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flembo

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High I live in NH. and enjoy shooting black powder rifles and revolvers I currently have a 32 cal traditions rifle I built from a kit and a 36 cal uberti 1851 revolver. I will start with my first question and probably have more as time goes on. I have probably shot my 36 cal 1851 100 or more times with .375 balls and always sheared a little lead as it should but today the same .375 balls came back out on the ram rod so I went with .380 balls. Would temp. have anything to do with that, most of my shooting was done in summer temps but today was 31 deg.
 
Lead has a much higher coefficent of thermal expansion (by around 3X!) so it will expand or contract much more than the cylinder given the same change in temperature. Hard to imagine the difference between room temperture to where you're shooting is that great, but who knows. Maybe the balls are undersized? (A new box?)
 
Welcome from a Connecticut member.
I don't own an Uberti, but many folks over the years have recommended loading .380 balls in them unless they've changed their spec.'s.
I suppose that you're right that the warm temp's were letting you get away with using the .375's for all of this time.
At least you had the .380's handy, must have been for a reason.
 
Lead has a much higher coefficent of thermal expansion (by around 3X!) so it will expand or contract much more than the cylinder given the same change in temperature. Hard to imagine the difference between room temperture to where you're shooting is that great, but who knows. Maybe the balls are undersized? (A new box?)
No the same box the only difference is temp. when shooting this summer it was 70 or 80 deg today it was 31 deg and thanks for the welcome and quick response.
 
Welcome from a Connecticut member.
I don't own an Uberti, but many folks over the years have recommended loading .380 balls in them unless they've changed their spec.'s.
I suppose that you're right that the warm temp's were letting you get away with using the .375's for all of this time.
At least you had the .380's handy, must have been for a reason.
It was for a reason because while doing my initial research I learned that some folks like .380 better than .375 and vice versa so I prepared BTW I get my balls from Track of the wolf.
 
I have had that happen from time to time. I hand cast with recycled lead so I know that the lead hardness may vary from batch. Sometimes a ball will seat harder and the rammer will imprint on the face of the ball, the lube the wad applies to the walls as its pushed down will aid the rammer to extract the ball. That's my theory at least. An overly lubed wad, also something that I do from time to time will add to the problem.
 
Flembo - Welcome to the board. Do you hang around Fort No. 4? Haven't been there in years.
 
Flembo - Welcome to the board. Do you hang around Fort No. 4? Haven't been there in years.
I drove by it a lot on the way to Springfield Vt when my inlaws were alive. I brought the kids there years ago.
 
There's always the possibility that cast balls are not as precisely made as swaged balls, depending on the mold or the purity of the lead.
Very true, but even swaged balls can be 5 grains off from ball to ball and be in spec from the factory, for precision long range shooting I always weigh the projectiles and group, even the match grade(expensive) bullets can have as much as 5 grain deviation. I learned this from a retired Marine sniper, you'd be surprised at the differences in cast balls/bullets with all else being equal and looking perfect.
 
I found the same thing as well. I try to weigh any thing I cast as well. Just ran off a handful of ,490 and 350 ball and not real happy with em.
 
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