RANGE REPORT: .50cal rubber balls

[roundball]

I experimented with the following:

MUZZLELOADER: T/C .50cal 32" x 1:66" Flintlock

POWDER CHARGES: 20/30/40/50grns Goex 3F

PATCHES: .015"/.018"/.020"/.022" TC precut pillow ticking, prelubed with NL1000

CONDITIONS: Bright and clear but extremely windy

20 grns was so slow that the wind pushed the little 22grn balls around so much they were all over the place...began increasing powder charges in 10grn increments.

Each incresase in powder charge improved accuracy.
Each increase in patch thickness improved accuracy.

I found that .50grns 3F + .022" pillow ticking gave the best group...3" @ 20 yards shooting semi-off hand from a chair in extreme wind...so the .500" rubber balls seem to be a viable short range alernative to lead for fun shooting, punching holes in paper, shooting cans, etc.

Its important not to lose sight of the purpose of these experiments...which is to try and find at least some sort of low cost alternative quality ball that is available in volume in case lead becomes cost prohibitive which I believe it soon will be...or worse case somehow becomes unavailable, banned, etc.

Ligtht weight rubber balls will never be as good as heavy lead balls of course...these .500" only weigh 22grns and are easily effected by wind...for example, the extreme wind today may explain why I had to go up to 50grns 3F to start getting predictable, repeatable groups...on a calm day maybe 30-40grns will be fine.

I only took 50 balls to the range this morning and wish I'd taken more as I ran before getting a chance to try 60 and 70grns...more info as it becomes available in the future...and if anybody else wants to run their own tests, PM me.

 

[trent/OH]

Love these reports on the rubber balls. Have you been able to recover any fired balls, and examine their condition, or even re-use them?

 

[Little Wattsy]

thank you!!! :hatsoff:

 

[roundball]

Love these reports on the rubber balls. Have you been able to recover any fired balls, and examine their condition, or even re-use them?

Yes, some time back I had shot a couple of the ones I found for the .40cal, through a couple bottle of mountain dew at the range, recovered them both and they still looked brand new.
These are excellent candidiates for reuse...just make (or buy) a simple bullet trap that will deflect/collect them into a box of old towels or sand, etc...in fact, if double or triple pieces of cardboard are used to hold the target, I bet the thick cardboard would take so much energy off the ball that a beach towel or old piece of blanket hung behind the target would be all that's needed.

 

[twotoescharlie]

Roundball,

Where can we get some of these rubber balls so that we may experiment with them?

TTC

 

[roundball]

Roundball,

Where can we get some of these rubber balls so that we may experiment with them?

TTC

The minimum order from the place is 1000 for $70.00 + shipping...if you just want a couple hundred to try I can split some of these out like splitting a case of Goex at cost...not 'selling' them...couple guys have taken some...send me a PM

 

[streetsniper]

I bet they would be great for squirrels and maybe rabbit in a pinch. The impact alone at least stunning them enough to harvest. Sort of like barking a squirrel. Opinions?

 

[roundball]

I bet they would be great for squirrels and maybe rabbit in a pinch. The impact alone at least stunning them enough to harvest. Sort of like barking a squirrel. Opinions?

Hard to say without running some kind of home made energy / penetration test...probably stun them with a head shot if driven fast enough...and they'd be fine for shooting up into trees if you missed as they'd probably only carry about 100yds being so light (22grns)

 

[kragluver]

Now we just need to figure out a way to hollow them out somewhat and fill them with a dense metal in order to make them heavier. Of course, that would drive the cost up...

 

[roundball]

Now we just need to figure out a way to hollow them out somewhat and fill them with a dense metal in order to make them heavier. Of course, that would drive the cost up...

Not far fetched at all...but I've noticed that the price of hollow balls on manufacturing sites where I've seen them listed is very expensive just to begin with.

 

[kragluver]

Pouring any sort of molten metal into a hollow rubber ball would well... melt the ball I suppose. I was sort of pondering if you could use molten zinc (since zinc WW are all the rage now).

 

[Pigman]

If you have an older mouse on your computer look at the ball in it. It is steel coated with dead rubber.

There used to be at least two different sizes out there.

Perhaps a good compromize between ballbearings and rubber balls.

Thanks,
Mark C. Foster

 

[renovato]

I can see a lot of potential in these balls. Short range hunting is a good one. Sure is a lot safer than launching a lead ball skywards, not knowing what it'll hit on the way down. Being able to capture and reuse them would make for a cheap way to target practice also. Thanks for keeping us informed! When I get a little more time for tinkering, I think I'll get some .50s and try to make a catcher for them.