Punkin Balls

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6pt-sika
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Punkin Balls

Post by 6pt-sika »

I ordered three molds from Tanner’s in the UK last year for my 8 gauge hammer gun . Well the two .415” molds do very well for 000000 buckshot and the .775” roundball does a fair to middling job as a punkin ball . But I bought a second hammerless 8 gauge that per factory letter left in 1906 choked to shoot buckshot close , so it’s a bit more open at the muzzle . I’d decided a couple months ago to go a skoosh bigger for the hammer gun and bigger yet for the hammerless gun . So today I made an order with Tanner’s for a .785” and a .795” roundball molds . Now let’s see if these get here any quicker than last year . Tanner last year had them in the mail in less that a week after ordering but it took a week to reach the USA then almost four weeks to reach me once in the USA .
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Old No7
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Re: Punkin Balls

Post by Old No7 »

If that doesn't work -- try rolling the lead balls between 2 heavy-toothed wood rasps. My twin does that on a couple of his smoothbore front-stuffers and the results he gets -- with NO rifling or rear sights -- make some of the rifle shooter (with rear sights) quite envious.

He scoured old tool shops to buy a really rough set (of two rasps) and a set that was medium rough (for lack of a better term) and some of this smoothies shoot best with one or the other.

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6pt-sika
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Re: Punkin Balls

Post by 6pt-sika »

With the .775” ball in my hammer gun I put I think it’s six wraps of masking tape around the ball . My parameters at 25ish yards and so far the .775” balls worked pretty well with the wraps , but I figured since I was ordering one for the larger hammerless gun why not get a second for the hammer gun as well . These molds aren’t inexpensive but not overly expensive either about $45 each .
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Re: Punkin Balls

Post by 6pt-sika »

But I do have a bunch of horse shoeing rasps . May try your suggestion as well :wink:
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Re: Punkin Balls

Post by 6pt-sika »

I took the Parker hammerless 8 out this afternoon and tried 000000 buck , .775 punkin balls and 730 grain slugs . All were shot at 28 yards the buck from the right barrel while the slugs and balls from the left . Second is slugs the last is punkin balls .
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6pt-sika
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Re: Punkin Balls

Post by 6pt-sika »

My two new punkin ball molds arrived in NYC from the sik sunday . Now let’s see how long it takes to make the six hour trip from NYC to central Virginia !
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Re: Punkin Balls

Post by AmBraCol »

Shades of Samuel W. Baker. You REALLY need a good Four Bore. :D
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6pt-sika
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Re: Punkin Balls

Post by 6pt-sika »

AmBraCol wrote: Mon Aug 30, 2021 7:33 pm Shades of Samuel W. Baker. You REALLY need a good Four Bore. :D
If Parker Brothers had manufactured them perhaps , but they didn’t :wink:
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Re: Punkin Balls

Post by AmBraCol »

6pt-sika wrote: Mon Aug 30, 2021 7:38 pm
AmBraCol wrote: Mon Aug 30, 2021 7:33 pm Shades of Samuel W. Baker. You REALLY need a good Four Bore. :D
If Parker Brothers had manufactured them perhaps , but they didn’t :wink:
I'm trying to remember who built Baker's 4 bores, but am coming up dry.
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6pt-sika
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Re: Punkin Balls

Post by 6pt-sika »

AmBraCol wrote: Mon Aug 30, 2021 8:32 pm
6pt-sika wrote: Mon Aug 30, 2021 7:38 pm
AmBraCol wrote: Mon Aug 30, 2021 7:33 pm Shades of Samuel W. Baker. You REALLY need a good Four Bore. :D
If Parker Brothers had manufactured them perhaps , but they didn’t :wink:
I'm trying to remember who built Baker's 4 bores, but am coming up dry.
They were muzzle loaders I’m pretty sure .
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Re: Punkin Balls

Post by 6pt-sika »

I’m pleased and slightly surprised . Last year when the three molds I ordered from the UK arrived in this country they sat in Chicago for three weeks before they turned them loose . This year the pair came in country Sunday in NYC and were in my PO Box this morning . Three DAYS beats the heck out of three weeks Already cleaned them with gunscrubber and sooted with a match , might just cast a few tonight .
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Re: Punkin Balls

Post by AmBraCol »

6pt-sika wrote: Mon Aug 30, 2021 11:08 pm
AmBraCol wrote: Mon Aug 30, 2021 8:32 pm
6pt-sika wrote: Mon Aug 30, 2021 7:38 pm
AmBraCol wrote: Mon Aug 30, 2021 7:33 pm Shades of Samuel W. Baker. You REALLY need a good Four Bore. :D
If Parker Brothers had manufactured them perhaps , but they didn’t :wink:
I'm trying to remember who built Baker's 4 bores, but am coming up dry.
They were muzzle loaders I’m pretty sure .
Indeed they were. He ran some fascinating experiments with them. 10 Bore was too small for much of anything as far as he was concerned. Have you seen the 2 Bore that was built based on the idea of his "Baby" rifle? There's quite a series on youtube about it from a few years past.
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6pt-sika
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Re: Punkin Balls

Post by 6pt-sika »

