how tight are your balls

[Rat]

Yes, the balls in my loading block carry a thinner patch, than what I load the rifle (or Bess) initially, with for the hunt, in a clean barrel. I figure any follow up shot will be at close range, so I'm not too worried about opening my 100 yard group up by an inch...but I do want a fast easy reload. If the animal should run off, indicating a poor hit, I'll sit down, kill some time, and wipe the bore down and reload with the thicker patch, from my bag of tricks. I find it interesting that you vary ball size, rather than patch size. ?? I only have one ball mold each for my Bess and Jeager, and one for my .58's. Have quite a few .58" slug molds...a collection of "didn't works". Or "almost worked". Or: "didn't work good". !!!

 

[Keb]

I've always patched tight. .610" ball & .018" patch in a .625" bore. However, while once shooting a woodswalk, my better half couldn't start a .600" ball in a .625 bored gun. I had some .562" balls and gave some to her to try loading. She could finger start & ram home easily. I thought "That'll shut her up". To my surprise, she was hitting more than usual and wound up winning the women's smoothbore event. She was just happy to be able to load & shoot by herself. Now if I could only convince her that cleaning her gun is just as much a part of the shooting experience as shooting.

 

[sawyer04]

Some shooters slide the ball and patch easily down the barrel and some shooters pound the ball down the barrel. I like my patch and ball to just glide down the clean barrel. I don't think any two molds throw the same size ball. I like the patch to have the burnt star on it after being fired with no cuts where the rifling spun it. I was a youngster I pounded the ram rod down on the ball, I guess because I saw it on TV. Grandpa told me to stop it rather abruptly and then showed me how to properly load, again. Powder, patch, ball, Start the bullet and patch with starter, mild hand pressure or tap, and the grasp the ram rod just above the barrel and slide the works down to the loaded mark and not BAM,BAM, BAM on the bottom. How's that for two cents?

 

[45man]

There appears to be a considerable amount of earned wisdom in this thread already. I've been doing this a while and I tend to load a ball that's 0.005" under bore size for the first shot and carry patched and lubed reloads that are 0.010" under bore size in a small loading block --- When I'm hunting. Shooting in a match, it's 0.005" under bore size for all of my loads, unless it's a Stake Shoot, and then it's back to the hunting method. Different setup for smoothbore, of course. I either use a short starter or the butt end of my patch knife handle, to save wear and tear on my paws. Footnote to "45man": Use that YCA#103 sparingly. William closed the business and there ain't no more. I've still got a couple of jars, but when that's gone, it's all she wrote. Too durn bad --- #103 was one of the very few products that lived up to all it's claims and then some, and it was the best patch lube I ever used.

Yes it was but I have the formula.
62.5% 130 grade soy wax, 25% lard partially hydrogenated, 6.20% veg oil mix canola, corn, peanut, 6% stearic acid, .25% yellow dye, .05% water. Don't ask how I got it but I did get around.
William got angry with me we we bought a case of it to share. I made no profit but was promoting the stuff. He thought I was selling for more.
I have the formula for bore butter but you don't want to mess with it. Mineral oils and too much water.
I have enough until I die but it is sad to see it go away. It is nothing but treasure.

 

[Tanglefoot]

Well, thank you for that! I accused William of using Coppertone to make it and he just grinned and told me (again) that it was all natural and non-toxic. He's been having some health problems and I'm guessing that's the main reason he quit making the lube ... and all the related products like leather treatment and ski wax and so on.
When he first came out with the #103 lube back in the 80's, I didn't believe it would do what he claimed so I ran some tests. I got some cold-rolled steel barstock 1-1/2" wide by 1/4" thick and cut it into 4-inch pieces. Drilled a hole in one end of each and scribed a line dividing each piece into two equal lengths. Polished them with steel wool and then treated half of each with one of the lubes and left the other half untreated. Then I hung them all on nails out back in the South Texas heat and humidity and checked them at regular intervals. All the untreated surfaces rusted. Most of the treated ones resisted rusting to some degree for some period of time, but the one I treated with YCA#103 just did not rust! I quit testing after a few weeks and wrote it up for one of the magazines at the time. Been using it ever since and like yourself, I reckon I've still got enough to last as long as I do.
Keep yr horn tip up,
Tanglefoot

 

[nkbj]

How tight? It depends on the rifle. Some shoot better one way and the next one the 'nother way.
If I was doing something besides shooting for fun then I I'd carry two in my cheeks to spit down the barrel for faster shots at the French. Uh, oh yeah, we can't do that these days. Never mind.

 

[Sun City]

Not very! These estrogen injections I'm having to take have about wiped 'em out!!

 

[Buckskinn]

I was doing a search on Young Country lube and came across this. No idea of the validity of it, but an interesting read. Claims YC is just relabeled Chap Stick.

https://www.frontiermuzzleloading.com/t9824-bore-butter-why-we-don-t-season-barrels-anymore

Which from your guys opinion of it, that would be great if it were!!!

 

[45man]

SPG came about from Chapstick. I bought some of the super expensive stuff when I was shooting BPCR and it fouled the last 10" of barrel so bad I put it up for sale and finally put a free sign on it at the shoots. I never did get rid of it.
Glenn at White Label sent me some BP lube to test and it was amazing but the wax he used could not be bought anymore. So that makes two of the best products that are gone.
Bore Butter, cetyl alcohol-4.6%, White petrolatum ( Vaseline) 88.2%, Unidentified mineral wax-2%, ( paraffin??) water-4.8%, methyl salicylate-.4%.

 

[Richard Dittman]

I have a T/C Hawken 50 cal and I use 490 ball and a .018 pillow tickling patch. I spray a small amount of water in a fine mist. It groups around 1 1/2 - 2 inches at 25 yards for 5 shots with 65 grains of black powder.