anybody ever loaded 12 ga. roundball

[358wsm]

 I am sure somebody has already hashed this one out, unfortunately I missed it. I'd like to eventually shoot a 12 gauge hawken style shotgun loaded with a round ball for deer. Until then, I've got grandpas ol' 1897 Winchester for my "older" shotgun that I'd really like to shoot a roundball out of  just for something different for those up close deer. ANYBODY, done it, loaded a 12 gauge shot shell with a ball?  And..., what were the experiences and lessons learned? thanks

[Nobade]

The guy at Dixie Slugs makes a round ball load, and they talk about them a lot on the gunboard and cast boolits forums. I used to shoot balls in my NEF break open rifled 12 ga, with reasonable success. It would usually group into 3 inches at 50 yards, and certainly would harm whatever you shot with it.

[jhalcott]

  Back in the 50's I watched my grand father and his buddy load some "deer medicine". They cast a small pot of round balls one day and loaded them the next. Probably no more than 20 rounds. Gramps had a persimmon tree in the back yard that attracted a few deer. He shot one at sunset and we found it the next afternoon. He finished it off with an old .45 auto from WW2. He seemed very upset at the performance of the ball. I tried some .58 round balls in my .577 enfield . There was little in the way of accuracy to talk about.

[jbtazgrabber]

i have a 69 cal round ball mold that fits perfect in a 12 ga wad......we used to cut a factory #8 shot cut the crimp off dump out the shot push in the round ball with your thumb...............and presto...........instant slug.......shot a lot of these out of h&r single 12s     you could hit a gallon jug at 100 yds most of time just using the front beed..................im not close to mold to tell dia but will try to go home over thangs holiday...............bought the lyman slug mold looks like a big pellet 4 airgun.....shoots a little better than balls..............either will kill a deer......................jb