Hornady .535" round ball users

[aroshtr]

Just measured some of the balls. My "belt" was slightly off center. If I measured at the "equator" I would get about .535. If I measured at the "poles" opposite the belt, I would get approximately .533 to .534. The largest measurements I could get was .538 to .5385 if I tilted the bullet so the caliper was touching the "belt" on one side, and slightly above the equator on the other. The 50 that I rolled in a sock for a few minutes made it harder to see the "belt" and were shiny. However, I was able to get close to the same measurements to the original balls. It would take quite an effort to "beat" the balls into a perfectly round shape.

As a side note, they weighed between 230.5 to 231.8 grains from a sample of 10 balls.

I will still give them a try, and see how they shoot. I am a true beginner and not sure if I will even be able to tell the difference.

 

[necchi]

Update! 2 days after I emailed hornady the pics, I got a new box of .535 balls that are a-ok!

That's amazing, good on Hornady for stepping up, and you.
I had brought a quality issue up with Hornady ball and their Customer Service probably about 15yrs ago.
After swapping 8-10 emails with the guy, I finally got fed-up and told him exactly what I thought of Hornady and their ball and swore I'd never buy another box!.
That's when he came back and said "Too bad, I was going to send you a gift certificate",

The positive side;
Long story short, the whole mess and frustration of it is what pushed me to gear-up and learn casting, something I'm happily doing to this day.

I have a couple of 54's, one likes .530's, the other wants .535's,, changing up the patch variables doesn't matter to these rifles it's definitely the ball size.

 

[aussie pete]

This belt measured .540" way too large for a patched ball in a 54cal.

Ah. In the pot. Expensive lead, though best use it though.

Pete

 

[renegadehunter]

The swaged RB's I've seen made (not Hornady but process must be very similar), they form each half of the RB separately and then the two "half moons" are swaged together to make the whole RB. Two half moons of lead are joined to create a round sphere/ball. After this process you can see that line on all of them, but it is usually pretty faint and not raised as those are.
They are then washed in a tumbler, then dried in a tumbler, then tumbled again and a lube is applied. All the tumbling usually results in the final product having only a very faint mark where the two halves were joined, if you can see it at all. The extrusion mark is usually faintly visible if you look for it too.

I would guess that the two dies containing each side of the RB weren't coming together tightly when those were formed.
Imagine two half sphere dies, each with a half moon of lead in them, that come together perfectly. A punch them slams in and through swaging force the lead flows/fills out the space inside the dies, with a bit of the excess lead flowing out of a weep hole in one of the dies (the extrusion hole). The raised line yours had must have been from a gap between the two die halves, so excess lead flowed into that gap when the die slammed in.
Someone made the decision to try to save them, I'd bet they got some extra tumbling time to try to "beat" them into shape, but it didn't work and someone at final inspection either missed it or chose to let them go. Not surprised Hornady just sent you a new box with no questions asked, those look pretty bad.