Trying some shooting of round balls without patches this week. Does that idea work very well ??
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Shooting Round balls without using patches...does that work??
- Thread starter B P Maniac Shooter
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flintlock75
45 Cal.
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2007
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I have done that during speed shoots, especially after a few patched balls when the fouling builds up., we were shooting 12” long 2x4and2x6 boards, range out to 30 yards. No problem with accuracy. I would not do it when clean, ball could move to much.
Check out the smoothbore subforum. The accuracy some of those guys get can make one raise an eyebrow. I've got a 58 smoothbore in the works right now so Ima going to find for myself soon enough.
Amen, Bro. One well known maker of smoothies gets rifle accuracy from his personal guns. I have shot against him and long suspected the barrels to be partially rifled. To answer the title of the thread: If it will go down it will come out. Accuracy and velocity will be affected negatively and you will experience leading. But, if the injuns are after you, don't fret those things, just dump in some powder, spit in a ball and shoot.
Amen brother!
I would absolutely dump powder, spit in a ball & shoot!
I wouldn't care about fouling if being chased by injuns!
No injuns jus the repo man!
Especially so....if you want to MINE LEAD!!
I've wondered about that. My thoughts ran toward using a ball that measured .500 in a 50 caliber rifle coated with some sort of stiff lube with beeswax and rendered animal fat... or maybe using a Wonder Wad under the ball. Haven't done any experimenting on that yet, but it is an interesting concept.
Loved the video Mark! I feel ya as far as the cold goes!! It’s comical to watch someone else react in the same manner as I do in the cold… keep the videos coming! Get up this far north on a Saturday shoot me a pm and we can shoot! In the spring/ summer of course!!
I can do that, especially when it warms up!
What city/state are you in?
DuncNZ
54 Cal.
Good experiment . I have shot in competitions where the shooter was not permitted to use a measure or a preload , I cup my hand a lot more you do , as if I am going to use my hand to get a drink from a creek , I get more consistent loads that way , about 80 grains . I know guys who rough up a round ball by rolling it with a file on a slab of wood , this expands the ball and helps in smooth bores where a patch is not allowed . It would be the way to go in really dry country where a smoldering patch could start a fire .
morehops52
50 Cal.
I remember reading about the Germans pounding over-bore unpatched lead balls down the barrel. Glad somebody thought of wrapping a bit of cloth around them.
WHY???NO REASON too.Its like not lacing up your shoes when your running and plenty of time before to do so.
Neither flintlock or rifled, BUT, N-SSA competitors put thousands of unpatched balls down range every year in timed smoothbore matches at 4" targets at 50 yards.
Near wapakoneta/ Lima ohio
Gotcha...that's only 3 hours from here.
I can probably make that happen when it warms up.
I'm going to watch an N-SSA event this year.
I can't wait to check all that out with the cameras.
ZDC
36 Cl.
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- Sep 25, 2021
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I watched the video last week.
I find it funny because last month I talked about how I was shooting good groups with a bare ball in my rifle.
Well I have 2 'breech-loading' muzzleloaders that I do exactly that with! One is a Ferguson action with a screw breech and the other is a Hall 1811 flintlock with an inline tilting breech.
I dip the roundballs in a 50:50 mix of beeswax and cooking oil. Both being rifles, they shoot excellent! But I've also used the same lube recipe when 'bare balling' roundballs in my flint smoothies. Bareball loads (yes, I also shoot them 'naked' too!) can be capable of stellar accuracy, but boy oh boy ... what a mess to clean out the bore after a day of shooting!
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Sailguy2401
32 Cal
Bareball-haha amazing!
