AmericanLongRifles Forums

General discussion => Black Powder Shooting => Topic started by: yip on February 21, 2021, 03:31:46 AM

Title: 310 round ball
Post by: yip on February 21, 2021, 03:31:46 AM
  whats going on about molds and and round balls?  looking for 310 round in a box or a mold, seems everyone is buying them all up. any help would be great.
Title: Re: 310 round ball
Post by: Daryl on February 21, 2021, 03:44:27 AM
yip- I had 2 moulds for my .32, a .311 DC Lee and later bought a .319" DC Lee.
If you would like, simply PM me a complete mailing address and I will gift you the .311 DC mould.

best wishes

edited - it you would rather have the .319" mould, which casts .320" in both cavities with pure lead, just say so.
I found this one to load almost identically as the .311" - certainly no more difficult as the little balls flow easily to mould into the rifling
with a substantial patch.
Title: Re: 310 round ball
Post by: Mike from OK on February 22, 2021, 09:21:19 AM
  whats going on about molds and and round balls?  looking for 310 round in a box or a mold, seems everyone is buying them all up. any help would be great.

Lee has a statement on their website...

It says they've experienced unprecedented demand which wiped out their inventory and they have a 119 day backlog of orders that are being filled in the order they were received. They've hired extra personnel, they're working overtime, and even office personnel have been redirected to assemble and ship product.

That statement has been up there for a while... So I dont know if they've made a dent in the backlog or not... I would consider Track of the Wolf to be one of the more prominent retailers of BP merchandise and they are still out of RB molds... So who knows.

Mike
Title: Re: 310 round ball
Post by: hanshi on February 23, 2021, 12:18:27 AM
When demand gets really high suppliers will do their best to fill that demand, barring unexpected problems.  No one wants to lose money they don't have to lose.  But unfortunately extraordinary conditions often result in more "lag time" than we care to experience.
Title: Re: 310 round ball
Post by: Daryl on February 23, 2021, 12:25:23 AM
There is a (used).311" DC Lee mould on it's way to yip.
Title: Re: 310 round ball
Post by: yip on February 23, 2021, 01:09:53 AM
  THANKS DARYL YOU GUYS ARE GREAT!
Title: Re: 310 round ball
Post by: Daryl on February 23, 2021, 02:14:32 AM
You are most welcome, yip.
Title: Re: 310 round ball
Post by: yip on March 08, 2021, 11:03:08 PM
  Daryl; i received the mold today (March 8th) thank you sir, are you sure i don't owe you anything? i can't wait to try it out, very nice of you thanks again.
Title: Re: 310 round ball
Post by: Daryl on March 09, 2021, 02:49:49 AM
You are most welcome. That's all the thanks I need.  :)
Title: Re: 310 round ball
Post by: hanshi on March 09, 2021, 09:23:36 PM
Starting off with the .32 caliber I bought a .311" Lee DC mold many years ago.  For some time I've been thinking about a couple of rifles that might benefit from a .005" larger ball.  But that's a wait & see for now.  In the past a .490" ball suited very well until I got a .016" groove rb Rice barrel in .50 and a .32 rb Rice.  Long, long ago I picked up a Lyman .445" mold which loads and shoots about the same as the .440" in my rifle.  The shortage can't last forever!
Title: Re: 310 round ball
Post by: Daryl on March 10, 2021, 04:13:53 AM
I hear, you hanshi.  The .311" was the firs tone I bought and shot for a while. I was using the mattress ticking we'd found that measured .0235" compressed in my calipers.
It was down to about .020" in the mic. The little balls loaded very easily, even thought he barrel had very narrow grooves and wide lands- opposite what many (including me) like.
It shot OK, but that's it, about 1" at 50 yards for 5 shots.  I could not get it to shoot tighter.
I bought another Lee Mould, casting .320"x.320". It was their .319" mould. These seemed to load almost identically and they literally shot the same 1" groups from a rest at 50yards.
So - if I ever get another .32" I won't waste my time with the smaller balls as I no longer have that mould. ;D  The larger balls have the potential to shoot better and that is good enough
for me.