Hornady .480 Round Ball

[Ohio Joe]

I seen advertised that Hornady is now offering a .480 Round Ball. Where are we going to use this? Is there a new caliber of muzzleloader on the market that I've missed?

Figuring that when patched (depending on thickness) a .490 is too loose in a lot of .50's, and a .495 sometimes is not tight enough? Where does the .480 come in? They list it with their .50 caliber round balls.

I feel they could have done much better in offering a new round ball. If their idea of making an easier loading ball
for hunting season they could have gone in the .486 to .488
range. On the other end,,, getting a tighter load a .498 sure would have been nice.

As I said, maybe I have missed a new caliber barrel on the market? What? A .48 or .49 caliber?

:m2c: :hmm:

 

[Keith]

They are selling these as Hard Balls, I think it is called, the ball is encapsulated in a sabot. Why? Beats me. :youcrazy:

 

[Ohio Joe]

So that's it... I wonder if they expect to sell any? I'll just stick to my patch and ball combination. Nothing wrong with good "old" technology in a muzzleloading barrel... :thumbsup:

 

I think you may have stumbled onto the ammo for the Crockett Commemertive rifle made in .48 cal. The number of these rifles in circulation would hardly justify Hornady tooling up for the production though.

I guess this might also be usable as a cheap load for the sabot shooters in their .50s. The in-line shooters seem to now be looking for a cheap way to practice and use their rifles for small game. This would be way better than shooting a .45 ball or pistol bullet, with a sabot, in the .50.

This is just a guess. Someone could get on Hornady's web site and ask! Hey Musket Man you did this kind of stuff all the time last winter! Don't you know anyone at Hornady?

:master: :master: :master:

 

[Liver eatin’ Johnson]

I think you may have stumbled onto the ammo for the Crockett Commemertive rifle made in .48 cal.

I think ghost hit the nail on the head so to speak. I just spoke to Bob at Hornady and he said he thought it was a special run for a commerative rifle but couldn't remember exactly which one. He did say he would email me when he finds out so I'll let you know when he does.

 

[Keith]

They are selling these as Hard Balls, I think it is called, the ball is encapsulated in a sabot. Why? Beats me. :youcrazy:

I looked in Midsouth's catalog. The Hard balls are .485 not.480. So, I was wrong. :sorry:

 

Hornady is making .480 round balls and they are, I assume, because many nominal .50 barrels are too tight for the .490 ball. A friend just bought such a gun--a smooth rifle in .50, but to get a .490 ball down the bore you cannot use a patch and accuracy suffers. The .480 is exactly what he needs.

 

[Keith]

I have a gun that I might resort to that with. When this question was first posed I thought they were something else I had seen.

 

[Liver eatin’ Johnson]

I got this reply from Hornady today:

We had some older round ball shooters request a smaller diameter ball so that they could use a thicker patch in the 50 caliber rifles. Most of these were competition shooters.

:hmm: "older roundball shooters..."

 

[Rebel]

Older than most of us? Can't be, they'd all be dead by now. ::

 

[Liver eatin’ Johnson]

From another post...

But overall, TC makes excellent quality products for the money, they obviously work to improve design weaknesses, they have a lifetime warranty that I think is second to none, and their current production flintlocks are so good now they're all I hunt with...at my age I'll probably stick it out with them til the end

Maybe they meant "Older than roundball shooters...?" :crackup:

 

[Ohio Joe]

I guess if Hornady says that's why they made the .480's, that must be the reason? I always understood that competition shooter's, (young and old) perferred a "tight" patch and ball combination?

I'm neither young, nor old... I'm in the middle... Do you think Hornady will make a, .492050 roundball for us who are in the middle of our years and can't decide whether to use a .490 or .495? :hmm:

Thanks for the information, Liver eatin'...

 

[musketman]

Hey Musket Man you did this kind of stuff all the time last winter! Don't you know anyone at Hornady?

Reply from Steve Hornady:

If you

 

[Ohio Joe]

Thanks Musketman,

I wonder what kind of accuracy they will get? If the formula from Lyman's book is: (and I'm using my .50 GMB to compare) Grove .520 minus ball .480 equals .040 difference, divided by 2 equals a .020 patch... This gives us a .500 combination.

You could use a heavier load and the patch should stay intact, as well as the combination being easier to load. I haven't tried them but at first look I wonder where the accuracy is going to come from? At least in a .50 GMB?

I know the "stuff" is really going to hit the fan now with this next comment, but here goes... I have never felt that those we refer to as the "old timers" were ever as accurate as we are today, and I think this load combo will bare this out. :imo: So why use it? :hmm:

 

[musketman]

I wonder what kind of accuracy they will get? If the formula from Lyman's book is: (and I'm using my .50 GMB to compare) Grove .520 minus ball .480 equals .040 difference, divided by 2 equals a .020 patch... This gives us a .500 combination.

Maybe you can now use buckskin patches...

 

[Ohio Joe]

My buckskins already look like I've used them for patches. :haha:

 

Maybe using them would mean that you would not have to use a short starter.Also maybe you would not have to wipe the bore as often or not at all during a match where you fire 15 or 20 shots one right after another.It would be interesting to try a box and see what advantage they might have.

 

[Nightwind]

Goodeien makes a 48cal. match grade x-sticks barrel.