tks for the explanation, Nemovir. Depending on your patch thickness, .310", .315" or .320" balls are all usable - but not, in my opinion with patching thinner than about .018"- compressed - with ANY of those sized balls in any normal ..32 rifle bl.
It is easy to load tight combinations in small bores. Tight combinations shoot cleanly and do now allow fouling to build up, as they clean the grooves when they are seated for the next shot.
The reason I say tight combinations are easy to load, is because the tiny ball has very little lead in it due to it's size, compared to the larger calibers. When seating, this tiny ball is easily formed to the bore, much more easily than a similar tight combination would be in say, a .58 calibre rifle. There is much more lead that has to be moved to seat, fill, seal and keep the bore clean, shot after shot, with the larger bores, thus they are more difficult to seat- it is relative. Our wives use the same combinations we use. They are not difficult until you start using .034" patches and balls only 8 thou smaller than the bore in guns like my .69 - those, you have to WANT to get started, but once started, the rifle's rod is all that is needed to seat them.
If there is no fouling buildup shot to shot, you only have one shot's fouling to deal with & that is handled easily by the wet patch, making for easy loading. One only has to learn how to seat the ball into the muzzle (starting it). Most of us use a short starter to get the ball formed into the bore. After that, if your bore is smooth, it does down very easily.
A smooth crown like in the picture above, even with narrow grooves and wide lands (which is opposite most modern bls.), allows seating just about any tight combination without damaging the integrity of the patch, allowing the patch to do it's job of sealing the flame and gasses being the ball. The wider the grooves and narrower the lands, the easier the loading.
