Punkin Balls
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Punkin Balls
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 .
Parkers , Mannlicher Schoenauer’s , 6.5mm's and my family in the Philippines !
Re: Punkin Balls
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.
Old No7
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.
Old No7
"Freedom and the Second Amendment... One cannot exist without the other." © 2000 DTH
Re: Punkin Balls
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 .
Parkers , Mannlicher Schoenauer’s , 6.5mm's and my family in the Philippines !
Re: Punkin Balls
But I do have a bunch of horse shoeing rasps . May try your suggestion as well
Parkers , Mannlicher Schoenauer’s , 6.5mm's and my family in the Philippines !
Re: Punkin Balls
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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Parkers , Mannlicher Schoenauer’s , 6.5mm's and my family in the Philippines !
Re: Punkin Balls
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 !
Parkers , Mannlicher Schoenauer’s , 6.5mm's and my family in the Philippines !
- AmBraCol
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Re: Punkin Balls
Shades of Samuel W. Baker. You REALLY need a good Four Bore.
Paul - in Pereira
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Re: Punkin Balls
If Parker Brothers had manufactured them perhaps , but they didn’t
Parkers , Mannlicher Schoenauer’s , 6.5mm's and my family in the Philippines !
- AmBraCol
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Re: Punkin Balls
I'm trying to remember who built Baker's 4 bores, but am coming up dry.
Paul - in Pereira
"He is the best friend of American liberty who is most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion." -- John Witherspoon
http://www.paulmoreland.com
http://www.pistolpackingpreachers.us
http://www.precisionandina.com
"He is the best friend of American liberty who is most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion." -- John Witherspoon
http://www.paulmoreland.com
http://www.pistolpackingpreachers.us
http://www.precisionandina.com
Re: Punkin Balls
They were muzzle loaders I’m pretty sure .
Parkers , Mannlicher Schoenauer’s , 6.5mm's and my family in the Philippines !
Re: Punkin Balls
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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Parkers , Mannlicher Schoenauer’s , 6.5mm's and my family in the Philippines !
- AmBraCol
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Re: Punkin Balls
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.
Paul - in Pereira
"He is the best friend of American liberty who is most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion." -- John Witherspoon
http://www.paulmoreland.com
http://www.pistolpackingpreachers.us
http://www.precisionandina.com
"He is the best friend of American liberty who is most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion." -- John Witherspoon
http://www.paulmoreland.com
http://www.pistolpackingpreachers.us
http://www.precisionandina.com
Re: Punkin Balls
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 .
Parkers , Mannlicher Schoenauer’s , 6.5mm's and my family in the Philippines !
Re: Punkin Balls
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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Parkers , Mannlicher Schoenauer’s , 6.5mm's and my family in the Philippines !
- AmBraCol
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Re: Punkin Balls
How are they hitting in regard to point of aim? That definitely looks like it should do the job.
Paul - in Pereira
"He is the best friend of American liberty who is most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion." -- John Witherspoon
http://www.paulmoreland.com
http://www.pistolpackingpreachers.us
http://www.precisionandina.com
"He is the best friend of American liberty who is most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion." -- John Witherspoon
http://www.paulmoreland.com
http://www.pistolpackingpreachers.us
http://www.precisionandina.com
Re: Punkin Balls
I’d say 3-4” high and about two inches left .
Parkers , Mannlicher Schoenauer’s , 6.5mm's and my family in the Philippines !
Re: Punkin Balls
That may have been caused by the sort of procariouse perch I was shooting from but must screwed up the same for both shots .
Parkers , Mannlicher Schoenauer’s , 6.5mm's and my family in the Philippines !
- AmBraCol
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Re: Punkin Balls
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? Consistency, that's where it's at!
Paul - in Pereira
"He is the best friend of American liberty who is most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion." -- John Witherspoon
http://www.paulmoreland.com
http://www.pistolpackingpreachers.us
http://www.precisionandina.com
"He is the best friend of American liberty who is most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion." -- John Witherspoon
http://www.paulmoreland.com
http://www.pistolpackingpreachers.us
http://www.precisionandina.com
Re: Punkin Balls
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 .
Parkers , Mannlicher Schoenauer’s , 6.5mm's and my family in the Philippines !
- AmBraCol
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Re: Punkin Balls
I used the flinch as an illustration. If you can wobble the rest the same each time you get the same effect! 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)
Paul - in Pereira
"He is the best friend of American liberty who is most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion." -- John Witherspoon
http://www.paulmoreland.com
http://www.pistolpackingpreachers.us
http://www.precisionandina.com
"He is the best friend of American liberty who is most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion." -- John Witherspoon
http://www.paulmoreland.com
http://www.pistolpackingpreachers.us
http://www.precisionandina.com
Re: Punkin Balls
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 .AmBraCol wrote: ↑Wed Sep 08, 2021 11:56 amI used the flinch as an illustration. If you can wobble the rest the same each time you get the same effect! 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)
Parkers , Mannlicher Schoenauer’s , 6.5mm's and my family in the Philippines !
Re: Punkin Balls
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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Parkers , Mannlicher Schoenauer’s , 6.5mm's and my family in the Philippines !
Re: Punkin Balls
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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Parkers , Mannlicher Schoenauer’s , 6.5mm's and my family in the Philippines !
Re: Punkin Balls
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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Parkers , Mannlicher Schoenauer’s , 6.5mm's and my family in the Philippines !
Re: Punkin Balls
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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Parkers , Mannlicher Schoenauer’s , 6.5mm's and my family in the Philippines !
- Scott Tschirhart
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Re: Punkin Balls
This is a really interesting experiment.
Re: Punkin Balls
Why would you use the word “experiment” ? The idea is to put it into practical application .
Parkers , Mannlicher Schoenauer’s , 6.5mm's and my family in the Philippines !