weighimg my cast rb
- Thread starter MosinRob
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Yes it's normal.
Things like impurities or air bubbles can change the weight of a ball, as well as just a guy's wrong move when casting (we are people)
There can be an art to selecting ball from a casting run.
I normaly have around a 15% cull rate from any given casting session.
The light ones are the ones I really keep an eye out for.
Folks have different ideas and goals for their shooting and each has a personal acceptable cull rate.
I'm pretty darn fussy as I do alot of target shooting, I'll take an average of ten ball from a hundred or so,, then I keep ball that are +/- .5grn of the average.
Soo all the ball from my run are within 1grn of each other.
Many will go +/- a full grain
Things like impurities or air bubbles can change the weight of a ball, as well as just a guy's wrong move when casting (we are people)
There can be an art to selecting ball from a casting run.
I normaly have around a 15% cull rate from any given casting session.
The light ones are the ones I really keep an eye out for.
Folks have different ideas and goals for their shooting and each has a personal acceptable cull rate.
I'm pretty darn fussy as I do alot of target shooting, I'll take an average of ten ball from a hundred or so,, then I keep ball that are +/- .5grn of the average.
Soo all the ball from my run are within 1grn of each other.
Many will go +/- a full grain
No it's not unusual at all. Back in the day before factory swaged balls I learned that a scale is just as important as the pot and mold.
When I first started casting balls I must have set a record for void induced flyers. I eventually got the reject percentage down. Fluxing the lead several times helps as does keeping the lead temprature up. Take a break when you add lead. I fluxed on the origional scrap melt then when I melted the ingots and after adding metal. I don't do casting any more as the heavy metal exposure is being avoided.
Get at least a 10 pound pot and even though I do have Lee molds but Lyman seem to give fewer rejects. Geo. T
When I first started casting balls I must have set a record for void induced flyers. I eventually got the reject percentage down. Fluxing the lead several times helps as does keeping the lead temprature up. Take a break when you add lead. I fluxed on the origional scrap melt then when I melted the ingots and after adding metal. I don't do casting any more as the heavy metal exposure is being avoided.
Get at least a 10 pound pot and even though I do have Lee molds but Lyman seem to give fewer rejects. Geo. T
Yeah, there is a learning curve. Stick with it and you'll soon work out the bugs,, :wink:MosinRob said:
ohio ramrod
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You will get a variation in weight( light if you have air bubbles) heavy if the mold wasn't closed tightly. (Which will also give you a ball that is egg shaped and slightly oversized measured across the parting line ). Also the weight will vary from one batch to another if your lead isn't as pure in each batch. The best way to avoid air bubbles is to "over pour" your mold since the cooling lead wants to shrink and by overpouring you keep molten lead at the pour location. I use a bottom tap pot and a modified mold so I can keep the pour tap right against the mold for about three seconds to allow the ball to "set up" . With practice you should get your cull rate down below 5 %. I prefer a single cavity mold as I always have more culls when using a double cavity mold. :idunno:
410-er said:I weigh EVERY ball.Any ball less than 1gr of the heaviest ball gets remelted.I just feel it could throw that ball into a wobble.
Good photo 410-er.
Was it an external flaw that induced you to cut that particular ball in half?
Billnpatti
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If you are either a very good shot and shoot from a bench or over a chunk or are a very poor caster of balls, it might make sense to spend the time to weigh all your balls. But for those of us who are only average shooters or who just use our rifles for hunting, it is more of a waste of time to weigh all your balls and cull. Good casting will give quite acceptable balls for every purpose other than bench shooting or chunk gun matches. The rest of us just ain't good enough to tell the difference as long as we are able to do a good job of casting them in the first place. However, weighing all of them and doing the statistics can be a source of additional muzzleloading fun. So can doing the statistics on the targets and comparing the two to see if there is any correlation between "good" and "bad" balls. For most folks there just isn't a statistical correlation. The variation due to normal wibble and wobble is greater than the variation caused by differences in ball weight. But, if you like weighing and culling, there ain't a thing wrong with it.
And maybe those average shooters could become above average shooters if they took the care to eliminate all the little things that prevent average shooters from becoming above average, :idunno:
Of Course some are content with what they have and what they can do, and there ain't a thing wrong with it.
Of Course some are content with what they have and what they can do, and there ain't a thing wrong with it.
I bought a Digital scale back when they were $300. They are much cheaper now and they speed the weighing process up considerably.
That is great picture of the ball with a void. I had a guy ask for three of my balls when I was setting the flier record. He brought them back to me and two had bigger voids than that one. Thus the digital scale! Geo. T.
That is great picture of the ball with a void. I had a guy ask for three of my balls when I was setting the flier record. He brought them back to me and two had bigger voids than that one. Thus the digital scale! Geo. T.
