Traditional Muzzleloading Association

Shooting Traditional Firearms and Weapons => General Interest => Topic started by: Poynor Family on December 06, 2009, 11:32:35 AM

Title: Question about RB's
Post by: Poynor Family on December 06, 2009, 11:32:35 AM
Is ther any differance in Rifle RB's and Pistol RB's. The reason I ask is there is a store local that has .440 pistol RB's. May rifle calls for a .437 RB and I was going to try the .440 pistol RB's if there was no differance.
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Post by: Two Steps on December 06, 2009, 11:50:54 AM
If the box says it's a .440...it's a .440 RB.  Now RBs are good, but I don't think they know (or care) if they're gettin' shoved down a rifle or pistol Bbl  :?  hence the need for a little testing.
Darn!...all that gibberish just to say...sure, a .440 RB SHOULD work in your rifle.
Al
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Post by: rollingb on December 06, 2009, 02:34:52 PM
What Al said.  :rt th
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Post by: Sir Michael on December 06, 2009, 02:57:09 PM
YES, there is a difference between round balls for pistols and rifles.

Having said that I'll explain.  Round balls are made in a variety of sizes to fit a variety of guns.  A ball made for a .45 cal muzzleloading rifle or pistol is less than .450 inches in diameter and NO it doesn't matter whether it is a rifle or pistol.  

However balls made for Cap and Ball pistols that are .45 cal are sized .451 or larger.   These will not fit a .45 cal muzzleloader.

Many places that sell round balls have no idea what they are selling and may well sell both for .45 cal weapons without distinguishing between muzzleloader and C&B.  

Try a couple of sizes or more and pick the one that loads and shoots best in your weapons.  I've seen .45 shooters use balls ranging from .433 to .445.
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Post by: Bigsmoke on December 06, 2009, 04:28:16 PM
Actually, (and this is picking nits) .451 and .454 are for .44 cal revolvers and .457 are for .45 cal.
I have used .451 in my .45 rifle (yeah, it was a bit tight, now that you mention it.)
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Post by: Sir Michael on December 06, 2009, 06:20:54 PM
Thanks BS.  As you can tell I'm not fully up on C&B revolvers.  I have one but haven't shot it in several years. :shake

My point was that not everything marked for .45 cal are the same.
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Post by: Two Steps on December 06, 2009, 07:55:11 PM
While it's true that some round ball boxes marked as ".45cal round ball" may also have ".451" marked on them...this is also correct..everything marked .440...is umm...440.
 Smoothbore, rifle, pistol or revolver, a .440 ball is just that, a .440 ball.
This is why it's nice to know the size of your Bbl, bore, muzzle.  ;)
Al
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Post by: Sir Michael on December 07, 2009, 01:17:56 PM
Just a point of information.  TOW has .437 balls available at $9.40/100. :lol:
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Post by: Fletcher on December 07, 2009, 07:15:38 PM
I am not sure where these fine guests are on the Muzzleloader trail, but I did not see anyone mention the most importnat point....

ML rifles and pistols use a patch and BP revolvers do NOT.

Therefore...  if you are looking for a revover ball, you need to get the actual diameter reccomended for that pistol.

If you are shooting ture muzzleloader - which are by nature one shot per barrel...

You by the ball according to the patched combination that performs well in that gun.

e.g. -  a .50 cal gun may shoot a .490 ball with a .015 patch or a .495 ball with a .010 patch.  One combo will probably perform a bit better than the other.

Also, you may want to choose in order to get best accuracy, or you may give up a bit of accuracy for ease of loading.

There have  been many threads on these topics in the past on this site.........

But some may want to bring it all up again for the benefit of newcomers (I hope there are a lot) and the opportunity to strut their stuff once again as well.

Welcome to the Muzzleloaders information superhighway  ;)