what size ball to use ?

[andy2175m4]

I now have a Uberti 44 cal. revolver and I measured the chamber bores with my caliper, all six were exactly 0.450"

should I order the Hornady 0.451" round balls or the Hornady 0.454" round balls ?

those seem to be the only balls that are close,

 

[necchi]

You asked this question Saturday and got 33 replies to that topic.
Factory made/ store bought swagged ball are notorious for being out of tolerance.
Hoping that the measurement of .001 over your cylinder is actually going to be that, is a slim chance at best.
Follow the many that advised the 454 in your other topic, that size will assure your seal as needed with revolver.

The 451 are marketed for use in "original" revolvers and the 451 Whitworth.
Everybody else uses 454.
It ain't rocket science, shaving .004 off every ball for a successful fit each time is better than hoping there's at least .001 to shave off.
Have you actually look at the gap in your caliper to see how much a .003 difference is?

 

[Notchy Bob]

Andy,

As brother @necchi pointed out, almost everyone recommended .454” balls. There are reasons for that.

Cap and ball revolvers are supposed to be loaded with soft, pure lead balls or bullets. With your experience hand loading for modern guns, you may have some knowledge of lead alloys for bullets. Put that aside. You need pure lead.

The reason for “shaving a ring” when you load is to demonstrate that the ball is achieving a complete circumferential seal within the chamber. Without that, you run the risk of chain fire, which is what we call it when chambers other than and in addition to the one you are shooting go off unintentionally. Fire from the chamber mouth goes in all directions when a round is fired, and if the balls don’t seal the adjacent chambers, the charges in those chambers can ignite. That’s why you want to use oversized balls… that and the fact that you need the ball to fully engage the rifling in the barrel.

One other thing… if you “mike” your chambers with a caliper, you are just about guaranteed an undersized measure. Depending on your skill, the error may be slight, but it can potentially be significant. If the caliper jaws are even slightly canted or off center, your measure will be undersized. Even with the best technique, if the caliper jaws have flats on them, you will be measuring a small chord on the edge of the circumference of the chamber, resulting in an undersized measure. Your best option is to have the chambers measured with plug or pin gauges. Another option which is more work but avoids the cost of plug gauges is to slug the chambers. Remove the nipples and then load oversized pure lead balls without powder. Find a hardwood dowel or brass or aluminum rod that will slide in the nipple seat and use it as a drift to drive the slugs back out the front of your cylinder. Use a wood, plastic, or rawhide mallet for this. Then, mike your slugs. Getting an outside measure in this way will be much more accurate.

Or, just buy some .454” and .457” balls and shoot them.

Good luck!

Notchy Bob

 

[Jim in Wisconsin]

To me, it seems better to have a slight chamfer on the cylinders and have the oversize ball swedge itself to this size, rather than cutting a little ring off. Either way, you want the ball to seal and be tight enough to not back out with recoil.

 

[andy2175m4]

I have ordered the .454 casting mold and have not bought any pre made balls yet, will see how the cast .454 balls work