Shooting 1/2 of a lead ball

[Bretwalda]

I was toying with the idea to see how it would work for very short range varmints at distances up to 25yards! Has anybody fooled with this method? Do you patch them? Card them? Loose wad them? or ram them home flat side down on the powder? Round side down or up? Just seeking an answer to a curiosity question, and not looking for judgmental thoughts on ethics and killing issues. Have you tested them in water jugs to see if they are tumbling at the point of entrance? or grouped them for true accuracy/paterning compared to a PRB?

 

[George]

i haven't had enough experience with them to speak intelligently about them, but I did kill half a rabbit with one, once. :grin:

Spence

 

[Britsmoothy]

Years ago we cast some balls with a shin splitting the mold to produce half spheres.
We screwed a wad to them and loaded them in shot shells at low velocity.
They worked very well.

I have no experience with a rifle.

B.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Never heard of it being done.

Can't imagine the accuracy would be much. I suppose if you were to make a Brenneke style like above (screwed to a wad) it would at least have the shuttlecock effect to stabilize it.

 

[hanshi]

Seems like a lot of trouble to go to when a spherical ball is a known quantity.

 

[hawkeye2]

From my post under this topic: Load 2 round balls per chamber?

"If you load a half of a round ball round or flat side down there is a very good chance it will turn in the bore allowing the gasses to blow by and leaving a half round ball stuck edge on and try to get that out. When I was a teen I made a 12 gauge blank by cutting the shell off just below the shot, wrong way to go about it I soon found out. The wad turned about 45 degrees while in the chamber, went about a third of the way down the barrel and stopped. It took some serious pounding to get it out."

 

[Col. Batguano]

...When I was a teen I made a 12 gauge blank by cutting the shell off just below the shot, wrong way to go about it I soon found out. The wad turned about 45 degrees while in the chamber, went about a third of the way down the barrel and stopped. It took some serious pounding to get it out."

At least you had the good sense not to try to shoot it out.

I have a pneumatic air pistol we once tried shooting when it was about zero out. Well, the gas chamber pressure was lowered, and the bore shrunk down with the cold. Since the gun only shoots about 350-400 fps to begin with on a warm day, the pellets got stuck in the bore, and just started stacking up when we kept shooting. I had a devil of a time getting them all out of there. At least with an air gun the risk of a barrel failure is a lot less though.

 

[No Deer]

According to what I have read about Daniel Boone, he was captured by and adopted by Indians for over a year. As their trust in him grew he was allowed to go hunting. He was provided a gun and balls, but was not trusted enough to keep them and had to return them after his hunts. He would cut the round balls in half, and hid one half, used the other for his hunt. When he was ready to make his escape, he took the half balls, and stole a gun and made his escape. Apparently the half balls worked well enough for him hunting that no questions were asked.

 

[Britsmoothy]

Don't believe everything you read :thumbsup:

B.

 

[coloradoclyde]

John Filson's writings made both men famous...
In a time when there was no "Facebook", Television, movies, or even radio, it didn't take much to captivate people's imaginations.

 

[BrownBear]

According to what I have read about Daniel Boone, he was captured by and adopted by Indians for over a year. As their trust in him grew he was allowed to go hunting. He was provided a gun and balls, but was not trusted enough to keep them and had to return them after his hunts. He would cut the round balls in half, and hid one half, used the other for his hunt. When he was ready to make his escape, he took the half balls, and stole a gun and made his escape. Apparently the half balls worked well enough for him hunting that no questions were asked.

Shows the limit of my memory gland. I could have sworn that was Simon Kenton.

 

[FishDFly]

Documentation of the facts would be wonderful.

 

[azmntman]

According to what I have read about Daniel Boone, he was captured by and adopted by Indians for over a year. As their trust in him grew he was allowed to go hunting. He was provided a gun and balls, but was not trusted enough to keep them and had to return them after his hunts. He would cut the round balls in half, and hid one half, used the other for his hunt. When he was ready to make his escape, he took the half balls, and stole a gun and made his escape. Apparently the half balls worked well enough for him hunting that no questions were asked.

Shows the limit of my memory gland. I could have sworn that was Simon Kenton.

I read it about Boone too. Now as he was a HUNTER he could have easily used a half ball at close range and dragged out a deer. I recall he would use a half, then the other and then stash a whole ball for his escape. Was it true? I dunno, could be? :idunno: