ball diameter

[dakota]

My oldest son is here for the week end. We are shooting goats (antelope) in the next cople of days.
We went out to shoot the Hawken. The only balls I have shot in this gun before were cast from my mold, which is about in the Sioux Falls area right now. But yesterday I tried some balls from Hornady and I used purchased pre-lubed pillow ticking (I never thought I would be doing those two things - using factory balls and patches!)
The balls I bought were .535 in diameter and the next size larger. Yesterday we tried the .535 diameter. I was suprised on the amount of force it took to get that patch and ball to where it needed to be. My cast balls did not drop in, but as I remember it the ramrod wasn't on the edge of breaking either.
The accuarcy seemed ok as did the accuracy of some maxi balls I tried. The maxi balls shot quite a bit higher.

I have read about a person using .54 balls in a .50 cal - I imagine the force required would be great.

How much does over-sized balls affect accuracy?

[bounce]

Sounds like .530 would be your best size? the Hornady balls are as acurate as it gets. When casting your own it's good to weigh each one for uniformity, unseen air bubble can case flyers. Hornady's are sweged and all are the same. A .54 down a 50 would be pealing a lot off the sides and would haff to be hammerd down and no patch, I would not do it!!!!! 50 cal usealy take 490, 54cal what works best 530 or 535 The thickness of your patch can chouse the ball size or vise-versa

[klsm54]

I always used .490's in a 50 caliber, and .530 in my 54. And used a fairly heavy patch. Worked well for me...

It is just a game of finding the right diameter ball to go with the right thickness of patch for your rifle.

I always liked the Hornady and Speer swaged balls. Like Bounce said, cast balls need to be weighed to check for uniformity, and the swaged balls also have no sprue to start off center.

[dovehunter]

Like klsm54, I have always used patched .490" round balls in my .50 cal. and they work fine.

[donnie]

I'm shooting a Hornady .570 RB with .017 pillow ticking from walmart, 90 gr of Goex ffg black and Lehigh valley lube.
They do indeed start and load hard but this combo is capable of taking a squirrel in the head @ 50 yards