Percussion Pistols - Balls (with particular reference to the 36)

For a .36 the standard ball is 354, though 353 or 355 may suit some guns better. These are all fairly uncommon sizes, but the more common 350 ball will generally give quite acceptable results - certainly good enough for practice. Of more importance than the diameter of the ball is the consistency. As a .36 ball only weighs around 65 grains, a five grain variance in weight between individual balls is nearly 10 percent, and will give serious vertical stringing on the target.

I have found balls by Pedersoli, H&N, Hornady and various others to be of excellent quality. However, a batch by Warren Muzzle Loading proved severely disappointing - some virtually rolled down the barrel, others required a mallet. Maybe Warren had a bad day, as other stuff of theirs has been excellent. The moral of the story is, buy a micrometer for a tenner at the next car boot sale and check the balls for quality.

If you're lucky enough to own a .33 Hege, then loads must be even more exact. Hege recommend a .330 ball with a five thou patch, but it's common to see 323-325 balls being used with a ten thou patch, as five thou patches can be hard to come by.

What of cast balls? Well I can't be bothered casting for a single shot targer pistol. Think about it, a box of 100 is good for nearly seven half hour shooting sessions, and high quality swaged balls are cheap enough. But cast balls, particularly from LEE round ball moulds have provided me with excellent shooting in revolvers and pistols where swaged balls weren't available, and I would expect them to perform just as well as swaged balls in a target pistol.