using "false balls" lol

[Rogerm]

I was playing around in my shop the other day trying to come up with a cheap way to practice shooting my BP pistol at home.
I found that I could roll modeling clay into balls ,let them cure , and they shoot fine.
They splat when they hit the target (close range) and leave a grease circle showing where I hit the target.
Now my question is ,after I do shoot such practice rounds and after well cleaning the pistol , is there damage I could be doing to the gun ?
It doesnt seem to hurt it but I dont know about long term damage.

 

[Claude Mathis]

How abrasive is clay? (Dirt, sand, etc.)

 

[50cal.cliff]

Let me put it this way that will try to illustrate my point. Don't know if you are into tools but let's just say for the sake that you are. Take your very best chisel with the point so keen you could shave with it, and take it out and jamb it into the dirt repeatedly as fast as you can. I will be willing to bet money by the time your arm gets tired and you can't stab it into the ground no more, the chisel will allready be too dull to cut. I wouldn't advise either action, but both will give same results. :shake: :nono:

 

[faw3]

While I dont belive it would work the same (BUT)...I had a S+W 44 mag and was shooting those plastic indoor wadcutters yrs back that used just the primer and it sprung (ruined) the frame. Ya cant guess the power of some things, these flat plastic bullets with no powder would go thru a 1/8th" ply-wood if hit in the same or weak spot at 15 to 20'.Fred :hatsoff:

 

[Jac Spring]

I can feel your pain - as said, don't use clay.

Rather, use wax balls - they are fine for short distance and of course also spatt when they hit the target - this is what "fast draw" shooters use - just push the wax into the case and it makes a "wadcutter" type bullet.

But you'd need to make balls I recon. Might be able to cast them if they'd release from the mould.

 

[Charles D. Prokopp]

A shot of chandler's silicon mold spray would ensure that they'd pop right out after casting.

 

[redwing]

what about the soft air plastic pellets, you could even patch those. That way you could protect you bore. :hmm:

 

[mec]

I don't know how abrasive modeling clay is when dried out. I do know there can be unintended results from this sort of thing.
We used to have home made canon out of cold rolled steel and bored to 1.25" At the same time, the candy people were selling Giant Jaw breakers. they were big versions of the regular JB that are made of different colored layers of hard sugar. Suck on a giant Jaw Breaker fr 20 minutes and it was just the right size to patch and load into the canon. We figured we had a great big gallery load like the bakelite .22 shorts they used in the carnaval shoooting galeries.

they weren't as frangible as we thought. dang'ol jaw breaker would blast a gigantic hole through a fresh 2x6 and blow splinters out the back. I/ve stopped 54 caliber pistol balls from the aston johnson on the same sort of target.

 

[DanChamberlain]

I use 10 grains of 777 in my .36 Navy and wax balls cast from a lee mold. Lots of noise and the balls fired into an open coffee can do no damage. I will fire at soda cans on the floor of the basement and the balls simply disappear into small wax particles when they strike the concrete floor. I wouldn't want to have one hit my foot however, and I don't know how toxic 777 is in a confined space. After a cylinder full, it gets pretty smokey

Dan

 

[Wes/Tex]

Back in the 'dark ages' when ball molds were hard to find, I found cheap marbles went "SPLAT" real neat on concrete! :shocked2: :haha:

 

[Musketeer]

Back in the 'dark ages' when ball molds were hard to find, I found cheap marbles went "SPLAT" real neat on concrete! :shocked2: :haha:

Oh, Lord... :haha: So, I'm not the only marble shootin' fool out here? Phwew! I feel a lot better. :blah: :hatsoff:

 

[bavarialand]

i have used 3/4 long sections of a wood dowel for indoor "practice" before. it worked good BUT, they accuracy is not there.

Dave

 

[redwing]

Thanks I always wondered were the term sweet shoot'in gun came from now I know. :thumbsup:

 

[Legionair]

I would imagine clay would contain silica that could scratch up th bore. I wouldn't use it. Maybe play-dough, it's non toxic so maybe it has no silica?

If you stop at the hardware stor you can pick up compression sleeves for platic tubing that have copper or brass ferruls. These can be had in sizes that correspond (roughly) to your cylinder size. Pressed through a warn slab of beeswax/oil, you come up with self lubing safety bullets.

Legion

 

[JCW]

I have been using cheap marbles for slingshot ammo since I was a kid.

 

[John Taylor]

I use wax in the old 38 special but never thought of using it in a BP pistol, should work fine with light loads. In the 38s I machined the cases to hold a 209 primer and did not use powder. Not sure if a cap alone would send the wax down range. May have to play with this a bit.

 

[Rogerm]

Ok, thats why I ask if modeling clay would harm my pistol.It seems soft but I wasnt sure.
I do like the idea of pressing warm wax to make rounds.I hadnt thought of that.Thats my next attempt.


Thanks guys

 

[Wes/Tex]

I have been using cheap marbles for slingshot ammo since I was a kid.

Thee and me and Senor Blunderbuss ought to start a marble shootin' club. Though, a fist full of marbles might be rather intimidating load in a blunderbeast! :haha:

 

[mec]

"I have been using cheap marbles for slingshot ammo since I was a kid"

There was probably a time when I thought that was what they were FOR. Reminds me of a thing we used to do. Hammer a pice of aluminum tubing into a pistol shape and drill out a hole at the bend. We would feed in a couple of black cat firecrackers with the fuses twisted and then load a patched marble on top. then light the fuse and point it at something. The back blast would kind of hurt our hands but the marble exited with enough force to break a window. By that time, cherry bombs were illegal here and we couldn't emulate the kid that had a nice golfball cannon.

 

[54mountain]

Yea!
the firecracker gun brings back lots of memories, we used little green crab apples for ammo, all the boys on the block would make one and we would have real firefights.

Wonder how we lived this long :rotf: :rotf: