What size ball?

[Longwalker]

I am building a .24 guage/.58 cal smoothbore.
At the muzzle it mics at .575. What size ball would be recommend?  I guess with a patch or with an over shot card and wad secenario. Any suggestions?

[stubshaft]

I'd use a .562" RB.

[Hungry Horse]

.562 Rb, on top of about ninety grains of 2F, held in place with a greased piece of old wool blanket, or some kind of cloth that isn’t likely to catch fire. Smoothbores were’nt Patched back in the day. They were either shot this way with loose components, or loaded with a combustible cartridge. It’s easy, fast, and quite accurate.

  Hungry Horse

[hanshi]

.562" will take a very thin patch if you want to shoot prb (I do).  Better yet a ball approaching .020" undersize will allow a thicker, stronger patch.  I shoot a patched .600" ball (around .015" under bore size, maybe a shade more) and can use a .012" and even a .015" patch.

[Daryl]

For a Wad.575" bore I would use a Wad
550" ball and about a .018" to date.020" denim or ticking patch. 80 to 85gr. 2F would be a good deer load proposed for smoothbore match at rondy.

[Longwalker]

Thanks guys for all the good info. Can you buy "wool blanket wads"?? Or cut them your self with a punch? What size (dia.) wad? just slightly oversized of the .58 cal bore?
Harry