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I’ve got a rifle partially made up from years back that I’m looking to try and have finished. But I need to order the round ball mould. It’s rifled and the bore diameter is .797. It’s not a muzzleloader although it is a flintlock. Has a chamber cut so don’t need to worry about tightness ramming it down from the muzzle end. Should I aim for a .799-.800 pure lead ball?
According to the website this is the suggestions:
Shrinkage
The next thing to consider is the shrinkage. You can use this simple formula to calculate the cavity diameter: Multiply the ball diameter with 1.005 to get the size of the cavity. This is based on Wheel Weight alloy with 0.5% shrinkage. For absolutely pure lead you may increase the factor to 1.007 (0.7%).
These two factors should give you everything to calculate the size mould you need.
Here is an example:
.688″ x 1.007 (pure lead shrinkage rate) = 0.692816 So, in this instance you would select a .692″ mould
If using a .015″ thou patch:
.692″ – .015″ (patch thickness) = .677″ Mould
So, do I go for 0.7% or 0.5% shrinkage? Wheel weights are easy enough to come by, or at least they used to be..
What would you do?
Cheers.
It’s a Fergusson action, although the maker wasn’t able to get a 10 start thread on his lathe so it’s a 4 start instead, just takes a couple extra rotations of the trigger guard instead of a single one.
Chambers cut for 160gr of 2F black powder and a .800 ball should weigh around 770gr.
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Being a breech loader i guess you can't play with patch thickness and ball size like in a front stuffer. Although I suppose it could be possible to patch it in reverse like a front stuffer?
An interesting note (to me): Col. Ferguson famously wowwed the higher-ups with a dramatic rapid-fire demo, during which he liberally doused the breech area with water from a bottle between shots, ostensibly to demonstrate how waterproof the whole shebang was. Of course, the truth was that without the dousing to rinse away fouling the
"rapid fire" advantage of the action would have disappeared after maybe the second shot...
Shenanigans on the part of military contractors are nothing new.
You'll find him -- and possibly some better responses -- over on the Muzzleloading Forum, starting on the Flintlock page. If you get a response from "Flint62Smoothie" that's my brother. Good luck.
Well, now I will have to go dig up my copy of "The Ferguson Rifle" by Louis L`Amour......
"I have a good horse, a small pack, an excellent knife, and I have the Ferguson rifle. That rifle, my constant companion since childhood, is all that remains of my past, that and a few precious books to stimulate my thoughts until . . . ?
The rifle was given to me when I was a small boy, presented by the man who simplified the loading mechanism and put into action the most efficient weapon of the century.
Major Patrick Ferguson demonstrated the weapon at Woolwich in June 1776. Four years later, he was killed at the Battle of King's Mountain, North Carolina.
The rifle was given me only a few weeks before his death, a truly marvelous weapon made and engraved by his own hand. It was one of the first to be loaded at the breech, and could be loaded and fired six time to the minute. In the almost twenty-five years since it came into my hands, I have seen no rifle to compare.
The rifle he left with us helped us through those bad times. Its accuracy was scarcely to be believed, and I became skilled in its use, acquiring speed in reloading. Each time I used it, I blessed the Major."
"People who need long explanations at moments when everything depends on instinct have always irritated me." ~ Guy Sajer
