lead balls

[Illhunter]

hi all i was wondering if any of you have tried the round balls in your huntsman and if so how did they shoot,how were they to load,and what do you need to do to be able to load a lead ball into the huntsman i am curious about this i don't know if they will work or not so just hoping you all can help me out thanks


Terry

[McD]

I have never tried them but any time I have read about using patched balls in a 1:28 barrel the powder charge was in the 50gr area and accuraccy was fine to about 50yrds,...if you try it let us know.

[PA-Joe]

All you need are RBs and some lubed patches. Try some 0.15 in thickness.

[Illhunter]

ok i may try them just to see how they work i saw some last night for like $3 for 20 and the pre lubed patches  so i may have to try them to see i saw like a box with quite a few in it for like $8 cheaper than sabots but someone told me the ballls were not the best shooting we will see thanks guys for the help i thought about them cause it might make cleaning a bit easier with not having the plastic in the barrel or have also thought about the maxi hunters i will let you know how it goes 

Terry 

[321]

How did you make out?

[Illhunter]

They shot ok but i need some tweaking with them because i didn't try to pattern them and shot the rb over 100 grains of app so need to do some shooting and work upa good combo but was looking at maxi hunters to try with either 777 or pinnacle.


Terry

[hunterwinco]

Illhunter, I shot round balls in my side kick and they worked pretty darn well with 50 grains of APP.  It think instead of working up a load...you should be working down a load, if you get my drift! --lol   Remember with a round ball there is really VERY little touching the rifling unlike a power belt, bullet or sabot and its very easy for gases to just blow by the bullet instead of launching it gingerly and having it stay in contact with the rifling.

[321]

If I were you I'd do what the experts say.

[quickdtoo]

I would try a bigger ball and thinner patch to achieve better accuracy, .50 cal balls are available in .490", .495", .498", .500". As has been said, you'll have to keep the charge on the light side tho, fast twist, shallow rifling and PRB isn't a good combination for heavy loads.

Tim

http://trackofthewolf.com/(S(myiv4t45hjgukh55wd33k255))/categories/tableList.aspx?catID=2&subID=25&styleID=58

[buffermop]

Tim---What is your opinion of a lead ball shot out of a plastic sabot? Hornady sells a sabot for 50 cal rifles. I am talking about an in line Thompson Black Diamond.

[quickdtoo]

Never tried it myself in my BD, but there used to be a product called a polypatch that was made for a roundball, but it had a bad habit of melting in the bore!! But if you can get a sabot and ball combo that fits the bore good, it may shoot very well with the right load. That's the beauty of muzzleloading, you're actually and handloader, but building one load at a time, varying components until you find the right combination that works well.

Tim

[jacksbark]

I was stuck with six boxes of Hornady .490" RB and a CVA Bobcat that had a groove that I measured at .515". I couldn't get any accuracy from those balls and a single patch, so I just used two patches to take up the slop (kind of a 13th Century sabot) and 'voila'; 1"-1.5" at 50yd and 3"-3.5" consistently into the boxes were emptied a couple of years later. The bore, incidently, seemed to never need cleaning - I guess there was so much polishing going on as all that cotton and lube scoured the bore with each shot.