Since this seems to be the place to expound on round ball theory here goes. I think the only time having a perfectly round ball that’s been cast from pure lead, in a superior mold, weighted, sprues trimmed to the max, and rolled between two pieces of glass, is when your shooting a rifle at long range. I think at shorter ranges before the velocity starts really bleeding of it makes little difference.
Now where a lot of shooters get it wrong is applying the same theory to a smooth bore. With a smoothie the lead doesn’t have to be pure, the mold can be an old Dixie hair straightener mold, weighing them is ridiculous. you can cut the sprue with a pair of side cutters, and your good to go. The one thing they both have in common is the velocity controls the drift. Rifles have rifling to spin the ball, and as long as the ball has enough spin to keep it steady its accurate , as the velocity, and the spin are are working you get accuracy. But eventually they all drift.
Smoothbores depend on velocity also to create a cone of energy around the ball that as long as the cone of energy lasts makes the ball fly straight. Smoothies are usually bigger bore, and lighter, and thinner barrels, which means you can’t load them tightly like a rifle. So you load an under sized ball, no patch, or wad, or nitro card, just a over shot card, or a wad made of old wool blanket, or a wad of paper wasp nest. At out to about 100 yards they can shoot very well. Small bore smoothies seem to do a little better and I’m not sure why. But I did see a range committee go over a 28 gauge trade gun for a couple of days before they awarded their prize for best trail walk score.
Hungry Horse