Many Klatch
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You can eliminate voids by pouring on more lead than it takes to fill the mold. I usually have a pool of lead sitting on top of the sprue cutter and wait till it solidifies before cutting the sprue off.
As lead cools it shrinks. If you don't have enough molten lead in sitting in the sprue channel you can wind up with an air channel in the sprue that extends down into the ball. I wouldn't expect that to be a big problem with a .490 ball but is a big problem when casting .715 ball.
Many Klatch
As lead cools it shrinks. If you don't have enough molten lead in sitting in the sprue channel you can wind up with an air channel in the sprue that extends down into the ball. I wouldn't expect that to be a big problem with a .490 ball but is a big problem when casting .715 ball.
Many Klatch
Sunkmanitu Tanka
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+ 1 ...
IMO, weighing cast balls can possibly help accuracy if we are speaking of making it slightly better.
This is especially true if we are talking about someone who is worried about a off center void inside the ball causing the ball to fly wide of the mark.
As anyone who has studied physics knows, a spinning object will revolve around its center of gravity.
In this case, gravity isn't exactly talking about the force that's holding our butts to our chair.
It is talking about the center of the objects mass.
Because the center of a roundballs mass cannot exist outside of the roundball, the rotation of the flying ball must be around some place inside the ball.
In a perfect ball without any voids inside of it, that center of gravity or mass will be right at the center of the ball. Can't do any better than that!
Just to take a worst case situation that can't possibly exist lets assume for the moment that somehow the rules of the universe vanish and the center of gravity is right on the outside surface of the ball when it is fired.
Very shortly after it leave the muzzle it will start spinning around this offset center of gravity.
Now, if this mythical ball is exactly 1/2 inch in diameter it will be revolving around a point that is exactly 1/4 inch from the balls center.
When it hits the target (or animal) it will poke a hole who's center is exactly 1/4 inch away from the place it is revolving around.
If this center of gravity or place the ball is rotating around is aimed exactly at the center of the target, the center of the hole the ball pokes will be only 1/4 of an inch off of the targets exact center.
Like I mentioned, if one is shooting in a target match this 1/4" might make the difference between winning and loosing but for the rest of us it really doesn't make enough difference to argue about.
This is why the Bevel Brothers test to determine if locating the ball with the sprue centered or off to one side when it was loaded didn't make any difference that they could measure.
Now, if we are talking about the effects of the actual "weight" or mass of the ball effecting where the ball hits, it can have a larger affect.
The weight or mass of the ball determines how effectively the powder burns and how rapidly the ball will loose velocity as it flys downrange.
Any variation in the velocity or in how fast the ball will loose that velocity can have a marked effect on where the ball will strike the target.
Target shooters will worry about this.
Shooters who shoot like I do don't need to worry too much about it. :grin:
Besides, it gives folks like me something to blame the poor shot on besides myself. :rotf:
This is especially true if we are talking about someone who is worried about a off center void inside the ball causing the ball to fly wide of the mark.
As anyone who has studied physics knows, a spinning object will revolve around its center of gravity.
In this case, gravity isn't exactly talking about the force that's holding our butts to our chair.
It is talking about the center of the objects mass.
Because the center of a roundballs mass cannot exist outside of the roundball, the rotation of the flying ball must be around some place inside the ball.
In a perfect ball without any voids inside of it, that center of gravity or mass will be right at the center of the ball. Can't do any better than that!
Just to take a worst case situation that can't possibly exist lets assume for the moment that somehow the rules of the universe vanish and the center of gravity is right on the outside surface of the ball when it is fired.
Very shortly after it leave the muzzle it will start spinning around this offset center of gravity.
Now, if this mythical ball is exactly 1/2 inch in diameter it will be revolving around a point that is exactly 1/4 inch from the balls center.
When it hits the target (or animal) it will poke a hole who's center is exactly 1/4 inch away from the place it is revolving around.
If this center of gravity or place the ball is rotating around is aimed exactly at the center of the target, the center of the hole the ball pokes will be only 1/4 of an inch off of the targets exact center.
Like I mentioned, if one is shooting in a target match this 1/4" might make the difference between winning and loosing but for the rest of us it really doesn't make enough difference to argue about.
This is why the Bevel Brothers test to determine if locating the ball with the sprue centered or off to one side when it was loaded didn't make any difference that they could measure.
Now, if we are talking about the effects of the actual "weight" or mass of the ball effecting where the ball hits, it can have a larger affect.
The weight or mass of the ball determines how effectively the powder burns and how rapidly the ball will loose velocity as it flys downrange.
Any variation in the velocity or in how fast the ball will loose that velocity can have a marked effect on where the ball will strike the target.
Target shooters will worry about this.
Shooters who shoot like I do don't need to worry too much about it. :grin:
Besides, it gives folks like me something to blame the poor shot on besides myself. :rotf:
