Round ball ammo

[kendrolet]

I have a Thompson/Center Renegade. It is .56 cal smooth bore and uses a .550" round ball. Does anyone have any idea where I can find this? So far I can only find ONE place that carries them. When I asked Hornday, they said, "You have a what?"

 

[Rock Island]

If Track of the Wolf, and Graf & Son don't carry it then Dixie gun works used to offer to custom make a mold for any ball out of one of their Dixie molds. These molds have no sprue cutter so you will have to do a bit of extra work but at least you will have a mold.

 

[badpenny]

track of the wolf sells 550 cast balls you should try them before you buy a mold.i've found the accuracy is comparable to the speer 535 balls in my 56.that being said however i have everyone i know looking for a tc 550 mold.the 535 is as accurate as the 550 in my firearm.

 

You can get a mold from Tanner in the UK. I have his email at home and can post it tonight, unless someone else has it handy. I know he advertises on the NMLRA site.
Mark

 

[Toomuch_36]

You can also keep an eye on E-bay, they occasionaly show up there.

Toomuch
.............
Shoot Flint

 

[paulvallandigham]

Welcome to the forum. You will probably be better off shooting .535" diameter RBs from that Smoothbore, with a good patch of at least .015" thickness, rather than trying to shoot a .550" RB. Unlike any rifle, there is NO place for the fabric to Squeeze into( grooves) in a smoothbore, and you need more "room " between the ball and the side of the bore for your patching, than you might need in a rifled barrel of the same diameter.

I join others in suggesting that you go to the Links Section, which you can find under " Member Resources" on the index page to this forum. Scroll down to "Articles, Charts, and Links", and click on the links. It will take you to a table of contents that lists LOTS of suppliers by name. Click On Track of the Wolf( TOTW, or sometimes TOW)and it will take you to the company website, and catalog. Look for "Ammo", then cast bullets and balls, and you will find the diameter of ball you seek. These are sold in quantities of 50, so that you can test your gun to determine if you can get good accuracy using that diameter ball, BEFORE investing in a mold.

A lot of members have the same gun, and use the .535" ball with thicker patches. For Hunting Eastern Whitetails, the gun and ball have enough "Oomph" to get the job done nicely, if you do your part. Accuracy varies from gun to gun, with just about everyone getting fine accuracy out to 50-60 yds, and some finding good accuracy on out to 100 yds. Most shots, however, are taken at deer standing Less than 50 yds from the shooter.

Good luck to you. :thumbsup:

 

[Homesteader]

I'll second Paul's comment about trying a smaller ball and thicker patch. My smoothie is 14 bore (.69 cal) and mic's out at .690 at the muzzle. I tried .680, .678, .672, all with various thin patches or bare-balled, and have recently cast and used .663 with well lubed thick patches. That's my size! Easier to load, still plenty of lead heading down range, and I've found it to be as (or more) accurate vs the larger balls.

I've read that a small ball and thick patch was much more common "back in the day". I can now see why.

(BTW: Thanks to all who gave advice on cleaning up the old scissors mold I found. It took a while, but your techniques worked and I'm now using it to run pretty good round ball!)

 

[kendrolet]

Thank you to all of you for your replies! I wasn't sure I could use a smaller ball. I will certainly try it. I love my T/C. The only game I have killed with it is a 400lb hog. I'm hoping to try using shot and try turkey hunting with it this year. My other problem with that is I don't have access to any places to hunt. There are too many nut cases on public land and I'm worried that all my shots will be in self defence! :rotf: :rotf: I'm hoping I can find someone that will feel sorry for an "old" guy that has never killed a turkey!
thanks again!!! :thumbsup:

 

[tg]

TC makes a mould for this gun but they are hard to come by i use mine for my .58 fusil having Tanner make a mould for you would be the best bt .550 seems large for a .560 bore whatare others usnig with this bore size

 

[Britsmoothy]

Paul has it, go with a smaller ball and thicker greased patch.

I have just had hell of a job getting a 58 to shoot a ball of .562 untill I wondered about the linen patch being to thin so I added a backing patch and hey presto. I also tried a thicker linen patch with a tighter weave on it's own and that went in the same group :grin:

A .550 ball may limit your options in finding the best load.

I do wonder if a .56 gun would shoot a .562 ball bare ball or with wads or cards though, depending on how well it short started that is :hmm:

Hope you find that turkey spot, there must be somewhere that goes unnoticed by others!

Brits :hatsoff:

 

[Stayangry]

I too would suggest Jeff Tanner.

He is a keen muzzle loading rifle shooter and a personal friend.

