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.