Seems like I read somewhere about someone using a tumbler and tumbling balls to make them more round/smooth them out. Anyone heard of this or know anything about it?

never heard of it. Sounds like a dumb idea to me.

I never heard of that.. I wonder if they feel it will remove the spur off the homecast. I guess with all the casting I have done, I never saw the need for it.

When I read the title for this thread I think to myself, of course they tumble, there round, but if they are round how can you tell if they are tumbling????

WHAT??? That was a good one, Tom.

I think that I've heard of someoneputting cast balls in a bucket of sand and letting it roll around in the back of their truck, to both wear down the sprues and seams,and tocreate very small dimples in the surface of theballs. The dimples are said to result in giving the patch a better grip on the ball and maybe it helps toimpart a better spin on the ball too, at leastin theory.
Why do they put dimples on golf balls anyway?

It was one of those things that I read one time, didn't think I had a use for, but now maybe I do but can't find the info. I do know they tumble ball bearings in the manufacturing process to make them more round, but that is about the limit of my knowledge on the subject. Prolly fixin' to do an experiment, will let you guys know how it turns out. Might not change a thing, but my mind is curious and wants to know.

I have heard of it. Sounds like a waste of time & energy to me, as I have always found the balls I cast to shoot as well as I can hold w/o such nonsense! This is in the same category of rolling cast balls between two plates of ground glass to level down the sprue. Just load them sprue-up. If you have to have pristine, really round balls, buy the swaged Hornady or Speers!

I agree with eldequello...I cast mine out of a Rapine bag mold and they shoot better than I can hold...It does not matter if they are not perfectly round anyway because by the time you load them down the bore and shoot them, they will conform to the bore size anyway...A properly patched ball, when pulled will have the weave from the patch embedded on it, no need to dimple to grip the patch...

After the shot, the ball flattens or squats (obrutrate???) is the word...It will be larger in diameter around the bore than parallel to the bore...

If you want more accuracy...Cast your own...I have seen improvement in shooting hand cast balls vs swaged...In my opinion the cast are softer and confirm to the bore easier...

Seems to make sense, I wasn't thinking about the fact that the ball is going to obturate just as a bullet does, so it probably won't do anything at all to help.

But since I am already set up and tumbling about a dozen balls inside a piece of 2" PVC pipe on the lathe here at work as we speak, I will go ahead and let them run just to see what happens. They have run about 30 minutes so far and it looks like they are smoothing up. It very well may end up just being academic, but at least I will have satisfied my curiosity. Never know when some piece of arcane knowledge might end up being useful.