He is a true craftsman and can make a ball mould to any calibre you desire.

http://www.jt-bullet-moulds.co.uk/

 

[CoyoteJoe]

The .56 is on the small side for a turkey gun but one ounce of #6 shot should do the job within 20 yards and heck the 12 gauge cylinder bores only add about another 5 yards to your effective range.
Of course, sometimes another five yards can make all the difference. :grin:

 

[lefty41]

Just returned from shooting my T/C .56 SB at our club practice shoot. Started out with .535RB, .018 patch and 50 grains of FFFg. Patches were getting holes burned in the middle. Two of our members gave me some patches of about .20 and they did much better. Went back to my .018 patches with a circle-fly 1/8th" Nitro card over powder and accuracy and patch condition were excellent as long as I did my part on the sight picture and hold.
The Log Cabin Shop does carry .550 RBs and they even sent me a sample of five. Found them very hard to load (for me) with a .015 patch. After today I will stay with the wad over powder and the .535 RB with .018 patch. REALLY like shooting the .56. Haven't started on a shot load as yet. Want to work it up for Squirrel this fall.

 

[tv_racin_fan]

http://www.trackofthewolf.com/
http://www.dixiegun.com/

Wish I could help you with a place to hunt but I am hunting public land myself.

 

[kendrolet]

Wow! You guys are great with a ton of info! I can see this is going to lead to a lot more questions from me. (hope ya'll don't mind!) Lefty41...I'm surprized at your light amount of powder. My lightest load has been 80gr but I use FFG. I had no idea you could use a wad!! How do you know what size to use? If I can successfully use a .535 abll then I don't think I want to mees with molding my own. At least not yet. I hadn't thought about using my .56 for squirrels but I bet that would be a lot of fun. I am very nervous about loading the gun with anything other than what the book says. I hope you guys can teach me a lot more!
TV racin fan.....heck...you're just up the road!!! :wink: Thanks for thinking of me. I'm still looking for some places to go.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Size of wads? Generally, a 28 gauge bore will measure, nominally, .550" in diameter. BUT, you will ALWAYS have to measure the bore of any barrel on any gun you have to KNOW EXACTLY what diameter it is. :shocked2: :idunno:

Use a caliper to measure bore diameter. Calipers are fairly cheap, and available from many of the suppliers. Look for a "Dial Caliper", rather than the much more expensive "Digital Caliper". The later is just another place to store dead batteries, unless you are a professional machinist! :shocked2: :rotf: :hmm: :thumbsup:

Calipers can be used to measure both OUTSIDE, and INSIDE diameters. By contrast, Micrometers are designed to measure only outside diameters.A micrometer is the right tool to use when measuring the thickness of patch material, or the outside diameter of any ball or bullet. However, you can " make do " to measure those outside diameters with your calipers, with just a little practice. :hmm: :hatsoff:

 

[kendrolet]

Thanks for the input! I actually DO have a nice set of calipers. I will take measurements tonight.(After reading my last post..I wish this had spell check!!!) :redface: :redface:
So....after I get the number of the ID, doI look for a wad that is slightly larger or the same? Are there different thickness of wads that I need to get? And how is it loaded? Is the ball and wad pushed down together as with a patch or are they done separately?

See...I told you I would have questions!!! :haha:

 

[Britsmoothy]

The wad need not be very tight as it will spread under compression of firing but the should not be slack, if they are tight I would be tempted to ram them seperate.

For shot (and ball) I just use over shot cards for a wad by placing 3-4 of them on top of the powder and just the one on top of the shot. Saves carrying loads of different stuff. A couple of cards only under a ball with a struggling patch may work, also a backing patch sent first will help as per my other post.

My .58 Enfield two band will take small game to 30odd yards with 1oz of shot with just cards and 60grn equiv of pyrodex.

Good luck :hatsoff:

Brits.

 

[kendrolet]

Thanks Brits! I'm having some terminology trouble..... :redface:

What is...a shot card? Struggling patch? Backing patch? and where can you get them critters?

 

[Britsmoothy]

Thanks Brits! I'm having some terminology trouble..... :redface:

What is...a shot card? Struggling patch? Backing patch? and where can you get them critters?

a shot card or over shot card, a thin card. I make my punches to stamp out card from corn flake box's or better. I then put 3-4 on the powder and then pour the shot down and then just one card on top.
1-2 could be put under a patched ball to help keep some heat off the patch from the burn, a damaged patch would be "struggling" to perform consistantly.

A backing patch could be the same as the regular patch but sent down on it's own first or short started first on it's own and then the patch and ball. The first patch again acting as a firewall.

Hope this helps :hatsoff:

Brits.