Round ball in a Ballard

[Bruce Cobb 1723V]

A few years ago in the Skirmish Line they did interviews with DSC medalists. Among them, the 1st carbine 2 medal was given someone who shot a Hoyt 44 cal relined Ballard using a round ball. What was the load and ball size? Was it .430 dia?

[efritz]

Bruce

i shot a RB in a 45LC Ballard rifle. 457RB on top of 22gn 2F Swiss. It shot rather well cept on a windy Winchester 100yd. No wind and it shot really well. Tricky part was getting just the right crimp on the RB to hold in place w/o distorting the RB.
If someone has a Hoyt lined carbine in .44 sounds like a special mould is required. .430 seems a little small.

I was able to get an original Ballard rifled bore (46. Cal) to shoot using a .45-300 gas check bullet (w/o the gas check) in a 44 cartridge. It works well at 50yd but not so good at 100yd. Keyholes. Someone theoried it was going to slow. But as most know Ballard receivers are subject to cracking if pushed too hard.

[Bruce Cobb 1723V]

Eric thanks,
The gentleman I read was shooting a .44 rifle. (.427/429 bullet). That is the smaller caliber used in the 1st model they purchased and has a half stock. The next purchase that you must have is the 3 band, full stock, that was in the .46 cal. You can shoot that as a .45 colt with the bigger bullet. I have heard that a round ball does not work well in an original bore because of the type of twist. Thanks