De-spruing cast balls ?

[Skychief]

I have read the following idea in the past.

Take cast roundballs and place them in a 2 liter bottle and cap bottle.   Throw the ball filled bottle in the back of your truck for a week or so.   The rolling of the bottle is said to flatten the sprue marks of the balls, resulting in a better projectile.

Anybody here ever try this?   If so, what were your results?  Perfect spheres with no sprue marks?  Other?


Thanks, Skychief.

[BrownBear]

I started the process, then dumped the experiment.  From what I could see, the edges of the sprue were rounded down, but the high point was basically unaffected.  Yeah, you couldn't see the "sprue" with a quick glance, but you still had a high spot.  That made it all that much harder to see so you could center it at the top while loading, though it certainly miked high enough to be an accuracy issue.

Maybe I didn't put enough "miles" on them.  In any case, they went back into the melting pot without firing a single one.

[Dphariss]

I use my vibratory case cleaner it will beat the sprues off in an hour or two depending on the size of the ball.
I don't think it has any advantage other than making it unnecessary to find the sprue when loading. It might actually be a detriment to accuracy (never tested this so?) since the sprue will never be completely beaten down and the as cast ball may not be round either but it can be indexed better than the sprueless ball.
Historically I think that the military rounded off the sprues of cast balls (if a tall enough tower was available even musket balls were dropped). I have read somewhere of riflemen being required to have 70 balls "well rounded" in their bullet pouch.

Dan

[northmn]

Unless ground off perfectly all some of the sprue removal techniques do is make a one sided oval out of a round ball.  I always felt it best to have a visible sprue load it sprue up where it is consistantly indexed, and not worry about it.  Some fantastic groups have been shot with no modification to the sprue.  Otherwise buy swaged ball.

DP

[Ryan McNabb]

Roll them around between two steel plates, 4 or 5 balls at a time. 

[whitebear]

What about putting them in something like the bottle or a sack and throwing them in the dryer (when the little lady is not home of course)?

[Curt Lyles]

Why not just take the sprue cutter off  mill down the top of the mold  put your sprue cutter back on  and be done with worryin about yor sprues.Curt     www.cdlyles,com

[lawhetzel]

Why not just take the sprue cutter off  mill down the top of the mold  put your sprue cutter back on  and be done with worryin about yor sprues.Curt     www.cdlyles,com

This is essentially what Lee does with their RB molds. I have several and like them. I do not bother with the sprue. There is often a little flat place, but, as some one above suggested, I roll the balls between two steel plates and they look just like a commercial, Hornady or Speer,  swaged RB. This works for me and my purposes.

[Collector]

Try casting the ball and cutting the sprue and while still hot/warm, place the RB back into the mould with the sprue facing one side of the interior of the blocks and squeezing the blocks together again.  The mould blocks have to be up to temperature.

Not an original idea, it was proffered some time ago by another ALR board member who said that's what he did.  It's supposed to work on typical sprues from Lyman, Lee, NEI and Jeff Tanner.

Personally, I'm not worried enough about it, to do anything. 

[Bill of the 45th]

Don't waste your time.  Load sprue down, or up and go shoot more.  Don't waste your time, unless you are trying to achieve minute of flea at fifty yards or some such silliness.  If you can consistently hit a target the size of an apple at forty yards, that's all you need in most parts of the U.S. with a Muzzleloader.

Bill

[whitebear]

Bill K at this stage of the game I'm not sure that I could see an apple at 40 yards!

[2ndCharter]

What about putting them in something like the bottle or a sack and throwing them in the dryer (when the little lady is not home of course)?

I would question the environmental safety factor in this method. It seems to me that you stand a good chance of producing lead dust. This could get in the air in your home and surely in your clothing for several loads to follow at a minimum.

[Dphariss]

Unless ground off perfectly all some of the sprue removal techniques do is make a one sided oval out of a round ball.  I always felt it best to have a visible sprue load it sprue up where it is consistantly indexed, and not worry about it.  Some fantastic groups have been shot with no modification to the sprue.  Otherwise buy swaged ball.

DP

Swaged balls are even more out or round than cast and tumbled balls in my experience. Most have a belt several thousandths high around them. They are swaged, apparently without a lot of care and then tumbled to hide the lumps and bumps.

Dan

[Daryl]

Lee and other moulds with so-called Tangent cut-offs for the sprue usually cast a ball that is several thousanth's smaller top to bottom, then side to side.  If you are after real accuracy, then the balls should be as close to perfect as possible along with all the other loading steps and methods - if all you need to do is to hit an 8" plate at 50 yards, even a smooth bor with a weak patch will handle that requirement.