A Fired Round Ball.

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deerslayer303

New member
I thought this was neat. Here is a pic of a round ball fired from my 5.5" Barrel Remington NMA. This ball went through a gallon jug of water then into the dirt back stop from 25 yards. It went into the dirt about 8 inches or so. It DID NOT flatten at ALL. Which I thought to be odd. I cast this one myself, out of dead soft lead. What else I thought was interesting was the rifling grabs the ball (as you can see) exactly where it shaves the ring, when seating into the chamber. This was fired in front of 30 grains of Goex FFFg REAL BLACK GOODNESS! Sorry, but these are the best pics I could get. That Nikon L110 camera is really trying my patience, It just may meet one of these roundballs REAL SOON! :D
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Good picture !!

Pretty neat and you can see where the rings was sheered off. Some foks might think that a ball that is this distorted, would not fly straight but as it has been said before; A round ball, is very forgiving !! ... ;)



Thanks and;
Be Safe !!!
 
I been telling you all for years, We may load round balls in our revolvers,and
Rifles, but we DON'T shoot round balls!!! The bigger the ball in our rifles with
Patching, the more elongated it becomes and the more accurate it is. That's
Why all the bench shooters and serious target shooters use oversized balls.
I use .410 in our 40 cal, .454 in our 45's ect. What we shoot are like little
Wad cutters.
 
Hawg, Its interesting. I always thought the ball would be more deformed than this just by getting fired.
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Nope. I've recovered hundreds of round pistol balls and unless they hit something hard like a rock or a piece of steel they usually retain their shape. Shoot one at a steel plate and it will flatten into a very thin wafer. Now a rifle ball is a whole nother story.:D
 
Do you see where the spru is in relationship to the rifleing
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Indeed, I do, That ball is from a LEE mold. I can put that sprue anywhere I want, up, down, sideways, doesn't matter and doesn't affect accuracy in the least. Its not like other molds where they leave a raised flat sprue that you have to center and face up. Or so I've been told. I've never fired a round ball from a mold like that.
My round balls are all deformed, from smacking into the other round balls already in my berm
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:D Sounds to me like you don't have a berm anymore, more like a LEAD BACKSTOP!!! :) I don't have quite that many balls in the berm.............YET!:cool:
 
kwhi43@kc.rr.com said:
I been telling you all for years, We may load round balls in our revolvers,and
Rifles, but we DON'T shoot round balls!!! The bigger the ball in our rifles with
Patching, the more elongated it becomes and the more accurate it is. That's
Why all the bench shooters and serious target shooters use oversized balls.
I use .410 in our 40 cal, .454 in our 45's ect. What we shoot are like little
Wad cutters.
Click to expand...

Is this in regular field rifles or target rifles equipped with false muzzles?
 
BLE, all ml rifles. They get squashed and sheared on the sides by being forced into the riflings and we pound and smash as we set. Some folks pound and smash more than others. But it is correct, we may load round balls but it is not a round ball when it comes back out. The key to accuracy though is consistency in how we pound and smash them.
 
That ball is from a LEE mold. Its not like other molds where they leave a raised flat sprue that you have to center and face up.
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Mine is a Lyman mold and it leaves a sprue. I haven't noticed any difference in where it is facing, but if I put it straight up, the loading lever pretty much smashes it flat. If it's on the side, it gets cut off when it makes the ring. I really don't pay attention, but I did put em all face up for this pic today.:)
(I'll put some 50/50 lube over the balls before putting the revolver back together.) (and no.... the ones on the right are not seated yet:p)
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Rifleman1776, yes I know that but I have only seen balls as oversize as kwhi43@kc.rr.com referred to used in special custom made target rifles that have a coned removable muzzle (false muzzle) to load through.
And these guys almost all use teflon lubricated patching.
 
You missed a hole.
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Yeah. I was loading this one to take to town with me this morning. ;)

..... but I do have some jugs of water out back. I may try to recover one with a sprue facing forward, fired into water and then sand.:)
 
round balls

Over the years for various reasons, I've had to remove a round ball from a chamber.
They may go in round, but once seated in a chamber, that is exactly what they look like.
So when fired they really aren't round.
My guess is the water slowed it down enough it didn't flatten when it hit the dirt.
But I would of expected more deformation than this.
 
Well looks like we need some more testing. :D For you guys that have steel targets (angled down I would assume) How far does the flattened ball go after they smack the steel and then deflect into the ground? Do they all just collect right beneath the steel plate? If so A bullet bucket is NOT needed ;). I bet they do look like a penny laid on a train track after they plow into the steel. Gosh I need to get me some of those dingers. :cool:
 
I had an old 270 gal.fuel oil tank (the oval ones) that I hung cardboard targets on the end, no angle to it. Was shooting .45 and .44-40 and c&b at it, "cowboy" loads would most times be found right in front of the tank but full loads would go in the tank and full loads fired from a rifle would go right through both ends.
 
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