Shooting a 1/4 cut ball

[faw3]

Well if someone doesnt try it brfore i get out of the hospital (got to ck in at 1:15 Tuesday) I'll find out here. I was going to try it today, but never got to cutting those balls, a line of wild boar crossed where I was going to try this at, lobed a 610 ball into the biggest of them, knocked him flat ..for a few seconds, then he took off a running for about 40yds across he dry lake bed and fell dead. First one of these Ive seen, very dark grey close to black from front legs forward,tusk about 5" , and smelled :shake: the last 2 yrs East Tex has been over run by wild hogs, but this one was a first for me,took 2 16 yr old stout kids to pick most of him up off the ground, so you can guess what he weighed, I havent a clue. Fred :hatsoff:

 

[Forster]

I know most of you have seen the TC Maxi Shock cross tip bullet performence tool in catalogs. It fits on the end of your ramrod and puts a deep score in your ball as it is being seated. I guess it's TC's [gimmick] answer to the quartering of round balls. It's intent is to aid in the expansion of the ball rather than to fragment it. Who would have thought??? Jim

 

[SAJones]

Don't know how they would shoot, but under battle conditions accuracy was secondary in the 1770's. There is enough anecdotal history & recovered balls to show that some American troops did cut a cross in the ball, but the only recovered balls I saw (at collector's shows) were in one piece. Somewhere I saw a photo of some recovered balls w/ an X, but can't put my finger on it. Also, not that many were recovered, so it seems it was not a common practice.

 

[faw3]

To add to all this the same paper said they put poison on the balls. :hatsoff: Fred

 

[musketman]

To add to all this the same paper said they put poison on the balls. :hatsoff: Fred

As if the lead isn't toxic enough... :grin:

Hope they didn't give out poison musket balls to chew on when the field surgeon amputated arms and legs... :shocked2:

Poison projectile technology goes back quite a ways, all was fair in love and war, the Geneva Convention hadn't been thought of then... :hmm:

 

[SAJones]

Hope they didn't give out poison musket balls to chew on when the field surgeon amputated arms and legs...

Reading about medicine in the Rev War, the poison ball might have been preferable...

 

[hack]

I'm not sure about a quarter ball but I do know that if you clamp a cigaret paper in a mold, stopping about 3/4 or more of the way up from the bottom, you can make a ball that will split in two peices when fired.
This is an old trick we used to play on people when they wanted to shoot our guns an the range.
At 25 yards they might get a hole in the target and sometimes two, but at 50 yards they were very lucky to hit the target. Then we would load a good shot, fire and hit. It drove them nuts for a while, then we would let them in on the gag. Everyone got a good laugh and the person was given all the shots he wanted. All the ribbing was in good spirits with no hard feelings taken.
Just good clean fun.

 

[jim gray]

Please post your findings. I was thinking last night as I went to sleep it could be done with a tap of a sharp hatchet or a sharp knife. I would like to see different depths of cuts made to see how and far they go.

I think that lead is so malleable that it would would be almost impossible to cut it by either of those methods without deforming to the point where it would be impossible to load.

 

[faw3]

the Revolutionary War with shots including a ball and four to eight buckshot “according to the strength of their pieces.” Musket balls were also mutilated and cut up, sometimes nails were driven through the ball, and even old nails and bits of iron were shot. Such mutilated lead balls have been found on Revolutionary War archaeological sites, so there is more to it that just complaints of the British about such “atrocities.” FROM smooth bore posting. for dad while he's in hospital. blaine (his son)( he was trying to cut these right before he had to go in, wasnt doing a real good job at it.