I Have No Balls

[Semisane]

I've got the hots real bad to shoot my recently acquired .32 caliber Pedersoli Frontier.



But there's not a .310 lead ball to be had anywhere in this area, and my Internet order won't arrive before the weekend. Bummer!!!

Then I got to thinking about those .312 caliber 90-grain Hornady lead semi-wadcutters I use for target loads in my .32 H&R Mag revolver.




So I dug the box out of the gun closet and tried one in the bore. It was "loosey-goosey". Then I got to thinking about Idahoron's and Zonie's posts on paper patched bullets, and decided to give it a try.

I begged an old dress pattern from my wife.



After playing around with dimensions for the paper strip, I arrived at strips that are 1/2 inch wide and 4 & 1/2 inches long. I pretty much followed Ron's instructions, except I didn't cut the end of the strips on an angle. That didn't seem to matter with the thin paper I was using.

I fumbled the first few I tried to assemble, just trying to get the right amount of moisture and tension (big fingers/little bullets, and all that). But eventually got the technique down pretty well. They came out nice.



The patching brought the bullet diameter up from .312 to .322, and they fit just perfectly in the bore.



I don't know if this is going to work or how they may shoot out of the gun's 1:48 twist, but I'll be finding out this weekend. Keep your eyes peeled for a shooting report Sunday night or Monday.

[cayugad]

Sorry to hear of your problem. I will be interesting to see if that does work.

[MountainDevil54]

Check in your boot, They tend to drop down very low as you age

Those .32 paper patched bullets look very interesting!

[flounder33]

Did you hear the one about the guy with the hundred pound balls? I guess he was half nutz. (semi sane)

[Semisane]

This thread is going down hill fast.

[lemoyne]

Semi, I found "0" buckshot to work quit well.

[Semisane]

Semi, I found "0" buckshot to work quit well.

Interesting Lee.

I just checked, and "0" buck is listed as .30 diameter. It's hard to get an accurate bore measurement on this small barrel without a plug. But it seems to be pretty close to .32 land to land, with fairly shallow grooves somewhere between .010 and .015.

So a .30 ball with .018 or .020 patches should do. Or does a thick patch like that "bunch up" in a small bore?

[oldsmellhound]

Sounds like something you should talk to your doctor about, not share on a hunting forum

[Semisane]

Yep! Downhill all the way.

[lemoyne]

A regular ticking patch with a olive oil lube did OK for me shot good out to 50 yds.