aluminum foil on ball for smooth bore?

[terryspike]

I was rereading through the rules and spotted that the ball may be wrapped with aluminum foil,greased or ungreased. Does anyone know what the signifigance would be? Can't find any posts or litature on it.

[Jim Brady Knap's Battery]

I used to do that with a 42 I have. Had the bore honed to get rid of some nasty crud and it measured at .702. I used an old Idea Mold in .690 with a square of tin foil having the corners of the square twisted over the sprue. Loaded it twist down in the tube and dipped the base in musket lube then loaded it in the barrel with the twist up, lube down. I didn't worry about cutting the twist off since all went well with 80 grs of 2F Goex. The foil disappeared at the muzzle and the ball flew true. I once shot a 95 at 50 yds with that combo. All the foil does is to act like a patch.

[terryspike]

I used to do that with a 42 I have. Had the bore honed to get rid of some nasty crud and it measured at .702. I used an old Idea Mold in .690 with a square of tin foil having the corners of the square twisted over the sprue. Loaded it twist down in the tube and dipped the base in musket lube then loaded it in the barrel with the twist up, lube down. I didn't worry about cutting the twist off since all went well with 80 grs of 2F Goex. The foil disappeared at the muzzle and the ball flew true. I once shot a 95 at 50 yds with that combo. All the foil does is to act like a patch.

Ok. Thanks. That's what thought. Thinking about partially wrapping it to hold the lube. I'm getting a lot of buildup after4 or 5 shots. Really hard to swab between rounds. May try some 1f to see if it helps. Thanks for the info. Using 54g 2f. Just joined last year and having a blast.

[Ben Nevlezer]

Terryspike,
What is your current smoothbore load exactly?

[terryspike]

Terryspike,
What is your current smoothbore load exactly?

54g 2f old eynsford. .688 at the muzzle. .675 round 42 springfield original.

[Ben Nevlezer]

Ok. Thanks. That's what thought. Thinking about partially wrapping it to hold the lube. I'm getting a lot of buildup after4 or 5 shots. Really hard to swab between rounds. May try some 1f to see if it helps. Thanks for the info. Using 54g 2f. Just joined last year and having a blast.
What are you using for lube? And how do you prepare your ball..... um, projectiles?? Plain? Roughed with files? Dimpled? I'm really a novice compared to most others on here, but, the devil is in the details. You shouldn't be having the buildup issues you mentioned unless the bore in your 42 is VERY rough.

[terryspike]

Private message sent

[Jim_Burgess_2078V]

I'm one of the few who uses aluminum foil on my musket balls. In the interest of full disclosure I do not get too serious about my smoothbore shooting. I do it mostly for fun and my smoothbore medals can still be counted on one hand. I do not normally shoot smoothbore except at the Nationals. At regional shoots I shoot rifle-musket, carbine and Henry and I don't have time to clean a fourth gun so the smoothbore stays home. My use of aluminum foil stems from a desire to be somewhat traditional. Originally .69 caliber muskets were loaded with a .65 caliber ball along with the cartridge paper for wadding. If we could shoot paper wrapped musket balls I would but since the rules do not allow that I must use foil to take up some of the windage in the bore and wad the ball so it doesn't roll out after being seated. I'm using a .672 diameter ball - larger than the period ball but much smaller than what most everyone else is using today - but that's what I had available when I started shooting smoothbore. Al least I can shoot both 25 and 50 yard individuals without brushing the bore or go through the team match without cleaning between relays. I wasn't too keen on using a larger ball coated in lube as that could get messy on a warm day.

I cut the aluminum foil in trapezoids similar in size and shape to the paper used for period musket cartridges. It's rolled on a former and then I push the ball (as cast) inside one open end of the formed cylinder while the other end of the foil cylinder remains on the former. The open end of the foil is twisted over the ball and the former removed from the cylinder after pressing the ball end into the mouth of my plastic cartridge tube (loaded with 70 gr. FFg). Using an eyedropper, I put about 10 drops of melted lube on the ball while the other end of the cylinder is still open but then the foil on that end is folded over the lubed ball which will act as wadding when loaded in the bore. I must confess this is more labor intensive than just capping the cartridge tube with a lube coated ball.

Jim Burgess, 15th CVI