Swaged vs. cast balls- newbie question

[Uncle Howie]

Hey, everyone-

Could someone please explain the differences between swaged and cast round balls to me?

I think I've got a pretty good handle on the cast balls- there may be a "nipple" of sprue attached, as well as some air pockets/voids may be present.

Exactly what is a "swaged" round ball? I've gathered that swaged balls are supposed to be more uniform in diameter, as well as being less likely to have voids. How does this help eliminate voids in the ball, or am I suffering from some bad info here?

Thanks, -Uncle Howie

[Will52100]

Swaged means there squished to size, probably from pure lead wire.  Only functional differance I've found, especialy after they've banged around in my posibles bag for a while is that you have to be a little more carful loading the cast to make sure the sprue is pretty well face up or down.  I make sure there face up.  That and with a free supply of near pure lead and a 18$ Lee mould I can shoot lots more than by buying swaged rounds.  With the colt clones I shoot the sights are so poor that if there's a differance in accuracy I can't tell it as long as I'm carfull of loading.  Nice thing about swaged balls is that I would just drop them onto the chamber and seat, no fiddling.

As for the voids, if you cast hot you'll not see to many voids.  The swagging process mashed the ball to shape so if there's a void it get's closed up, or at least shrunk.

[Naphtali]

Unless you have thrown B I G bucks at the swaging die, it will be intended to cold form soft lead -- pure, perhaps 19 parts Pb, 1 part Sn.

Cast balls can be of any lead-based casting alloy you have, the proviso being that the higher percentage of alloy, the larger the cast balls out of the mold. Casting Lyman #2 will yield RBs as much as .005 inch larger than Pb.

I believe most will agree that well-made swaging dies yield more nearly perfect projectiles than comparably well-made casting molds.
***
And now for the most important difference -- initial set-up costs. Swaging dies are more expensive than RB casting molds. Swaging dies may require a "bullet" press specific for the job @ hundreds of dollars, or a heavily reïnforced conventional "O" or "H" reloading press.

Some swaging dies intended for black powder target rifles may be set-up differently. The forming impulse may be a solid blow with a heavy mallet rather than pressure via a loading press. However, the high cost remains.

Hope this helps.

[S.S.]

By the time you ram the ball home with the loading lever on a revolver,
it will be deformed enough to void any benefits of how it was produced.
Casting is more fun to me anyway. Patched roundballs in a rifle are a whole
diffferent story though. Swaged are more accurate, sometimes substantially
more accurate!