doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com .620" Round Ball source?

Hello Gentlemen-

I'm looking for some .620" diameter lead round ball.
Anyone here have a mould that throws round ball in this diameter?

Short of having Jeff Tanner make me a mould (I've sent him an email this morning asking about this...) do you guys know where I can find a .620 Round Ball Mould?
Know of one at your local gun shop?
Seen one at the local antique store?
Know of one on an auction site?

I'm evaluating a rifle and want to get it shooting sooner than later, any help you guys can provide will be appreciated.



--Tinker

Tink,
Lyman makes a .610 mold. Maybe you can use a patch to take up the diff?

http://www.trackofthewolf.com/(S(bsfife5...amp;styleID=411

Chuck-

The rifle I'm evaluating is a double rifle.
I want to run balls of proper size in it to see if it'll shoot to regulation with proper size roundball.

Thanks



--Tinker

Hello Tinker

20g is 0.615. I think it`s easy to find a mould to that.

Regards Lennart

Lennart-


The grooves of this rifle are greater than .615"

I need .620" roundball.

Also, most of the ball moulds out there for 20ga are either for muzzle loading rifles - casting balls at .600 or .610 for use with patches, or smaller than that for use in shot cups in 20 gauge shotguns.

I'm looking for .620" roundball.


Thanks, and if you find something let me know.
I've been looking online and calling around on the telephone this morning for quite a while.



--Tinker

Tinker

Track of the Wolf have some .648 or .610
I used .648 dia.and pushed it through a hole that was machined to the exact size I needed for my 20 bore
double rifle.
With sizing down the round ball that was oversize I archived 2 things
1) The size I needed, and 2) a flat area that fitted into the rifling of the bore, and made it
easer to load,almost like using a bullet not a round ball.

I made my sizing die from peace of tool steel 1/2 thick,
and a 3/4" drill rod 3" long.
The 3/4" drill rod I turn down on one end to fit my drill press (1/2 dia.) The other end I machined a radius to match the diameter of the round ball.
The 1/2" plate I drill and bore it to make .620 dia.
(That was the size I needed)
You can use a arbor press or drill press to force the ball throe the die, and have a perfect size ball to fit your gun.
Casey

Casey-

First off, hello and thanks for the relevant information.

As you probably know, a double rifle is made to handle a particular specific load of ammunition, and will when properly loaded and handled the double rifle will put the groups of both barrels on the Point Of Aim in parallel trajectories until the bullets hit the ground.

I'll also assume that you know that black powder bore rifles are pretty 'load tolerant' and will often perform well 'at regulation' with more latitude than the high-strung express rifles and cordite express rifles.

Given all that, I'll note I'm seeing a 51 grain difference in projectile diameter here, and also the bearing surface of the bullet will be greater than if it's simply pure lead ball of proper 'groove or just a couple thou more' diameter.

So, I wonder...
How long do these bullets end up being once they're formed?
Is this a modern made double rifle or something from the 19th century?
How well do your loads perform in your double rifle, are you achieving good accuracy?
What is the case length, the load, and the accuracy?
Do both barrels print to (essentially) the same group?
Does this load hit to the original sights of your rifle?
Do you know the velocity of the load that works best in your rifle?


Thanks a lot for the tip, and also thanks for sharing your experience.




--Tinker

I don't know if they still do or not, but at one time Dixie Gunworks used to offer a rather economically priced mold, cut to any size you wanted. They were likely not extremely high grade & had no built in sprue cutter. If still available they might show you enough to determine regulation & if that was satisfactory, then you would not mind springing for a more expensive custom job for better accuracy. Building these molds was in fact one of the very early mainstays of DGW which helped it become a successful buisness. I know they stayed in the catalog for years, but don't have a current one. They do have a web site.

PS; another option is, if you have a machinist friend who can build a set of blocks to fit a Lyman or other handle from soft aluminum they can be roughed pretty close to size with a 5/8" ball nose end mill & then pressed to finish over a 5/8" steel ball. Dowel them while still fit over the ball for alignment. The lead will shrink a few thousandths as it hardens & this would be extremely close to desired size.

Piper-

You make a good point there...

I am that machinist friend you speak of, unfortunately I'm recovering from knee surgery and 'tooling about' in the machine shop is borderline torture right now.

I actually made it out to my machine shop behind the house early this afternoon and gathered some gear and noted I have 5/16"R ball end mills and 5/8"Dia hard ball in stock.
Thought of this one myself, and I might actually end up out there some time this weekend if this knee starts feeling a whole lot better right away.

Until then I'm still looking for .620" (or very slightly larger) diameter lead roundball.

I'd very much prefer to just buy twenty (or so) ball than buy or build a set of mould blocks and cast them, as this is evaluation time here.

Thanks for thinking on it, and for your comment.


--Tinker

Ray Rapine Bullet Moulds, 215-679-5413. Probably has several on hand, but if not will make one quickly. Excellent moulds, I have 7-8 or so from .32cal to .65cal, all round ball moulds.