bamaranger
New member
You've heard of the Minie' (Minet'?) ball in the Civil War, the T/C Maxi-Ball for hunting and now.......the Midi-Ball!!!!!
First off, not my idea, I snagged it from other posts on another site (I think).
This all stems from me trying to get my .32 cal CVA Squirrel Rifle to shoot Maxi-Balls. Why Maxi's????? I want to get more punch from my .32 so as to cleanly take a wild turkey, and I feel the .45 gr round ball is a bit anemic. Too, the round ball is a pain to load in extended shooting, I have to swab every shot with the .32 and while that is part of the game, it wears on my aging patience.
So I bought a .32 Maxi mold from Lee and had at it. My results leave a bit to be desired. Accuracy is not what I had hoped. I stated previously on other posts I was getting about 3" at 50 yds, but that has not proven the case with more shooting, twice that is more like it. Playing with charge weights seems to make little difference. I'd hope that increasing charge weight would boost velocity and increase spin, but accuracy did not improve and may have slipped more. The culprit is likely the 1-48" twist of the barrel. T/C rifled their barrels for the .32 at 1-20" (I think) or at least faster than 1-48". The .32 Maxi is just too long for my slower CVA rifling twist.
And so in an attempt to shorten the 105 gr .32 Maxi and make it more compatible, I've clipped the rear portion of the Maxi at the rear grease groove. Just took a set of cutters, set them in the groove and snipped. Instant MIDI-BALL.!!!!!!!!!
Dressed the resulting sprue with a flat file. Got the weights to 73.5 gr, +/-, and some fiddling could get them closer, but that will suffice I hope for initial tests. I'll start with 25 gr of FFFg, as that was standard charge for round ball and Maxi before clipping.
When it quits raining here, I'll shoot some and report back
First off, not my idea, I snagged it from other posts on another site (I think).
This all stems from me trying to get my .32 cal CVA Squirrel Rifle to shoot Maxi-Balls. Why Maxi's????? I want to get more punch from my .32 so as to cleanly take a wild turkey, and I feel the .45 gr round ball is a bit anemic. Too, the round ball is a pain to load in extended shooting, I have to swab every shot with the .32 and while that is part of the game, it wears on my aging patience.
So I bought a .32 Maxi mold from Lee and had at it. My results leave a bit to be desired. Accuracy is not what I had hoped. I stated previously on other posts I was getting about 3" at 50 yds, but that has not proven the case with more shooting, twice that is more like it. Playing with charge weights seems to make little difference. I'd hope that increasing charge weight would boost velocity and increase spin, but accuracy did not improve and may have slipped more. The culprit is likely the 1-48" twist of the barrel. T/C rifled their barrels for the .32 at 1-20" (I think) or at least faster than 1-48". The .32 Maxi is just too long for my slower CVA rifling twist.
And so in an attempt to shorten the 105 gr .32 Maxi and make it more compatible, I've clipped the rear portion of the Maxi at the rear grease groove. Just took a set of cutters, set them in the groove and snipped. Instant MIDI-BALL.!!!!!!!!!
Dressed the resulting sprue with a flat file. Got the weights to 73.5 gr, +/-, and some fiddling could get them closer, but that will suffice I hope for initial tests. I'll start with 25 gr of FFFg, as that was standard charge for round ball and Maxi before clipping.
When it quits raining here, I'll shoot some and report back