Friday afternoon when I got home I cast twenty of the .785” balls , twenty of the .795” balls and ninety of the .415” (000000 buck) balls . That should give me plenty punkin balls to try in both guns and have left to kill a deer or two . And the smaller balls will be plenty for ten rounds of 000000 buck .
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Re: Punkin Balls

Post by 6pt-sika »

Loaded some of the .785” balls some of the .795” balls and some of the 000000/.415” as well . Both were shot at 30 yards with about a grain more of Universal Clays than I used in the previous loads . First was from the right barrel with 000000 the second was from the left barrel with two shots of the .795” balls . Also used the Italian Gulianni wads with the buckshot loads today .
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Re: Punkin Balls

Post by AmBraCol »

How are they hitting in regard to point of aim? That definitely looks like it should do the job. :D
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Re: Punkin Balls

Post by 6pt-sika »

I’d say 3-4” high and about two inches left .
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Re: Punkin Balls

Post by 6pt-sika »

That may have been caused by the sort of procariouse perch I was shooting from but must screwed up the same for both shots .
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Re: Punkin Balls

Post by AmBraCol »

6pt-sika wrote: Wed Sep 08, 2021 2:04 am That may have been caused by the sort of procariouse perch I was shooting from but must screwed up the same for both shots .
Hey, consistency is the name of the game. If you can manage to flinch the same each time and so land 'em in the same place each time, is flinching such a bad thing after all? :lol: Consistency, that's where it's at!
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Re: Punkin Balls

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Not a flinch , I had a plastic MTM rest made for an AR shooting off the tailgate of my pickup but the darn thing wobbles . But atleast it wobbled the same both times .
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Re: Punkin Balls

Post by AmBraCol »

6pt-sika wrote: Wed Sep 08, 2021 11:41 am Not a flinch , I had a plastic MTM rest made for an AR shooting off the tailgate of my pickup but the darn thing wobbles . But atleast it wobbled the same both times .
I used the flinch as an illustration. If you can wobble the rest the same each time you get the same effect! :D What ever you were doing (both loading and shooting) you managed some good consistency - that shows on the targets. Not bad at all for punkin' balls down a smooth bore. (down two parallel smooth bores as a matter of fact)
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Re: Punkin Balls

Post by 6pt-sika »

AmBraCol wrote: Wed Sep 08, 2021 11:56 am
6pt-sika wrote: Wed Sep 08, 2021 11:41 am Not a flinch , I had a plastic MTM rest made for an AR shooting off the tailgate of my pickup but the darn thing wobbles . But atleast it wobbled the same both times .
I used the flinch as an illustration. If you can wobble the rest the same each time you get the same effect! :D What ever you were doing (both loading and shooting) you managed some good consistency - that shows on the targets. Not bad at all for punkin' balls down a smooth bore. (down two parallel smooth bores as a matter of fact)
Both shots were down the same barrel . Very rarely will I load a double barrel with roundballs or slugs in both barrels . Buck in the right punkin ball in the left .
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Re: Punkin Balls

Post by 6pt-sika »

Loaded a few more today ! But cut back to the 40A bushing got Universal Clays rather than the 41 bushing I used the other day . I also used the older Remington Corrugated hulls . I’m finding just a minute bit of lubricant on the case Edgar turns out a far better roll crimp . Loaded four of the .785 and six of the .795 . Then when I did the 000000 I put ten pellets and 1 1/2 scoops buffer . Made five with ten pellets and one with eight pellets . The one with eight got 1/4” of 10 gauge nitro card in the shot cup with everything else staying the same . Maybe I can try a couple later this evening on paper .
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Re: Punkin Balls

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Some of the punkin balls in the older Remington hulls have me hang fires . But the ones that went off correctly looked okay from the left barrel . The 10 pellets of 000000 has a bit of a push to it but the two I shot from the right barrel looked decent enough . Incidentally these were shot at 30 yards . This was with slightly less powder and a more stable rest . 785’s then 795’d then two targets of buckshot , the 795 has four shots the two at the bottom were hang fires .
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Re: Punkin Balls

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Took a slight turn today . Loaded some punkin balls with fiber and card wads . Card over the powder then a few fiber wads . They seem to fit very well . I’d picked up a bunch of 8 gauge stuff couple months ago so why not try it . Loaded two with the .795” ball , three with the .785” ball and four buckshot with the Gualandi wad . All in nice new Remington hulls . I’ve also found putting just a skoosh of white grease on the end helps quite a bit in the roll crimping process .
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Re: Punkin Balls

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Shot all the roundball loads and didn’t care for the results . Shot 000000 buck in the right and left barrels as well . The buck loads looked very decent at 30 yards . Tommorrow I’ll load some more punkin balls with the SP-8 wads in new hulls then try two out the left barrel of both .785” and .795” . And hopefully we can go from there . With the buck the right barrel was fired at the one with the yellow bullseye and the left barrel at the one with four bullseyes .
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Re: Punkin Balls

Post by Scott Tschirhart »

This is a really interesting experiment.
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Re: Punkin Balls

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Scott Tschirhart wrote: Fri Sep 17, 2021 9:29 am This is a really interesting experiment.
Why would you use the word “experiment” ? The idea is to put it into practical application .
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