Round Ball
- Thread starter Bake
- Start date
There is a reason that people eventually rifled muskets. Round balls without rifling are innacurate. It's amazing that BB guns can be highly accurate.
I have no idea how accurately a person can fire a round ball through a smooth bore, the rifled slug works because of the heavy portion up front with the skirt on the back dragging, just like a shuttlecock.
I read an article half a century ago. A guy was experimenting with strange loads, and one of the things he worked with casting round balls and seeing if he could make them work. He managed to improve the accuracy some by drilling out the bottom, gluing in some yarn, and basically adding a tail to the kite. It worked a lot better than just shooting the loose round ball.
I have no idea how accurately a person can fire a round ball through a smooth bore, the rifled slug works because of the heavy portion up front with the skirt on the back dragging, just like a shuttlecock.
I read an article half a century ago. A guy was experimenting with strange loads, and one of the things he worked with casting round balls and seeing if he could make them work. He managed to improve the accuracy some by drilling out the bottom, gluing in some yarn, and basically adding a tail to the kite. It worked a lot better than just shooting the loose round ball.
yes, the african hunters actually used round balls in 8 bore and larger rifled guns. As long as you have spin on them a round ball will shoot accurately and will be lethal. They are not at all as effective as a modern bullet. the key to effective penetration is high sectional density, which means that a bullet with High sectional density bullet has more weight than a bullet of identical diameter, but lower weight.
Round balls were the best you could do before rifling was invented and once that was invented, for all practical purposes the round ball was obsolete as single projectiles, but it still took many years before they were replaced with conical bullets. Cap and ball revolvers held on for a little while longer still, it took cartridges to make the cap and ball revolver obsolete. THe cap and ball revolver was actually converted to cartridge use, strangely enough, for some models.
Round balls were the best you could do before rifling was invented and once that was invented, for all practical purposes the round ball was obsolete as single projectiles, but it still took many years before they were replaced with conical bullets. Cap and ball revolvers held on for a little while longer still, it took cartridges to make the cap and ball revolver obsolete. THe cap and ball revolver was actually converted to cartridge use, strangely enough, for some models.
Something else that bears mentioning is that the BB works in part because it is a precise fit and can be fired straight. A ball that rattles loosely down a barrel won't have the advantage of at least a straight shot out of the barrel, it's almost certain to go off on a tangent from the start.
BTW, regarding the pedersoli, I just remembered another story from the past. A guy cut out fissue patches, and using a tiny ramrod, loaded patched BBs into a match grade spring air gun. He had marginal improvements in accuracy using tissue patched BBs over loose ones.
I suspect that it may invovlve the same phenomenon that takes a spinning golf ball with dimples and forces it to climb. Anyone who has played a lot of golf will understand how that works, clubs impart spin, air resistance to the dimples causes them to climb against the spin, the balls trade rotational energy for work against gravity. Any imperfections on a BB could cause rotation to create some small factor of deviation. Very small, I suspect, but maybe significant and certainly detectable at some level.
I suspect that it may invovlve the same phenomenon that takes a spinning golf ball with dimples and forces it to climb. Anyone who has played a lot of golf will understand how that works, clubs impart spin, air resistance to the dimples causes them to climb against the spin, the balls trade rotational energy for work against gravity. Any imperfections on a BB could cause rotation to create some small factor of deviation. Very small, I suspect, but maybe significant and certainly detectable at some level.
Model12Win
Moderator
^ I'll admit, when I read that I sort of giggled on the inside. 
I believe a company called Centurion makes a round ball load in 12 gauge. I've been looking to get some but haven't been able to find any lately. I've no doubt of a lead sphere that size moving at good speed being able to produce telling effect on living beings.
It's pretty much like converting your Mossberg 590 into an 18th century Brown Bess musket!
I believe a company called Centurion makes a round ball load in 12 gauge. I've been looking to get some but haven't been able to find any lately. I've no doubt of a lead sphere that size moving at good speed being able to produce telling effect on living beings.
It's pretty much like converting your Mossberg 590 into an 18th century Brown Bess musket!
Dreaming100Straight
New member
Is Zippy being tricky? Betcha the answer is not the obvious one of 1/12#. Consider material, if loaded in a sabot, margin between diameter of ball and diameter of bore.
Grex is almost the only way to make round balls fly really accurately A shot cup works, but with badly deformed shot you will wind up with long distance flyers.
Grex protects each round from deformation, and more importantly, will keep each ball flying in a straight line down the barrel and leaving the muzzle in a straight line. A single ball without a collar/sabot/ or other means of control, fired out of a loose bore, unrifled, or controlled in some other way, Is going to be like a BB fired down the bore of a .22 caliber airgun. Yes, I experimented with it, and it won't hit a cow beyond 70 feet.
Have any of you fired the old fashioned buck and ball rounds, smoothbore, in the old civil war loads? Black powder, smoothbore musket, etc? What does it do?
Grex protects each round from deformation, and more importantly, will keep each ball flying in a straight line down the barrel and leaving the muzzle in a straight line. A single ball without a collar/sabot/ or other means of control, fired out of a loose bore, unrifled, or controlled in some other way, Is going to be like a BB fired down the bore of a .22 caliber airgun. Yes, I experimented with it, and it won't hit a cow beyond 70 feet.
Have any of you fired the old fashioned buck and ball rounds, smoothbore, in the old civil war loads? Black powder, smoothbore musket, etc? What does it do?
deerslayer303
New member
I shoot a Nobel Sport .650RB load out of my Pardiner Protector cylinder choked shotgun. And with just the bead front sight they shoot minute of 8" Paper plate at 50 yards. I like blowing up 5 gallon buckets of water with them its a very fun spectacle I bought 250 of these from SG ammo, but I haven't seen them for sale since.
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I bought 250 of these from SG ammo, but I haven't seen them for sale since.
You can calculate the weight of a lead roundball by cubing its diameter in inches and then multiplying by 1503 to get grains.
Example: A .729 inch diameter lead roundball.
.729 X .729 X .729 X 1503 = 582.3 grains.
That 1503 multiplier only applies to pure lead.
Multipliers for other metals:
Iron 1027
Brass (admiralty) 1130
Bismuth 1292
Depleted Uranium 2505
Gold 24K 2561
Tungsten 2598
Platinum 2836
Osmium 2997
Example: A .729 inch diameter lead roundball.
.729 X .729 X .729 X 1503 = 582.3 grains.
That 1503 multiplier only applies to pure lead.
Multipliers for other metals:
Iron 1027
Brass (admiralty) 1130
Bismuth 1292
Depleted Uranium 2505
Gold 24K 2561
Tungsten 2598
Platinum 2836
Osmium 2997