Golf Balls

[Nimrod]

Well I made up a BUNCH of rb the other day and I thought I would put them into my Lyman 1200 case cleaner {no media} to try to clean up some of the mold marks left on the balls well when I opened it up, I found all my balls now look like golf balls with big & small dimples all over :redface: My questand is has anyone ever done this if so how well will these balls shootor or do I need to melt them down again and start over? :shake:
TIA

Nimrod

 

[Le Grand]

Nimrod, Shoot'em! You might get a hole-in-one. Le Grand

 

[Otter]

Well, they put the dimples on golf balls on purpose for various reasons. They make them more aerodynamically stable, they make them respond better to backspin, they help the golf ball be more controlable & etc. That being said, I have no idea how your dimpled RBs will be affected, for the good or for the bad. Take 25 or 30 of them to the range and test them against some without dimples and see how they perform side by side. My personal opinion is that you will see little, if any, difference between them at the ranges we typically shoot our muzzleloaders . . . If they shoot well, you have not done any harm, if they don't shoot well, you get to practice your casting skills . . .

 

[Todd Rickard]

Shoot'em up! My guess is they will work fine. There is a thread on here somewhere... folks were discusing the merits of doin' this on purpose.
I think there is way too much emphasis on perfect balls. I've hammered stuck balls down with a heavy rod and 2X4 and noticed no difference in accuracy. I shoot up all the wrinked balls that some folks would remelt, but then, I just do a lot of causual plinking rather than target work.

 

[BrownBear]

Ah, shucks.

I thought this thread was going to be about using golf balls for targets. One of my favorites, BTW. Shoot those suckers square and they launch clean out of sight.

Never found a better use for them either.

 

Some of the fellows I know that shoot smoothies purposely put dimples in their round balls. I don't know if they shoot better, but they don't shoot any worse.
Mark

 

[john12865]

As strange as it may seem, some shooters do this all the time on purpose.
I tumble them in a large rock tumbler and let them clack together.
The theory is that the dimpling acts like a golf ball, offering less resistance and straighter flight. It is also thought that the ball makes a better grip on the patch.
I do it, but have no evidence to back up these claims.

 

[Zonie]

Seems like I also remember an article about someone trying this to improve accuracy. As I recall, it didn't make any measurable difference.
zonie

 

[Slake]

I love shooting gold balls it's my favorite past time and my favorite shooting of all! I shoot them with a single action 22 revolver, they have an uncanny ability to swallow up 22 slugs

 

[Zonie]

Seems those who play golf make a lot of jokes about themselves and the game, but have a poor sense of humor.

I told some of the golf nuts at work that "I shot a few rounds of golf Sunday."
They looked surprised and asked me if I used a "wood" or metal driver. "Nether" I said.
I used my .54 cal muzzleloader.
That sure caused a lot of grumbling among them. :rotf:

zonie

 

[BrownBear]

:thumbsup:

Keep up the good work Zonie!

 

[roundball]

I had five boxes of Hornady .530s that were simply placed loose inside a shoebox size box...all 5 Hornady boxes had burst open during shipment and looked exactly like 500 small golf balls by the time UPS delivered them...all of them shot perfectly

 

[xxgrampa]

hi ho nimrod,

the reason you have large and small dimples is, they were more than one layer deep in the case cleaner. if only one layer deep the dimples will be uniform.

if you are a super accuracy seeker, try them against your control rb's, you will be pleasantly surprised.

..ttfn..grampa..

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

The article that everyone remembers reading about this subject appeared in Muzzleblasts Magazine in the great Bevel Bros. column. I can't remember which edition, but it can't be more than 3 or 4 months ago. The Bevel Bros. dimpled round balls on purpose and they shot the same or BETTER at various ranges. The article even went so far as to describe in detail how they dimpled their balls.

The NMLRA has a website where you might be able to locate the article, or one of our trusty forum members could post it. Makes a nice read, as I recall .

All the best, Dave