Tumbling round ball to smooth sprue cut

[dave951]

I always keep the heavy one's and toss everything else back. If anything is lighter than the heaviest, there's a possibility it has an air pocket. I've had the best luck with the Lee moulds. Lyman steel moulds took too long to heat up and regulate, but they could produce quality, many times superior balls. Just too many rejects!

I have great results with my Lyman 69cal mold. Keep it hot and pour fast. I'm convinced that many folks who cast run the pot a bit on the cold side.

 

[david w]

Years ago I "rolled" all of my round balls to smooth out the sprue Now I don't bother as I found that it made very little difference on accuracy plus the fact that my .445 mold leaves a different sprue cut that my .440 mold. It is easy to tell which size ball I have by looking at the sprue. Which prevents me mixing up my pistol balls and rifle balls.

I never rolled any of my balls, but I think there would be the possibility of getting them out of round, which would be worse than a sprue. If a mould is cut properly, there is very little sprue to be concerned with.

 

[david w]

I have great results with my Lyman 69cal mold. Keep it hot and pour fast. I'm convinced that many folks who cast run the pot a bit on the cold side.

Well yes, keep the Lyman hot, and pour fast. It doesn't take long between pours to cast a cold ball.

 

[fleener]

When I have visited Hornady's facility in Grand Island NE they had a plastic cement mixer that they put the RB's in with a towel and let it run.

Fleener

 

[jdw276]

I stick em in a rock tumbler for about 45 minutes. Just the RB. Puts a black coating on em and helps me see the flaws, waves, holes etc. Gets rid of the sprue and keeps the oxidation off. Put em on a paper towel, spray with wd40 and roll em around. Different, not shiney silver but nice deep black. Works for me and helps my quality level.

 

[Sidney Smith]

If you cast your own balls, if you've got a good mould, you will not even have a sprue to worry about. My Lee moulds cast balls with practically no sprue. Now with a bag mould, you can get a pretty decent sprue depending upon how good the cutter is. Even then, a good pair of wire cutters will get rid of any extra lead, the sprue cutter won't get. Then there's the aforementioned short starter, and ram rod. Which by the time the ball is seated, the sprue is nonexistant.

 

[RjSixgun]

Yer over complicating it!
Just put all your lead balls in a plastic soda bottle and tumble them around for a few minutes. No need for a machine no need for steel balls.

 

[Art Caputo]

Years ago, I did some comparison testing, with and without the sprue using a fine file. Couldn’t see a difference. I mostly use Hornady staged LRB’s these days

 

[sdilts]

I roll them between two heavy glass plates. Accuracy is just as good as loading sprue up.

 

[steamjohn248]

I get rid of the sprue on home cast pistol balls by rolling then between two ground flat steel plates which sit on a steel ring about 5" diameter exactly .457" thick. Sprue disappears and balls finish dead round and true diameter. I put a little liquid Alox on the plates. result dead round balls, no sprue and a thin coat of Alox lube, works a treat.

 

[Captndan]

Don't worry about the sprue. That ball mill is for making your black powder.

 

[N.Y. Yankee]

I think if it really made a difference for general BP shooting, they would have come up with a recommended process long, long ago.

 

[towgunner11h]

I cast .680 balls, trim the sprue as close as possible, then put the balls in a 1lb coffee can (no coffee!) and tumble for 1/2 hour in my Thumler. They come out very uniform, and it is rare that I can find where the sprue was. I tape the lid on the can with duct tape while tumbling.

 

[Khufu]

I tumble all my round balls in a rock tumbler with hot water and dawn. it removes the sprues nicely. I shoot nothing but round balls, with the only exception being my p53 Enfield. why waste powder on a less than perfect projectile. if I miss, I would rather it be all me, not a out of balance round ball with a sprue on it.

 

[unclelouie]

iv'e been shooting and building muzzleloaders for a long time. i have shot a lot of competition from friendship to the winternationals in phoenix. I liked the sprueless balls the best, but i would balance the round balls and shoot the ones that were the same weight. it makes a difference. I sometimes tumble my round balls with small gravel. tumbling bullets can take the air pockets out a little. Ozark bullets back in the 90's from Arkansas were all tumbled not perfectly round, but were the ones i would shoot in competition. every little thing helps, just keep experiencing. you'll find your place.

 

[unclelouie]

When I have visited Hornady's facility in Grand Island NE they had a plastic cement mixer that they put the RB's in with a towel and let it run.

Fleener

im interested in what you wrote. was the balls wrapped in the towel or just thrown in and how long do they tumble them ? I have been experimenting with that way. Saturday i shot some balls that i did that way. i shot a 50 with 5 balls at 50 yds on a buffalo target using a bill large 47 cal. 40 inch barrel.

 

[unclelouie]

I tumble all my round balls in a rock tumbler with hot water and dawn. it removes the sprues nicely. I shoot nothing but round balls, with the only exception being my p53 Enfield. why waste powder on a less than perfect projectile. if I miss, I would rather it be all me, not a out of balance round ball with a sprue on it.

i like what you wrote. I'm gonna try it. how many balls at a time do you tumble and how long ?

 

[Khufu]

i like what you wrote. I'm gonna try it. how many balls at a time do you tumble and how long ?

my rock tumbler is kinda small, it only handles 2lbs that fills it about half full. I run them about 2 hours with excellent results some of the molds make worse sprues, and require a little longer. I rinse them well to get the blackened soap off of them, they come out shiny and nicely round.

 

[mooman76]

I have heard of people putting them in a cookie tin in their vehicle. Just drive around normally for a week and that should do it.

 

[fleener]

The towel was just thrown in with the RB. Keep in mind it was quite a few balls.

I asked them how long they let the mixer run and the guy simply looked at me and stated "until I turn it off". He said there was no set time and I got no idea on how long.

Fleener