Chewed balls

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Chewed balls

Post by bigpete » 28 Dec 2018, 6:45 pm

Yes,the title is correct. Have a giggle and move along lol.
So,in muzzleloading circles there seems to be a lot of talk about using so called chewed balls in smoothbores. Supposedly more accurate,or have better ballistics due to the dimpled surface,similar to a golf ball. Jury is out to both the historical correctness and the effectiveness of them though.
However,I had an idea. I roughed a few up between 2 hoof rasps,and they consistently measured 10 thousandths of an inch over regular cast balls. Yet,being that they are dimpled,they have less surface area in touch with the bore,lessening effort in loading. Plus adding lots of nice pockets to hold lube....which in my case was rendered deer fat. My idea being that one of these might be used as quick reload,put down type thing.
Anyways,I tested them out today. Fired 10 from 40m out of my Dikar hawken 50 cal. First one in a clean bore loaded piss easy, and hit about 5" right of where I was aiming. Consecutive shots were closer to the mark,and loaded a little harder,but still easy as. Shooting off hand,I still managed a 4" ish group over 10 shots loading as quick as possible. I'd say they definitely work for the purpose I've got in mind.
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Re: Chewed balls

Post by bigrich » 28 Dec 2018, 7:43 pm

so pete, is the objective better grouping, speed of loading , or both ? what's your intended purpose ? you gunna declare war on the british redcoats ? :lol: :lol: :lol: is chewing on the balls a historical thing ? maybe it was for speed of loading during battle , keeping them in their mouth so the didn't have to reach for stuff. they were probably more worried about getting lead poisening from enemy rifles than chewing on their own projectiles hey ? :D

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Re: Chewed balls

Post by bigpete » 28 Dec 2018, 8:25 pm

I thought I'd pretty well covered that...
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Re: Chewed balls

Post by Noisydad » 28 Dec 2018, 8:53 pm

It’s meant make the ball fired from a smooth bore more stable in flight. Bit like a golf ball.
There’s a YouTube video about it think it was a review of a tool for “chewing” the ball. Wasn’t to successful if my rememberer is working.
There's still a few of Wile. E Coyote's ideas that I haven't tried yet.
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Re: Chewed balls

Post by bigpete » 28 Dec 2018, 8:58 pm

Yes,I've watched Mike Belivues video. Actually made it shoot worse imo.
Worked well in my rifle though...
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Re: Chewed balls

Post by brett1868 » 28 Dec 2018, 9:03 pm

Here I was thinking Bigpete had an unfortunate interaction with a feral pussy, kinda disappointed now cause I needed a good laugh. I know there were studies done on the best dimpling pattern for golf balls to arrive at the best mix of dimple size and quantity for maximum range. You'd assume the physics might also apply to a lead ball, I'm guessing the ball gets knocked too much out of round to work maybe??
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Re: Chewed balls

Post by tom604 » 28 Dec 2018, 9:21 pm

chewed balls??? shooting quicker??? well maybe,if they were only lightly chewed,,,more like nibbled :lol: :lol: :thumbsup:
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Re: Chewed balls

Post by brett1868 » 28 Dec 2018, 9:26 pm

tom604 wrote:chewed balls??? shooting quicker??? well maybe,if they were only lightly chewed,,,more like nibbled :lol: :lol: :thumbsup:


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Re: Chewed balls

Post by bigpete » 29 Dec 2018, 5:08 am

Yes,I was expecting a lot of childish humor lol
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Re: Chewed balls

Post by pomemax » 29 Dec 2018, 9:28 am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpqShViVL_Y
This relevant as to why you may chew them I do not think you should chew them to get the dimples
Last edited by pomemax on 29 Dec 2018, 10:39 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Chewed balls

Post by Gaznazdiak » 29 Dec 2018, 10:25 am

The Mythbusters did that experiment with a car, using a layer of modeling clay.
They drove it a few times on a set course to get an average fuel consumption, then cut dimples into the clay and did it again.

From memory it returned slightly better consumption but I don't remember whether they factored in the reduction in weight due to the removal of clay to form the dimples.
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Re: Chewed balls

Post by bigpete » 29 Dec 2018, 5:54 pm

Screenshot_20181229-182017_Gallery.jpg
Screenshot_20181229-182017_Gallery.jpg (282.09 KiB) Viewed 3443 times


And so heres a pretty good reason. Shooting at 30m,72gn 2f under a lubed fibrewad,projectile loose,then overshot card.
4 shots inside the circle were chewed balls,others were plain balls.....fired in my grundmann shotgun....pretty damned convincing if you ask me....
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Re: Chewed balls

Post by bigrich » 30 Dec 2018, 9:51 am

well, the proofs there mate. good shootin' pete :drinks: :drinks: :thumbsup:
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Re: Chewed balls

Post by Noisydad » 30 Dec 2018, 2:07 pm

bigpete wrote:Yes,I was expecting a lot of childish humor lol

Well, that is of course the main reason we enjoy using our ram rods to load our balls!
There's still a few of Wile. E Coyote's ideas that I haven't tried yet.
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Re: Chewed balls

Post by bigpete » 30 Dec 2018, 8:00 pm

And spit lube...
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