had his troops double-ball for the first load. Don't know how many historians have repeated this, but also don't know a single example of original written confirmation from someone with "boots on the ground".
The Continental Army did use buck & ball loads, and would for nearly 100 years, but the British Army used ball cartridges. There is one account of the French using balls with 'swan shot' during the F&I War, but appears to be militia, not regulars. Much later, the French used a 'shrapnel cartridge' but this was during sieges during the Napoleonic era. This unusual round was a soft, wood cylinder a little under bore diameter with four holes drilled side-to-side and each perpendicular to it's neighbor, each drilled hole holding two buckshot. This round was loaded and a regular ball rammed down on top. It was used at wall breaches like Badajos but not issued for standard combat use. They're fun to play with but you're not likely to have to hold off a banzai charge while tracking Bambi! :wink: :rotf:

 

[roundball]

There is no need or point in this practice.
Plus, if done wrong can be very dangerous.

:rotf:
There's no need for muzzleloading at all.
Plus It could be very dangerous if done wrong.
:thumbsup:

 

[nkbj]

The soon to be delivered fifty smoothie will definitely be tried with two balls.

Concerning military loading of two balls, it's bound to have been done to put more weight on target. And yeah, once upon a time somewhere or the other I did read it in a book. If you think about firing inaccurate smoothbore muskets at lined up opponents then two balls doesn't sound like a bad idea at all if the range was a little short.

 

[AWsaddles]

Earlier in the year I done some experimenting with my 40 and double ball shot through the chrono. My velocity went from 1900 fps average with single ball to 1490 with same charge and double ball.

 

[roundball]

Earlier in the year I done some experimenting with my 40 and double ball shot through the chrono. My velocity went from 1900 fps average with single ball to 1490 with same charge and double ball.

Around 1500 FPS is still pretty respectable, eh

 

[Stumpkiller]

Here in almost New England a common load was "Buck-n-ball" - or a smoothbore with one bore sized ball and three or six "swan drops" of .30 cal +/-. The idea, I suppose, was that if the main ball missed or was a marginal hit the added shot would wound or disable the target. Mostly an anti-personnal load unless you were hunting moose standing in the midst of a flock of geese.

Also preferred by picket guards who might be shooting at a man in the dark.

For hunting the path is different. Most of us do it for sport rather that survival, and I assume we'd rather make a clean kill or miss entirely. A single ball is more apt to go where you want it than two sharing a single charge.

In a rifle it appears they stick pretty close together . . . which raises the question then why the second ball would be necessary instead of a single ball appreciably faster and of better trajectory. :idunno:

In NY multiple projectiles are illegal for large game so I never played around with them - though I have toyed with buck-n-ball on coyotes and raccoons and it seems the main ball makes the statement.

 

[Many Klatch]

I have shot double ball a number of times and they usually print one atop the other at 25 yards.

There are records of the Carolina Militia loading with double ball in their rifles for their first shot in a skirmish with the British. One Tory partisan leader died with two .32 caliber ball in the head.

Many Klatch

 

[AWsaddles]

I was pleased with the load. I did use it one time a few years ago to harvest a deer and was satisfied with the results. It didn't kill any " deader " than the single ball would have as it was a well placed shot but it did leave two wound channels on exit side so I feel more blood was left for tracking had it been needed.

 

[roundball]

Yeah, I found it a fun project too...can't beat building more hands-on experience whenever you can...and since this was something that was evidently used under certain circumstances by our forefathers, that made the project and the deer I took with the 2XPRB extra special.
:thumbsup:

 

[bezoar]

it was done in an attempt to increase the odds of well taking out the other side. inside of an ounce of 00 buckshot, you have two buckshot pellets each weight a 3/4 ounce. youll definitely get penetration....

What few acounts ive seen, it was a last ditch thing to do. An old national geographic issue from the 80s i think has a few photos of a cut away musket recovered from a sunken french supply vessel sank near quebec that had 3 balls loaded in it.