doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Any experience with "punkin balls"?

Anybody have any experience with shooting single ball loads in doubles? (I got interested in this thru reading old Ithaca double ads on the http://www.diamondgunsmithing.com site.).

Apparently this was a common loading back in the day (before even my time--never saw a factory shell loaded this way, except in collections). Assuming that this requires a nearly chokeless bore, I have two candidates; a 60s-vintage 12 bore Valmet O/U with the bottom barrel cylinder bore, and my great grandfather's Rem 1889 "short 10" which has the left barrel marked "CHOKE" (about improved modified) and the right marked "BALL" (no choke at all). These don't appear to be factory markings. Barrels are 32" fluid steel and there is a tiny dovetail/notch sight neatly let into the rib, and a little Sheard bead up front.

I know that one can buy roundball molds in various diameters and that the ball should probably be nearly pure lead. Anybody tried these? On what? What results? Load/Wad?

Always thinking retrowards!

Mike,

I have never used a round ball in a shotgun. I used to shoot a .50 cal hawkins using a patched ball. I would hazard a guess that with out rifling, you will loose accuracy rather quickly, but I could be wrong. Wasn't that known as a smooth bore musket?

BP has these:
.715 ball
http://shop2.mailordercentral.com/bpicart/prodinfo.asp?
number=0377150
.690 ball
http://shop2.mailordercentral.com/bpicart/prodinfo.asp?number=0376900
.690 mold
http://shop2.mailordercentral.com/bpicart/prodinfo.asp?number=1245690
AQ round ball
http://shop2.mailordercentral.com/bpicart/prodinfo.asp?number=0151000
Round ball slug brochure
http://shop2.mailordercentral.com/bpicart/prodinfo.asp?number=00BROUND


Pete

Thanks, Pete! I'll take a look.

I recall that at one time there were ML guns popular in some aprts of rural America that were known as "ball and shot" guns. They apparently were rifle-like but smoothbore and could be used for large game (with balls) and small (with shot). Knowing a little about country people (used to be one), I suspect that the shot usage was mainly potting stuff on the ground and flock shooting at pigeons, ducks, etc. so the rifle sights weren't much of a handicap in using shot.

But the "punkin balls" I'm talking about were once factory loaded in modern (paper) shotshells. Looks like the BP brochure will tell all!

Mike,
I just bought a couple packages of them last week. .715 and .735 for use in a couple choked tens. Stout modern guns. Was looking to nestle them in a bit of cotton ball to semi patch them and try to keep them from rattlin down the bore.....we'll see what happens.

No particular objective in mind, just "because".

Best,
Mark

Geez! you guys must be a bunch of youngsters! We used "Punkin Balls"for deer in Pa. and upstate NY when I was growing up, in 12 and 20 bore doubles. I think rifled slugs were available but "Punkin Balls" were a lot cheaper. They were wildly inaccurate past about the muzzle, as I remember. I was shooting them out of a Parker , F/M chokes. I remember buying a box of 25, shooting them all and coming home meatless....

I have a .690 and a .715 round ball mold for 12ga. I used to shoot my 12ga tradegun with out a patch- just used a nitro card between the powder and ball and a overshot card to hold the ball in. A tradegun is a smoothbore flintlock without a rear sight. It would shoot about a 3" group at 25 yards. Now I shoot it with a patch and get better groups- but in answer to your question I would think each gun would be different and played with to get the best group. I have never tried it with my SxS , but now that it's been brought up maybe I will. Paul

Punkin balls can work but there is great variation gun to gun. Most you could expect of them was to get a hit on a deer at 50yds or less. Part of the problem was lack of sights on the shotguns. I killed one deer with them as a kid out of my single shot "Ivory Johnson" 16ga. Range was about 20 yds. The projectile is quite effective if it makes contact. I would think accuracy might marginally improve using a plastic wad which tightened up the load in the bore but still pass on shots longer than 50yds.

I have shot .715 round balls in my double barrel twelve gauge cyl cyl bore shotgun at 50 yards (yes) I got grapefruit accuracy which is not that bad. Handload. Fiochi hulls, I will have to look up the powder but it was about 36-38 grains. I simply cut the legs off a spent shot cup and put in in upside down so it "held" the ball and it follows it, keeping it centered as it shoots up the barrel. So, from the bottom the arrangement was--- primer, powder, reversed shot cup, punkin ball and plastic overshot card.

Since then I took the advice of a round ball shooter from canada and had a high quality round ball mold made up for me from a guy named Tanner. (England) .724 to match my cyl cyl measurements. He said get a quality round punkin ball MOLD made up to match your bores and you will get an accurate and extremely deadly load. He said wheel weights are better than pure lead... I think he has a good point. I would want them a bit harder than soft lead for better penetration.

I haven't shot any yet but intend to get even better accuracy from these .724 compared to the .715's... and yes with experimenting I am told and I believe I will get great groups with punkin balls from my double barrel smooth bore 12 gauge shotgun...(afterall the .715's weren't bad)

Punkin Balls can be very deadly accurate even at 50-60 yards with iron sites out of a smoothie.

In reading about smooth bore muzzle loader performance, I learned that a patched round ball has a corkscrew trajectory. The pumpkin ball, I would think, would also have this corkscrew trajectory.

Mine didn't corkscrew. And I would sure hate to be on the receiving end.

Most iron site shooting should be done at 50 yards anyway so I am all good with using my double with punkin balls at 50 yards or less. The deer I got the other day in NY was about 42 yards. One shot, and it was a bit further than most of the deer I have seen while hunting. Punkin Balls from doubles can be ddddd-double deadly!