Shooting the Really Slick Smoothbore Ball

[Eggman]

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[MR. GADGET]

So how do you get a Lee mold with no sprue?

[Southron Sr.]

Dear Eggman:

The latest SUPER, FANTASTIC smoothbore lube is ear wax from hummingbirds. It works wonders. You need only trap 1,237 hummingbirds to get enough lube for one round.

Be sure to keep this secret!

Sincerely Yours

Southron

[Jim Brady Knap's Battery]

Earwax and Monkey sweat. Lefty the lube guru recommended this back in the days of the old bulletin board.

[MR. GADGET]

The Lees don't leave a sprue -- they leave a small flat spot.

10-4
Every lee mold I own leaves a sprue.

[Chris Sweeney]

I use a .562 Lee in my 18651 cadet. It is sprueless, and the flat spot is minimal. It shoots better with a smooth ball than it does with them roughed up. I use abunch of the same lube as I use on Minies; Alox was pretty much a disaster when i tried it

[ms3635v]

I use a Moose .672" round ball in my 1849 Harpers Ferry. Moose's moulds have no sprue either, just a subtle flat spot. I have tried lubed and unlubed and my smoothbore shoots pretty much the same with or without lube. I do not rough up the balls, I shoot them as casted.

[jonk]

I find Lee and Moose both shine in that they leave only a flat spot. A good machinist can cut down a lyman to do the same; they don't really need that long pour hole that leads to the big sprue.

I still dimple them to beat the flat spot out. For lyman molds I cut the sprue off with a Rouch cutter. Honestly for accuracy though, I haven't seen that dimpling makes any impact, or rasping, or whatever. I have never shot more than a 48 on a paper target. That was with a smooth ball. I shot a 47 with a dimpled ball a couple times, and it was just bad luck that neither of those were a 48 as both had a shot on the line. Just... not far enough onto the line. I do it mainly for piece of mind honestly, that the ball is uniform with no sprue or flat spot on one side to jam while loading.

As for the lube/no lube issue, I don't find it makes a difference in accuracy either way, but lubed with musket lube I can shoot all day with only a wire brushing between relays. If I don't lube or use alox I have to use wet patches, and once I get going I would rather not de-foul the bore entirely as I find it takes a shot or two to settle in with my smoothbores.

[R. McAuley 3014V]

I use a .678 Rapine mold that produces a small sprue that I remove with a sprue cutter on my drill press. My loading is a little different. I coat the balls in Alox, and let dry, then recoat them a second time. Once dry, I begin loading by taking a piece of aluminum foil about 4-inches square and using a forming dowel, I create a cartridge tube to hold the ball at the bottom, then filling my soft black loading tubes with my powder charge, I insert the black plastic tube into the formed cartridge, and twist the remaining tab to close.

When loading on the line, I draw a cartridge from my cartridge box and bite off the tab, then pour the powder charger into the muzzle. I then invert the cartridge and put the ball into the muzzle, and tear off tiny piece of the foil wrapping the ball. Then ram the ball home. Between the Alox coating and the foil seems to provide an adequate seal, and as long as I hold steady on target, they will shoot one ragged hole at 25 yards. I'm shooting one JRA's 30-inch Macon carbines.

[RaiderANV]

Ok Richard...... my teeth just hurt thinking about buying the foil open.