Hornady lead round balls.

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Western Montana
I've been shooting a .54 percussion cap Traditions Hawken rifle for about a year now and am Still on my first box of marbles. They are .530 lead round balls from Hornady (item #6100) and up until now just shooting these has satisfied me, but now I want to get into all the technical stuff and develop the best load(s) for my rifle. the only problem I'm running into right now is no where on the label can I find how many grains they are, nor am I tech savvy enough to figure out Hornady's website. It sure would be helpful for a compilation notebook of data. Can any of the more experienced shooters help me out? Thanks.

-CB
 
225gr for the .530 ball.

That said (lead being lead), ball weight is not the factor to track.

Instead, work the combined variations of...

- ball diameter (in this case 0.530 - 0.535, etc)
- patch material (cotton pillow ticking, linen, muslin, etc)
- patch thickness (0.008 - 0.020)
- patch lube (spit, bore butter, cutting oil/water mix, lard, etc)
- charge weight (50-90gr -- most likely 2F for the 54's)

Ball/patch combo should be tight fit -- not go down "easily," but not requiring hammering either.
0.015-0.020" for deep grooves, 0.008-0.012" for shallow grooves (at least a rule of starting thumb)
 
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