Do any of you weigh your cast RBs and group them for shooting?
Do you find that it improves accuracy?
Do you find that it improves accuracy?
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Weighing RBs?
- Thread starter Salty
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"The name of the game is the same." Advice given to me by competitive shooters years ago. Variables in the barrel create variables at the target, whether it be paper or game. I weigh all my powder charges and balls, and make my own patches and lube. When you know everything is as consistent as you can make it, the less you have to think about other than sights, breath, squeeze, and follow through. Confidence. Other quote, "If you think it helps, it does."
ADK Bigfoot
ADK Bigfoot
Untitled by Sharps Man, on FlickrThese are .58 caliber Hornady swaged RB and very accurate! I chose ten at random out of a box and the results are shown at right!
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Depends on the type shooting you are doing. I weigh balls when working up loads for a new rifle. My shooting is generally woods walks, and maximum accuracy isn't necessary. Most beneficial for benchrest shooters.
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I have done it but I was surprised that my accuracy was pretty much the same with either? If I was as annal
My .54 balls weigh 226 grains on an average only varying 2 to 3 grains at the extremes. I really can't tell any difference in the accuracy one from another? I still will do it when I am searching for minute of angle groups at a 100 yards. It has been a long time since I could .
64Springer
75 Cal.
Other variables, like concentration, trigger pull, and flinch will affect ball flight far more than a few tenths of a grain/.3% difference in ball weight.
Weighing balls gives people something to do, and it may help with the mental game, but it has no appreciable impact on accuracy.
I can see weighing balls if your goal is to cull out grossly underweight/misshapen balls but that's it.
Weighing balls gives people something to do, and it may help with the mental game, but it has no appreciable impact on accuracy.
I can see weighing balls if your goal is to cull out grossly underweight/misshapen balls but that's it.
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I'm not one of those guys who strive for "tack driving" or "match striking" accuracy. I'm not out to impress anyone.Good enough is fine with me, so no I do not waste my time weighing.
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ronaldrothb49
45 Cal.
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Been doing this for around 45 years and have never weighed a ball. Over 99% of my shooting has been in competition or in practicing for competition. Over half has been for cross sticks or light bench. In the early days I used commercially made balls but since I started casting them myself my accuracy is much better. I use only single cavity molds so I don't have to deal with the variation in cavities. I look at each ball as it comes out of the mold. If it has a hole in the sprue, looks wrinkled or dull it goes back in the pot. I have won my fair share of matches over the years.
Thanks for the advice fellas
One time I poured a bunch of .40cal. balls (.390s) out of a single cavity mold and weighed them. They were so close to the same that I quit doing it.
The only cast bullets I weigh are for unmentionable rifles. At RB velocity I don't think a couple of grains variation makes any difference.
In my early days when I was an obsessed 'X' hunter I weighed to 1/10th of a grain. Later I eased up a bit to 1 grain. Then later I simply examined my balls for air pockets, etc. and kept all that looked good without weighing. Accuracy unchanged.
I have to use cast bismuth alloy for hunting here in CA. I don't sweat +/- a couple of grains on either side of the average of 143 grains for a .480 ball. But much more than that, I just throw it back in the melting pot. For my lead balls where I'm just punching paper or ringing steel, I look for oddities but don't bother to weigh them.
I weigh the balls I cast. 45 caliber and below I keep balls that are +/- .5 grains of the average. For .50 caliber and above, I keep balls that are +/- 1.0 grains of the average. All balls that fall outside of these parameters are thrown back in the pot. I have found that balls that vary more than 2 grains in the small calibers and 3+ grains in the larger calibers tend to fall outside of my groups, and they are not called flyers.
I'm retired, so spending the extra time is not a big deal to me. As said in one of the earlier posts, Consistency is the name of the game.
I'm retired, so spending the extra time is not a big deal to me. As said in one of the earlier posts, Consistency is the name of the game.
When you bought a rifle gun on the frontier you got a rifle, cover, worm, mould and set of balance scale accurate to one tenth of a grain. For the balance a ball had been cast in silver or sometimes gold to be the exact weight for your gun
By the time of the mountain men and western fur trade spring scales were accurate to one one hundredth of a grain. Although you likely got only a lead ball etched to mark it so you wouldn’t accidentally shoot it.
SJ and S Rocky Mountian fur had eight mules loaded with just spring scales in 1828.
In 1833 Danial Potts was attacked by Arapaho and lost most of his kit. He almost starved while making a run on foot to Bents Fort. He had plenty of lead and his mold but had lost his scale, so he was unable to replenish his shooting pouch after he ran out of ball and was unable to hunt
I weigh my ball as often as Simon Girty,Daniel Boone, Joe Meek and other faceless frontiersmen did theirs
By the time of the mountain men and western fur trade spring scales were accurate to one one hundredth of a grain. Although you likely got only a lead ball etched to mark it so you wouldn’t accidentally shoot it.
SJ and S Rocky Mountian fur had eight mules loaded with just spring scales in 1828.
In 1833 Danial Potts was attacked by Arapaho and lost most of his kit. He almost starved while making a run on foot to Bents Fort. He had plenty of lead and his mold but had lost his scale, so he was unable to replenish his shooting pouch after he ran out of ball and was unable to hunt
I weigh my ball as often as Simon Girty,Daniel Boone, Joe Meek and other faceless frontiersmen did theirs
Same here, haven't weighed any in years.
I don't, because I view ML shooting as a fun activity that doesn't require slavish routines. I'm not a tournament shooter, so a 9 or an 8 rather than an X or a ten won't upset me. If you're really into shooting, do you avoid all caffeinated drinks and alcohol, get at least eight hours of sleep every night, dry fire daily for an hour or more, etc., etc.? If you do those things, that's great, but there's a life to enjoy as well and I don't think that a thin patch or a ball a few tenths lighter or heavier will make much of a difference. For me, at least, it doesn't.
ArmorerRoy
40 Cal
Some of you retired guys have a lot of free time. I’m jealous 
One of my friends was asked if he ever weighed his balls. He said yes, they weigh 26 pounds!
