Tip #15 – Selecting the Right Lead Balls

This tip isn’t referring to the caliber of the rifle to the ball size. For example, if you have a .50 caliber rifle, you are probably using .490 or .495 lead balls. The compressed patch thickness fills in the gap between the ball and the bore of the barrel. We are going to assume you selected the best fitting ball and patch for your rifle at this point. That means that you have gone through a testing phase and determined what size ball, patch and powder load works to give you accurate, consistent shooting.

If you have done all of the above there is still the chance that you can have a flier ball every once in a while, one that is off by itself when you didn’t pull the shot. One possibility is that the ball itself has a problem.

I haven’t started casting my own balls yet, but that is probably going to happen soon. Besides casting lead balls you can purchase them from a variety of manufacturers. One member of our club was telling about how he weighs the balls and sorts them by weight. Notice this chart:

Based upon this chart a .490 ball should weigh 177 grains. I opened a fresh box of .490 round balls and weighed all 100 of them, putting them in groups that were within 0.5 grains of each other. I had some balls as light as 175 grains, and others as high as 181.5 grains. That is quite a large variation in weight.

What can account for that difference? One thing is the purity of the lead. Another could be that the balls are actually larger or smaller than 0.490”. The last possibility is that there is a small air pocket inside the ball that causes it to be lighter than 177 grains. The balls that are heavier than 177 grains do not likely have an air pocket. So all the balls less than 177 grains may not travel straight due to being out of balance. The air pocket is not likely in the center of the ball, but rather off center. As the ball spins down the barrel toward the target it is out of balance causing it to drift away from center. I would only use these balls for the fowling shot, or plinking, but not serious target practice.

Fortunately the majority of the balls weigh in between 177 and 178 grains. These are the ones I use for my serious target practice. The heavier ones should also shoot straight, they just may shoot a little lower than the 177-178 balls.

The club member that cast his balls told me that they all weight within about 0.5 grain 97-98% of the time. Once in a while he’ll get a light one that has an air bubble and he just puts it back in the melting pot. Based on his experience I can understand why a serious target shooter will cast their own balls. Helps take one more variable out of the picture that can negatively effect accurate shooting.