Weighing balls

[Uncle Russ]

It's been that way for a looong time now PD,  ain't no easy answers, otherwise they, meaning the industry, would have jumped at it some time ago.
Some swear by casting, some swear by swagging, some swear at both...pick your own poison.
Either way you go, just keep in mind that it's not a perfect science. Keep your melt at an even temperature, keep your casting speed a consistent pace, and make sure you have at least some knowledge of whats to be expected from the alloy your using, along with the finished product......

Sprue up, sprue down, has been the subject of many honest, well meaning, debates.
Lube makes for another great discussion. There are possibly as many 'great recipes' for home-brewed lube as there are shooters, and they all have merit for the person using them at the time.
Patch thickness, material, and 'weave' by thread count can also be interesting.
Ball hardness, softness, diameter, plus speed or the lack thereof, all has its place in this wonderful game of muzzleloading.

The one single thing that all these factors have in common is the opportunity it gives each of us in getting to know our old rifleguns just a little bit better, and that is the one sure-fire thing that is going bring home the bacon.

Just my thoughts.

Uncle Russ...

[Stormrider51]

PD - What Russ said.  And it's a matter of demand and price.  If enough shooters asked for swaged balls matched in weight, the companies would make them.  At an increased price of course, because of the extra step.  I tried Hornady swaged balls and went back to casting my own.  Not only did the balls vary in weight more than I liked, they also varies in size by several thousandths.

Russ - You hinted at something else that is a big factor in shooting, confidence.  It can't be weighed or measured but it sure does show up on the target.  Every time you step up to the line, draw bead, and see a hole appear right where you were aiming, your confidence increases.  Knowing that you have done everything you could to make your gun accurate increases the probability of that hole appearing where you aimed.

I do all this stuff because I find it interesting and fun.  There are those in our association who can tell you the exact dates that certain events in history happened.  Some can look at someone in period clothing and point out anything that doesn't fit the the time period the person is re-creating.  They find those things interesting where I have at best a general knowledge.  One of the great things about muzzleloading is that there's room for everybody to pursue something that interests them.

John

[Caddo]

Well said John

[Hanshi]

Well, I do everything exactly the same way every time with my gun, I shoot and miss .  I've never seen any advantage to weighing balls but I'm not a precision match competitor.  The accuracy I get with as-cast ball is better than I can shoot.  No way could I be precise enough to tell a difference unless it was a real-bad-ball way under weight.  And then, just maybe.

[prairie dog]

I'm in the process of switching over from swagged balls to casting my own. Today, I cast 116 .54 caliber balls from a new Lyman single cavity mold.  

After they cooled down I weighed every one of those balls on my RCBS scales and I learned something interesting.  

91 balls weighed exactly 227.0 grains.
16 balls weighed one to two tenths of a grain lighter. (226.8 - 226.9 grains)
5 balls weighed one to three tenths of a grain heavier. (227.1 -227.3 grains)

That is a spread of five tenths of a grain. or half a grain.  That is a heck of a lot better than any of the balls I have purchased, either cast or swagged.    

However, I also had 4 balls which weighed 231.2 grains.  4.2 grains heavier than the majority (227.0 grains)

Now I understand how an air pocket inside a cast ball will make that ball lighter than the others.  But it wasn't making sense to me what caused those 4 balls to be that much heavier.  Were those heavy balls the only ones that didn't have an air pocket?  What in the heck was I doing wrong to get that many light balls?  I worried over this for a couple of hours then walked away from it.

Latter, I came back and took a closer look at those heavy balls.  I noticed that the mold line (or seam) appeared to be more pronounced on them.  When I ran my fingernail over them I could feel those lines.  On the other balls I could see a faint line but I could not feel it with my fingernail.  

Thinking on that, I concluded that some of the hot lead must have gotten between the mold half's.  But that tiny bit of extra lead could not amount to 4.2 grains.

What the heck???

Then the little light bulb came on.  In order for lead to leak between the mold half's I must not have had the mold completely closed.  If that were the case, wouldn't the ball be just a bit larger than the rest?

So, out came the dial caliper.  Those four heavy balls measured .538 and the others measured exactly .532  

I think I found it out!  

So, what I learned today;

1.  The balls I'm casting are much more consistent in size and weight than any I can buy.
2.  Be sure to close the mold tightly in the future.

Some of my friends think I take this stuff way too seriously.  (They may be right about that, but they aren't beating me in the shooting matches.)

Those four heavy balls went back into the lead pot.  91 of them went into a box marked "matched 227.0 grains" these will be used for load development and match shooting.   The others went into a leather bag for off-hand shooting at gongs.

[Fletcher]

Nice to see this old post re-visited.  All said above is certainly good advice and this should remind new members to look back into the archives for some great info.  ML can be a very precise science - you get out of it what you put in it.  And when you get the hang of it - the steps are not as tedious as you might think and often fun.  And you get the satisfaction of learning and doing your best to improve your shooting, whether target or hunting.  

[RobD]

this is why we cast our own balls 'n' bullets ... consistent accuracy is my goal, and as in archery it's the projectile that matters more than the projector.

yes, without a question of doubt the amount of pressure on the mould handles can vary the cast objects weight and size.  i use locking mould handles and that really helps prevent 500+ grain bpcr bullets from dropping at grains of diff'rent weights to tenths of grains at best.  part of the art of casting consistent projectiles is also in casting technique ... and practice.