truly round balls

[tippyguru]

Hello, hope I'm in the correct forum, recently I've bought some new ball in .457 and .535 the ROA balls are perfectly round and unmarked and nearly equal wieght but the 54's are 7 to 8 thou out of round and can vary in wieght a good deal.
I have matched weighed and re rolled between glass sheets making them rounder indeed and producing 3/4 to 1 1/2" groups at 50 metres out of my GPR.
Has anyone any ideas on how to make the ball rounder ? :hmm:

 

[Hunter66]

I have never weighed a ball or checked them for roundness and I have several guns that will shoot about 3" or a little better at 100yds. I just make sure the sprue is up if I am using a cast ball. Maybe I have been lucky but I don't put any stock in fussing about roundballs at least for hunting.

 

[nchawkeye]

Once you shoot them, they ain't going to be round anyway...I always figured the bore "sized" them...

I only shoot balls I cast from a Rapine bag mold, I'm sure they aren't round, don't weigh the same, but figure with open sights, they'll do... :grin:

 

[overrev73]

I like your style. Consistency is the key to perfection and perfection is the key to smaller groups. Your weight variations could be due simply to the fact that each ball is a slightly different size/shape or the lead alloy could be a little off from batch to batch. As for roundness, I've got some friends who are engineering students at Purdue. I'll get them on it.

Bryan

 

[George Holton]

Alloy in PRB's : :surrender:

 

[Little Wattsy]

Hello, hope I'm in the correct forum, recently I've bought some new ball in .457 and .535 the ROA balls are perfectly round and unmarked and nearly equal wieght but the 54's are 7 to 8 thou out of round and can vary in wieght a good deal.
I have matched weighed and re rolled between glass sheets making them rounder indeed and producing 3/4 to 1 1/2" groups at 50 metres out of my GPR.
Has anyone any ideas on how to make the ball rounder ? :hmm:

Round lead balls are, according to those bothersome laws of physics, only going to be so accurate. That being said I doubt that the increased cost of making match grade RB's would be worth it. So IMHO a little variance is acceptable. You want one hole groups at 100yrds, your shooting the wrong critter :hatsoff:

 

[Bountyhunter]

I totally agree. Round balls are not going to make one hole groups at 100 in the great outdoors, probably not even if shot inside in a controlled range.

Take into consideration that you put in a charge of powder. You ignite it. Suddenly you have perhaps 15,000 psi chamber pressure against the base of that "round" ball.

Guess what? It aint round no more. It obiturates or squashes out to fill the bore and it is now on its way down range. Some of these thoughts is what led to ball-ettes and other elongated roundballs.

 

[tippyguru]

thanks, I understand the go buy a flat shooting centre fire stance but I am over that so now I'll press on with how good can I get my groups at 50 then 100 just because I can................. :wink:

 

[paulvallandigham]

With the best loads, barrels, balls, etc. and the best sights, a round ball will shoot inside 1 1/2" at 50 yards, and inside 3 inches at 100 yards on a good day weatherwise. We are talking open sights, or peep sights on a target gun at the best, NOT SCOPES. Even with a scope, its not likely to get a 5-shot group at 100 yards much less than 2 1/2".

Of course, conicals will do much better than that. RB are designed for what they do best: They kill deer out to the reasonable shooting range of open sights, and do it very well with a small weight ball that expands in soft tissue quickly. Most shooters cannot shoot open sights well much beyond 100 yards. The front sight just covers up too much target at longer ranges. Since most White Tail Deer are killed inside 50 yards, the RB is an excellent choice for deer hunters. There is really no reason to use a conical bullet of any kind when hunting Whitetails.