Smoothbore bullets

[Owen F]

I've shot muskets and carbines for most of my life, loading those up are pretty easy, but want to work up a load for a smoothbore now. I was wondering what people do for lubing up roundball, any info for for shooting a smoothbore musket will be greatly appreciated.

[Maillemaker]

I shoot a bone-stock Armisport M1842 with a glass bedded barrel.

I roughen up the round balls using my Vortex Ball Roller, then I double-dip them in Lee Alox. 70 grains 3F Goex. Will blow a ragged hole in the paper off a bench at 25 yards.

Steve

[Owen F]

I got a Suhl made Potsdam that I want to try out.

[bobanderson]

I've posted this information before, but here goes.

I shoot a ball that is about .015" under bore size, cast from a hard lead alloy of 3 parts pure lead to one part wheel weights, roughed between two Farrier's (blacksmith) files until they fit correctly down a 4-6" piece of barrel that is the same size, .687", as my Hoyt barrels, then load them with NO LUBE over 45 grains of Goex Old Eynsford. I got the section of barrel from Bobby. You can also score the cutoffs from Armi Sport barrels (.690 bore) if you're lucky.

That's right, I said NO LUBE. I found that the foul outs I experienced with liquid alox decreased with less lube. As an experiment, I took a box of 25 rounds loaded dry to the range. I shot 24 rounds with no foul out. The last shot loaded about the same as the second one and the accuracy was as good as I can hold.

I've decided that to shoot smoothbore you need the right size ball, a way to keep them consistently sized and a powder that doesn't produce fouling. I control the ball size with the section of barrel. It takes 8 passes around the surface of my files to make the ball just fit a length of barrel. Every shot I fire gets gauged in this way.

The Old Eynsford was designed to produce high velocity and soft fouling. If you shoot plain Goex 3f you will develop a fouling ring about 6" from the muzzle that you have to drive your ball through. That happens after about 6-7 shots. It gets so tight you need to brush or scrape to finish a 10 shot target. If you shoot Swiss, the same thing happens down just above the breech on a full length barrel. Both conditions happened to me at the Fort when trying to shoot a 10 shot target, plus a sighter or two.
That's what drove me toward experimentation.

I tried different lubes but wasn't happy. I got great results by heating the filed balls in boiling water and then dipping them in my musket lube preheated in the microwave. Problem was the group was 6" to the right at 25 yards, and I didn't care for transporting and handling fully lubed round balls - too messy. I never tried excessive amount of alox, but that was mostly because I'm a cheap so and so and didn't like paying 6 bucks for that small bottle. (BTW - I have 3 or 4 unopened bottles to sell.) I discovered that less Alox meant less hard fouling and longer strings IF YOU USE THE RIGHT POWDER.

I've shot my smoothbore with no lube for two seasons now. Last week, I saw I had 11 rounds left over from the Fall Nationals, so I loaded up some fresh ammo and headed to the range with my H&P. Shooting only at 50 yards, the first shot was a 10 and I had 11 shots in the black out of 15 shots total. Every shot but one went where I was looking when the trigger broke. The fifteenth shot went down the same as the rest of them. There was no difference in accuracy between the old and new loads.

Your results may vary.

[george7542]

In my danzig potsdam I shoot 52 grains of 2f swiss with a .715 ball lightly roughed with rasps then placed in a tube with only the top half dipped in musket lube.

[jonk]

The bottom line of course is you have to figure out what your gun likes like any other gun. Soft lead, hard lead, 2f, 3f, what lube if any, rasped balls or not, etc.

Personally I find 50 gr of 3f shoots well in any smoothbore I have shot, or at least provides a good starting point to mess around. I prefer musket lube. Seat the balls slightly protruding and dip in melted lube. I can shoot all day without cleaning if I want while everyone else is hammering their alox coated and naked bullets down the barrel. I also find rasping the balls to be useless. Doesn't hurt, doesn't help; though I do remove the sprues and lightly dimple the balls by shaking in a coffee can.

That's my experience. Others' will be exactly the opposite and say that that approach will not work.

My advice: Cast about 50 balls of soft lead, and about 50 of hard. Start at 40 gr of 3f and work up to about 60 gr in 5 shot increments, with each lead type, some rasped, some not. Now repeat with a different lube. Then a different powder. All from a bench.

This is going to take you about 400 rounds to really be absolutely sure you found THE accuracy load for your gun. Otherwise it's just guessing.

[Jim_Burgess_2078V]

As noted above there are many ways to get a smoothbore to shoot well and, as Jonk points out, you need to experiment. One method not mentioned as yet is wrapping musket balls with aluminum foil. In the interest of full disclosure, I have won relatively few smoothbore medals and I'm currently classified Sharpshooter but I often hold up my end of the line in team matches. I shoot a .672 diameter ball in my M1842 using lead recovered from the backstop. I do not dimple or rasp the balls but I do wrap them in foil to decrease windage and I leave enough extra foil to wad over the ball when loaded as would have been done with original cartridge paper. Melted Crisco or your favorite lube can be put inside the foil using an eyedropper before closing it up to avoid handing greasy cartridges. (I don't care for Liquid Alox - it may act to cushion the ball but it does nothing to soften fouling.) This method may be more labor intensive than some others but, by using the smaller diameter wrapped ball, loading on the line is quick and I can usually get off over 25 rounds before fouling becomes an issue - more than enough for 2 individual matches or a team match.

Jim Burgess, 15th C.V.I.

[MR. GADGET]

Talking lube and round balls....

I can see where this will be going......


Ok
I will start, whats the best lube for round balls...?

[george7542]

Mr Gadget the correct answer to your question would be the best lube is the one a particular person uses and likes the best for their gun. However I do have a bag of popcorn standing by.

[Tom]

This is what works best for me at this time and subject to change if something works better.

I have a Model 1816 H&P Conversion with Hoyt's barrel. I've tried Goex, Swiss, and presently am using Olde Eynsford. I've experimented with 2F & 3F and tried different amounts of grains in increments of 5 - from 40 to 90 with all the powders. So far Olde Ensford 3F works the best for me. Over the years, I've purchased different molds casting rounds of different diameters. Right now I cast a round ball about 9 thousandths less than bore diameter. I use 2 fine files to "frost" them which increases the diameter by 1 thousandth. Next is 2 coats of Alox. I've shot rounds smooth and frosted. Smooth rounds did well but frosted with 2 coats of Alox did slightly better. Rolling the rounds between 2 files doesn't seem to make them more accurate but does help to hold more Alox. I talked to a gentleman who knows far more about blackpowder shooting than I will ever know in my lifetime. He told me as the rounds are being shot through the barrel, each one coats the barrel and at the same time the coating attracts fouling. The coating helps with accuracy and allows multiple shots.

55g at 25 yards and 70g at 50 yards works pretty good.

[Rob FreemanWBR]

My H&P likes lightly roughed balls with a very light coat of Alox. 53gr 3f Swiss for the charge. As for lead, harder the better. I also de-spruce each round before roughing on the Ferrier files.

Results may vary ,but his works well for me and others.