Ball consistancy?

[New Hampshire]

I had an odd thing happen today.  I just bought another batch of Hornady .495 roundballs, and as I was getting ready to transfer them into my ball bag I just happened to get out the micrometers to indeed insure what I was shooting before was .495s and not .490s.  What I found when micing both my old balls and the new batch was that the balls were not consistant around their circumference.  What I mean is that they AVERAGED .495, but that number varied up or down sometimes as much as .005".  Is this still acceptable for roundballs or is there something wrong here?  I know it must be tough to make perfectly round balls, but should they be varying that much?
Thanks,
Brian M.
P.S. I finaly found the source of my tight fitting cap problem that cause misfires (or rather no fires requiering a second hammer strike.)  I bought a few tins of Remington caps at Wal Mart cuz they are on clearance and found that they are a PERFECT fit.  Not loose but not ultra tight.  Just snug enough to stay on the nipple but removable by fingers.  The CCIs I was using you had to crush the dang things on there and when you wanted to take them off it required a key and some prying.

[savageT]

aka Brian,
I don't know how much time you've had using micrometers or vernier dial/digital calipers, but you know that measuring round surfaces such as a .495" ball is not that easy!  It is difficult to insure that you have truly measured the widest part of the sphere every time, and lets face it.........005" isn't that much deviation.

I would suggest a different setup to measure the ball diameter......such as a dial indicator mounted to a height gauge, sitting on a surface plate (ground, precision flat surface).  Now, by sweeping the dial indicator tip across the ball that is sitting on the surface plate you can actually see the needle rise and fall as you sweep it over the arc of the ball.  Now I realize most people don't have this sort of equipment, but if you can persuade someone at your machine shop to do this for you it should give you a much more accurate means of determining their actual size.

Jim

[propredator]

Ive never gave much thought to mic the balls,but i think it is important to weigh them into .5 gr groups.In the 54 balls from hornady i have found there can be as much as a 4gr difference from the lightest to the heavyest.A lite ball can shoot out of group.If you keep the balls in half gr groups you will see the differance on the target.They are cold press swaged roundballs from what i understand and the light ones can have air pockets in em.They may be in the middle or they could be close to the outside throwing the balance of the ball off.
 Dutch Schoultz gives some good details on this in his blackpowder rifle accuracy papers

[quickdtoo]

Brian, If you have a beam type powder scale, it's much easier to just weigh em to find the median weight. You probably won't find enough difference in em to make all that much for practical shooting. Unless you are weighing your powder charges, you could have more shot to shot fluctuation from powder differences and load compression than a few grains difference in ball weight. Been there....I used to cast all my own balls, weighed em and mic'd, did everything possible to try for the ultimate in accuracy. Didn't help much, but it did instill a bit of confidence that I was doing all I could.... :wink:

[New Hampshire]

Cool guys.  I wasnt too worried, but I thought Id ask anyways.  I wasnt sure how the variance could affect the overall picture.  Now that I know I aint gonna sweat it.
Brian M.

[crazy frenchman]

Just read the post on round balls, was interesting. Well just wonder if any one read the issues of Muzzle Blast that address this subject in detail. One will be supprise what one will learn about this subject.