Spru location made no difference...

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Thank you, the photo is actually a couple years old and filled up a bit more. Other items are with the camp gear.
That's an IronWood at 30 pounds.(Blanket Shoot)
I gave it to a youngster that was shooting it really well when I moved to a 40# Hickory.

Eddie May has been making a quality cast ball for the market for many years.
His product is known for consistancy and reliability and is very affordable compared to the factory ball available on the shelf.
 
roundball said:
Just some info in case its of any use to anyone...I recently switched from shooting 40 shot range sessions with a .40cal to a .50cal...another caliber that I use cast balls made by Eddie May in Chatsworth, GA.
The spru location on his cast lead balls is nothing more than a little flat spot, for the world they look a lot like a swaged ball.
And just like with the .395"s, I've intentionally been loading the .490"s paying no attention to spru location, and see no difference in loading or accuracy to the 50yds I've been practicing.
If someone isn't interested in casting their own, Eddie May makes good cast balls at outstanding prices.
Hoppes No.9 lube so there's no wiping between shots...Eddie May's cast balls so there's no fiddling with spru location = my kind of range trip.

I see no problem with purchasing your balls when you can get them at a good price. I don't cast my 36 caliber balls. I can, but I choose the lazy way and purchase 000 buckshot. However, I do cast my own 62 caliber balls.

No one has factored in the cost of electricity and time spent casting. It is also not mentioned that not only does one have to buy a mould, but mould handles, iron pot and hot plate, or a lead furnace.
 
grzrob, That was an interesting article. I can't find it right now, but I came away thinking that even if the spru was off, the point of impact wasn't affected that much at one hundred yards. Even still, I keep my spru up on them that has 'em! :grin:
Nice shooting necchi! :hatsoff:
Robby
 
No one has factored in the cost of electricity and time spent casting. It is also not mentioned that not only does one have to buy a mould, but mould handles, iron pot and hot plate, or a lead furnace.

Can't disagree. But, my way of looking at those costs is that any avocation has it's costs. Except for the moulds, those items can be used for several rifles/calibers. And, if not needed can be resold to recover some of the initial expense.
Unless, of course, you do like I did and lose about a dozen Lyman moulds in a move. :(
 
""...spru location on his cast lead balls is nothing more than a little flat spot"

Um, I think that is the point I was getting at. Most (not all) home made hand cast have some sort of a sprue above the line of the round ball's horizon. that's all. No need to shout. ..jeese
 
I have casting equipment, molds, melters, dippers, you name it from decades ago when I use to cast cf bullets. I started casting rb long before that so any investment has paid for itself many times over. I just like casting my ammo is the main reason I do. I wouldn't hesitate to buy if I tired of casting.

Most of my rb molds are Lee molds which leave that flat spot and no sprue. I load sprue up just so's I can see it. With Lee balls I load "sprue" up if I can tell there's one which is seldom.
 
I think roundball has just proven to himself something that has been known for a long time.

Almost every cast roundball ever made has a small void in it right below the sprue (or gate if you prefer).

The void is caused by the lead shrinking as it cools which always happens after the lead in the gate freezes.
Unable to feed more liquid lead into the ball to fill it, a cavity is created.

Some folks worried that this void would cause the ball to become out of balance as it is flying towards the target so they maintained that for the very best accuracy the void should be as close to the middle of the ball as possible and the easiest way to do this is to place the sprue (or gate) dead center with the bore when the ball is loaded.

Physics says the theory is right.
The void will make the ball out of balance and this will move its center of gravity away from the center of the ball therefore the ball will be rotating around this new, offset center as it flies downrange.

Carrying this line of thinking a bit further the very worst case (which never happens) would be where only the lower half of the ball filled with lead and the upper half was nothing but a thin hollow skin.
A ball in this condition would have its center of gravity offset into the middle of the mass of lead in the lower half of the ball.
This would be less than half way between the center of the ball and its outer surface.

Now, if you stop and think about it, with a .50 caliber ball this new center of gravity could never be more than .25 away from the balls center so the worst that could happen is the ball would hit 1/4 inch away from where it should have hit if it were perfectly balanced.

As I say, this condition will never exist and in reality the most the ball would move off of the line of flight would be less than 1/32 of an inch, a value too small to detect with the best of shooters.

This explains why all of the many shooters that have tried to detect a difference between a centered sprue and an offset sprue never saw a difference.

Some may argue that the flat spot on the ball will produce a change in direction due to the air pressure on it as it flies downrange and if they are shooting a smoothbore where the ball is not spinning they have a good point.

With a rifle, where the ball is spinning, any pressure differences caused by the surface irregularities are self canceling because of the spinning so the ball will fly true.
That is precisely why rifles shoot more accurately than smoothbores at ranges beyond 20 yards.
 
From my point of view the nature of the post is a promotion of Eddie May's cast roundballs.

Over the years of reading ML forums, promotion of good products and service providers seems to be a commom theme of Roundball's communication.

My own experience with Eddie May is favorable. I recently received 1000 .440 balls and 1000 .390 balls delivered to my door for $123.00. $60.00 for the .440, $50.00 for the .390 and $13.00 flat rate USPS shipping. You all that cast your own know how that compares to your costs.

All my shooting is offhand mostly at 25 to 50 yards sometimes out to 100 yards. For my purpose this is a good product.

I load sprue up because that's how I was taught.
 
Sprue up is how I learned, too. But in all honesty, the way I shoot, the balls could be like Swiss cheese and I'd never know it.
 
Thanks for the contact info Roundball! I live less than 30 min from Mr. May and I contacted him yesterday to inquire about purchasing some .490 rb. Mr. May not only had them at a rate of $7.00 per 100, but agreed to meet me at a store to save some of my drive time.

I took the time to speak with Mr. May and discovered he not only carries rb, but most all ML shooting and cleaning supplies. He informed me that he takes his wares to Friendship, and other venues. Mr. May also told me that he was in his younger days a championship quality shooter.

From reading this post I understand that over time it is cheaper to make your own rb as opposed to purchasing them, however for people like me who are new to the sport and dont have the resources/time required to mould my own it is nice to know that people like Roundball still take the time to share info that to some of the old hands may be usless. I for one applaud Roundball for his efforts to pass on information
 
Back
Top