Round Ball Pour

[Tom Compton]

The main reason for rejecting cast round balls would not be appearance so much a weight differential.

We want to shoot solid lead balls that all weigh within a grain of the heaviest ball, which is the most solid lacking in air bubbles or light weight inclusions.

When the ball is olid it will be in balance as it flies down range/A lighter weight ball has something missing or light weight included that when spinning from the rifling will be thrown off course.


I also eeliminated frosty looking balls regardless of weight, for no particular reason and felt only with the shiny ones I was producing/

Balls that are properly weighed out WIL NOT END UP AS FLYERS.



Dutch Schoultz

👍👍

 

[tenngun]

That’s a trueism. However I often cast at an out side fire with a small cast iron mold. I ran my first ball in 1973, and have yet to weigh one. Your very best always comes from most consistent, but I pour in to a horn,antler,wood or brass measure, feel my patching to see if it feels the right thickness, and shoot the ball that looks good.
Some times I grab my gear, put on my trekking clothes head into the timber, build a little fire and run my ball.
My scores will never match yours.

 

[MSW]

Both BrownBear and Dutch Schoultz offer good advice. As far as my two cents worth, remember that lead in molten form can really mess you up, so make sure that your pot is on a solid platform, and that you are wearing closed toed shoes and long trousers. I wear long sleeves and heavy leather work gloves - i get mine for free (the mill where i work hands them out) but they're only eight bucks at the hardware store... had a splashback once and the glove saved a nasty burn - considering what it costs to just walk into an ER (about six hundred bucks around here, your hospital may be more, or less) those gloves were a pretty good bargain.

Also, don't eat or drink anything while you're casting, and be super careful not to let any water (includes sweat) to drop into the lead. The water will instantly turn to steam, and this may cause a splash up, which can end very badly.

I've always enjoyed running ball, even if you have to put a bunch of them back into the pot.

Stay safe, and Make Good Smoke!

 

[tranders]

I reject twenty to thirty ball.

When you put them back in the pot, do you do it one at a time as the bad ones happen, or set them aside to bulk melt them? I guess what I'm asking is tossing a few back into an active pot compromising the temp of the molten lead to the point you make more bad balls?

I set out to run about a hundred and fifty ball at a time. I do a dip and pour. Sometimes you see a bad ball when you open the mold, it just gets returned to the pot. So I end up with about a hundred and twenty or thirty in my pile. When cool I go through them discarding wrinkles or frost, end up with a hundred + ball. I don’t have a thermometer and just melt in a minie Dutch oven. I judge the temp by how it pours and how it cools on the spur cutter.

This is exactly how I do it. I use a little propane stove and a cast iron skillet with a Lyman ladle. Works for me.

 

[Dr5x]

I am a strong believer (and pain in the butt_ about weighing out lea balls to prevent flyers. But if you are not up to that, I would like you to know that, on average, self cast balls , assuming you cat steadily, will run about 5 balls out of a hundred that are too light weight to fire with no fear of flyers.
On the other handm people who a re careful weighers will point out that the very pretty swaged balls are all over the place on weights and on average about 22 to 25 balls out of a hundred will be flyer material.

The idea that flyers are just something that happens and we must put up with it is nonsense.

Flyers are caused and they cost just as much as the good balls that make you proud.

Dutch

 

[Kansas Jake]

I have a Lyman electric pot, but also have cast a bunch with a steel sauce pan, teaspoon and coleman stove. I still do it occasionally if I'm cleaning up some salvaged plumbers lead and decide to just go ahead and cast since the pot and lead is already hot.

 

[tenngun]

Consistently is the key, that’s the truth, certainly not knocking weighing.