Swaged or Run Balls?

[jtmattison]

:bull: Mike Nesbitt is a writer not a do'er.He writes here say.Air holes inside bullets(balls or conicles) will not be consistant.If you want to be a target shooter,be consistant in all components,and weigh your balls........OLSON

I agree :thumbsup:

HD

 

[CoyoteJoe]

:bull: Mike Nesbitt is a writer not a do'er.He writes here say.Air holes inside bullets(balls or conicles) will not be consistant.If you want to be a target shooter,be consistant in all components,and weigh your balls........OLSON

I agree :thumbsup:

HD

You guys need to be careful what you say about Mike. Last time I disagreed with something he had written half the forum jumped down my throat. And I wasn't near as derogatory as your comment, I just disagreed with his conclusions. "Why's everybody bad mouthin' Mike? He's a great guy, ect. ect."
:grin:

 

[jtmattison]

:bull: Mike Nesbitt is a writer not a do'er.He writes here say.Air holes inside bullets(balls or conicles) will not be consistant.If you want to be a target shooter,be consistant in all components,and weigh your balls........OLSON

I agree :thumbsup:

HD

You guys need to be careful what you say about Mike. Last time I disagreed with something he had written half the forum jumped down my throat. And I wasn't near as derogatory as your comment, I just disagreed with his conclusions. "Why's everybody bad mouthin' Mike? He's a great guy, ect. ect."
:grin:

I was agreeing with this part:
" Air holes inside bullets(balls or conicles) will not be consistant.If you want to be a target shooter,be consistant in all components,and weigh your balls"

Not this part:
" :bull: Mike Nesbitt is a writer not a do'er. He writes here say."

HD

 

[Swampman]

Mike Nesbitt can out shoot anybody here. He frequently wins very large matches against top shooters. He's smart enough to know that weighing balls is a complete waste of time, and that culls and even very, very undersized balls will shoot just as good as perfect ones.

This is a very simple hobby, and complicating it won't make you a better shot or your gun shoot better....You guys do make me laugh a lot, and I thank you for it. :haha:

Of course if you don't have anything important to do then weigh and sort your balls.

 

[Rebel]

I think you are taking quite a bit for granted with the remark that Mike can OUTSHOOT ANYONE on this forum when you don't know all of the members here personally, and we don't even know if you know Mike personally. There are quite a few VERY good shots here, and i bet more than one of them can shoot as well as, if not better than Mike can. Weighed balls or not.

 

[Halftail]

***YAWN***

:snore:

 

[soggy]

Mike Nesbitt can out shoot anybody here. He frequently wins very large matches against top shooters. He's smart enough to know that weighing balls is a complete waste of time, and that culls and even very, very undersized balls will shoot just as good as perfect ones.

This is a very simple hobby, and complicating it won't make you a better shot or your gun shoot better....You guys do make me laugh a lot, and I thank you for it. :haha:

Of course if you don't have anything important to do then weigh and sort your balls.

SwampMan: I don't know this Mike Nesbitt guy, and I don't know you .............. But I don't think anyone can say that you can't shoot the ................... (breeze?):rotf:

 

[Swampman]

It just bothers me that so many quit or avoid the hobby because they think it's complicated. I'm thinking it's all the cheap guns that require the load development. Good ones seem to shoot really well without it. I gave up on cheap guns 20 years ago. Life's too short.

 

[jtmattison]

This is a very simple hobby, and complicating it won't make you a better shot or your gun shoot better....You guys do make me laugh a lot, and I thank you for it. :haha:

Of course if you don't have anything important to do then weigh and sort your balls.

I don't weigh my balls. I did one time to see how consistent they were and found them to be incredibly consistent.
I cast them, tumble them (I know you're going to say tumbling is a waste of time too but it makes me happy so :blah and I shoot them.
Being a father of three little boys I have plenty of time on my hands where I could weigh them all but frankly it's boring so I don't do it.

I still disagree with your comments on less than perfect balls.

HD

 

[AZ-Robert]

My head hurts. :hmm: Let me see if I have this straight. Don't worry about less than perfect balls (uneven weight distro has NO effect on pitch and yaw?); don't worry about trying to get a tight fit (loose enough for a thumb-start is the "right" way to do it... wouldn't want that rifling to actually grab hold of anything) -- because all those little factors don't add anything to accuracy. If it was good enough for Davy and Dan'l, etc, etc. But, by golly, if your barrel twist isn't exactly "right" you'll be lucky to hit the target board, much less the target? I must be missing something here.

He's smart enough to know that weighing balls is a complete waste of time...

:rotf: I think you mean to say that he is smart enough to believe what you believe! :grin:

 

[Dave_B]

I have just recently started casting my own RBs. Initially, all were measured for weight and size. Very few were off, and those were only off a tad. With so few rejects, measuring was a waste of time. I do look them over and remelt any with voids at the sprue or funky knit lines.
After reading that HD tumbles his RBs, I have tumbled a few hundred and I like the result. They have a consistant surface fiish and you have a hard time finding the sprue. Granted, my Lee mold doesn't leave much of a sprue to begin with.
Dave

 

[Swampman]

Exactly what I meant!

 

[Swampman]

The sprue doesn't hurt anything. It actually aids in more consistent loading. Good guns will shoot nearly anything well.

 

[AZ-Robert]

I was amazed! There was over 5 grains of variation between the round balls out of the same box! A few balls were over 8 grains off of the average (for .490 dia balls). The brand name didn't make any difference either. The Hornady balls varied just like the Speer balls did.

I wonder if the very act of swaging them creates the variation... may have all been the same weight when they went in the tumbler, but some gave up more surface material because of where they were in the mix, length of time in the tumbler, etc.

I've been buying swaged balls, mainly because I like the lack of sprue. The balls for my 20 ga come with sprues, though, and I'm learning to get over that little bump.

I recently purchased just about everything I need to run my own balls. Thought about a scale to go along with the kit, but stumbled over the price tag.

 

[Dave_B]

The sprue doesn't hurt anything. It actually aids in more consistent loading. Good guns will shoot nearly anything well.

I imagine a person can get reasonable hunting/plinking accuracy with a less than optimal quality ball. My experience with target shooting centerfire rifles and pistols leads me to believe that bullet quality has a measurable and sometimes, considerable, effect on accuracy.
Dave

 

[jtmattison]

Good guns will shoot nearly anything well.

Where do you come up with this stuff?

So I guess everyone who has a gun that shoots deformed/imperfect balls badly must have a cheap gun :hmm:

Even though these same guns shoot good balls perfectly :hmm:

Man, I better stop buying these bad guns.

The ball is alright, it's the gun that's the problem.

What a concept.

HD

 

[roundball]

I thought the twist is what made the difference...I guess that's no longer the case.
:shocked2:

 

[jtmattison]

I thought the twist is what made the difference...I guess that's no longer the case.
:shocked2:

Nope. It's not the twist. It's how much you paid for your gun.
Geeze, everybody knows that :winking:

HD

 

[Swampman]

"My experience with target shooting centerfire rifles and pistols leads me to believe that bullet quality has a measurable and sometimes, considerable, effect on accuracy."

I agree completely. We are talking about muzzleloaders here. Logic would lead one to think it was important in them too, but it isn't. They can shoot some pretty crappy projectiles and a wide range of charges with outstanding results. There is no measurable difference in the way culls shoot, and the way perfect projectiles shoot. Weighing and sorting is a waste of time.

 

[musketman]

I thought the twist is what made the difference...I guess that's no longer the case.
:shocked2:

Nope, the twist doesn't make a difference, I can shoot very well with my musket, and it has a 0 in 42" twist... :winking: :haha: