# Your Preferred Projectile Mass



## ZDP-189 (Mar 14, 2010)

*Projectile Mass*​
*How heavy is your preferred shot (check one or more)*

Under 1g (15gr.)33.75%1g to under 1.6g (25gr.)22.50%1.6g to under 2.4g (37gr.)11.25%2.4g to under 3.8g (59gr.)1012.50%3.8g to under 6.0g (93gr.)1012.50%6.0g to under 9.3g (144gr.)2531.25%9.3g to under 15g (231gr.)1113.75%15g to under 22g (340gr.)78.75%22g to under 35g (540gr.)45.00%35g to under 55g (850gr.)33.75%55g and over45.00%


----------



## ZDP-189 (Mar 14, 2010)

*The Poll*

It seems a lot of people are considering either casting their own lead balls and several Site Vendors might be selling or about to sell them. It would be useful for them to know the most popular sizes for slingshot shooting so they can buy the right sized bullet moulds or source the correct sized steel ball. Rather than do multiple polls in different materials, the common factor is mass or weight. Please select as many categories as you might want to buy off a Site Vendor or make for yourself.

Below is a useful conversion table to accompany the poll. Metric numbers are in green and imperial numbers are in blue.










So for example 1gram, or 15 grains is equivalent to a .22 lead roundball. Other than that, I wanted popular sizes to fall comfortably in the middle of brackets, as muzzleloading bullet moulds have precise but varying definitions of size. For example .45 roundball may mean .45, .454, or .457. Why have I used a geometric progression? If I just kept increasing by a gram each step, smaller sizes would not have the required resolution and larger balls would be separated by meaninglessly small steps. Here, each step represents a drop of about 20% in velocity compared to the preceding number (ignoring the mass of the bandset).

*Survey of Popular Mould Sizes*

I also did some internet window shopping to determine what roundball mould sizes were available.










a Hornady Roundball
b Lee Single Mould
c Lee Double Mould
d Lee Mould of unknown number of chambers
e Lyman Mould
f Popular Muzzleloader (from a magazine article)
g TallMan Mould
h Peterdyson Retailer of Moulds
i CapNBall Retailer of Moulds
j Powderhombre Retailer of Moulds
k Air Gun Calibre
l Buckshot Bullet

Note that Bells of Hythe sells 16mm (.63") multi-chamber moulds and Milbro Pro-Shot sells .44 cal (11.2mm) multi-chamber moulds.

Please note that just because there are lots of moulds available from certain calibres of roundball doesn't indicate their superiority for muzzleloading, let alone for slingshot shooting. This thread isn't about technical issues or about convincing shooters to use one size vs another, it's about what moulds are available and the market for steel or lead shot among slingshot shooters, so let's not get into any meaningless debates about .44 lead vs .50 steel, please.


----------



## Darb (Sep 14, 2010)

Currently 3/8 & 1/2" steel for me, former more than the latter.


----------



## bunnybuster (Dec 26, 2009)

I like .375 lead or steel.
The steel is a bit faster, but the lead packs a bigger punch.
With the 1/2 inch rubber flatbands.... (steel)the speed is averaging 194 Fps.
The .375 lead avge. 174 Fps.
For comparison..the trumark S-9 averages 136 Fps. with steel and 129 Fps. with lead.
Either one is quite capable of taking small game at reasonable yardage.


----------



## Tex-Shooter (Dec 17, 2009)

Great research! -- Tex


----------



## Dayhiker (Mar 13, 2010)

I have .45 cal lead molds for hunting. I think it shoots best with Bill Herriman's field bands which I like. But for target shooting I like either 3/8 or 7/16 steel and I mostly shoot with chinese tubes nowadays.


----------



## orcrender (Sep 11, 2010)

So far I am shooting BBs, 1/4 steel bearings, 3/8 steel bearings and 1/2 marbles. I have tried .50 cal and .62 cal lead balls as I have those on hand and they shot well.


----------



## Darb (Sep 14, 2010)

I see the beginnings of a bell curve centered around a mean/median of 6.0-9.3gr, which is pretty much what I was expecting. I am slightly surprised to see some heavier shot than I was expecting.


----------



## ARB (Dec 31, 2009)

I voted for the heaviest 3 categories. But based on the rubber and draw weights that most people use I don't think there is much of a market out there for really big balls (over 55 grams) However I believe balls in the 22-55 gram range would be useful even if people generally tend to use lighter balls than that.

PS Jeff Tanner will make you a custom mould any size you want and ship it worldwide. I think the big companies like Lee only make moulds up to .75
http://www.jt-bullet...o.uk/moulds.htm


----------



## Tex-Shooter (Dec 17, 2009)

Here is a little chart that I worked up a few years back for weight comparisons of common ball sizes in the USA. Weights will vary a little from order to order and even from ball to ball. Notice how close the 1/2 inch steel and the 7/16 lead are. Actually a molded 44 caliper from my mold weighs the same as the 1/2 inch steel. -- Tex


----------



## Chugosh (Feb 9, 2010)

I got a jar of assorted marbles the other day. The real big ones are too heavy to be any good. The average ones and the slightly smaller ones are pretty good though. Lost about a third of them the first day, but had fun and even hit a couple times.


----------



## stelug (Feb 6, 2010)

As i have jet written here I shot mainly 8,6 (1o/1o zeroed) lead balls mainly because I can find them in 5 kilo's packages in reloading shops at a very convenient price (24 euros). Despect wat I read from other hunters I discovered those are not bad for small, medium, quarrys. The impact force is not brutal as with 44-50 lead but traiectory is quite straight and velocity is impressive. It happens often to me to pass a robin or a pigeon side by side. <but I bought a 44 cal lead sinker's mould (after one very grude I made mysslf), just in case a bunny crosses my street.


----------



## dgui (Jan 12, 2010)

Mine are still shaking.


----------



## philly (Jun 13, 2010)

3/8" steel Target, .44 and .45 caliber lead for hunting. Tex Express bands.


----------



## haertig (Jul 30, 2010)

I put "under 1gram" because I still shoot mostly Gobstoppers candy. It's the only readily available biogdegradeable ammo around here, plus you can snack on it while you're shooting!


----------



## smitty (Dec 17, 2009)

.375 lead or .500 steel for hunting and .375 steel for targets of all kinds.


----------



## dgui (Jan 12, 2010)

Right now I like pea gravel and rocks dont know about the mass or weight but they are affordable and they make a magnificient sound hitting cans.


----------



## Darb (Sep 14, 2010)

Darb said:


> Currently 3/8 & 1/2" steel for me, former more than the latter.


My shooting prefs have shifted since I posted that ... I've since gravitated towards the heavier end of the spectrum. Currently, I'm leaning towards 7/16" (.44 cal) and 1/2" (50 cal) steel.


----------



## brockfnsamson (Aug 25, 2010)

I love 1/2" steel but 3/4" provides awesome destruction with heavy bands.


----------

