Traditional Muzzleloading on the Cheap

General Information => General Muzzleloading => Topic started by: Ironwood on August 17, 2008, 01:46:22 PM

Title: The age old question, spur up or spur down?
Post by: Ironwood on August 17, 2008, 01:46:22 PM
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v68/Ironwood/For%20BB%20Posting/SpurUp-SpurDown.jpg)

Ok you folks that shoot cast patched roundballs.  Do you like to have the spur up or down?  I cast the Lee roundballs.  I'm not sure it make that much difference with those.  I still try to always turn the spur up.  What do y'all prefer? 
Title: Re: The age old question, spur up or spur down?
Post by: Mr Woodchuck on August 17, 2008, 02:05:37 PM
upp facin ya as ya load ... that way ya know it be center ... hurd it makes no difference but to me it does,
  do not know why   just because
lol
Title: Re: The age old question, spur up or spur down?
Post by: bwhoffman on August 17, 2008, 02:24:56 PM
With my Lee molds, it makes no never mind to me. But now with my lyman molds, its sprue up.

Title: Re: The age old question, spur up or spur down?
Post by: bull frog on August 17, 2008, 03:04:17 PM
I always put sprue up, "why", don't know.  I can't say I really noticed the difference either way.  Always been told to do it that way so I do it......Bullfrog
Title: Re: The age old question, spur up or spur down?
Post by: tom-h on August 17, 2008, 03:33:42 PM
same with me i go sprue up  .
Title: Re: The age old question, spur up or spur down?
Post by: FrankG on August 17, 2008, 04:06:50 PM
Sprue up so I kin see it  ;D
Title: Re: The age old question, spur up or spur down?
Post by: fd-ems-emt on August 17, 2008, 04:29:27 PM
Up !!
Title: Re: The age old question, spur up or spur down?
Post by: little jim on August 17, 2008, 04:32:21 PM
SPUR UP ! And here's why. If you cut some of your own or bought cast balls in half, I'll venture to say you'll find holes(voids or vacuum spaces) in most of them. The voids are always perpendicular to the earth and located somewhere between the center and the upper part of the ball. The balls pictured below are from a bottom cast furnace. You can tell because of the position of the void. On a ladle cast ball you'll have the mold canted to facilitate runoff of the molten lead, hence the the void(if any) will be at an angle. By loading spur up you'll have a more constant ball rotation, as the gyroscopic center will be more constant from one ball to the other. This is nitpicking, but can and will make a slight difference..
At a later date I'll how post to cast 95-99% void free balls.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v502/sniper68/voids.jpg)(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v502/sniper68/cutting.jpg)
Title: Re: The age old question, spur up or spur down?
Post by: Ironwood on August 17, 2008, 10:06:19 PM
Lil Jim...... Looking forward to that "how to". 
Title: Re: The age old question, spur up or spur down?
Post by: bull frog on August 17, 2008, 10:59:24 PM
Well that was interesting, never would have thought of that.  But then, never would have thought to cut my round balls in half either.  Anyway, looking forward to the next post.................Bullfrog
Title: Re: The age old question, spur up or spur down?
Post by: fd-ems-emt on August 18, 2008, 12:01:16 AM
Interesting !!!!
Title: Re: The age old question, spur up or spur down?
Post by: Chaffa Hosa on August 18, 2008, 12:41:20 AM
I vibrate my balls and load them just however they lay on the patch
Title: Re: The age old question, spur up or spur down?
Post by: Lady of the Woods on August 18, 2008, 02:59:56 AM
sprue up fer me, never had a real reason before but do now...thanks little jim, 'preciate the info!
z
Title: Re: The age old question, spur up or spur down?
Post by: Da Backwoodsman on August 19, 2008, 01:08:28 AM
sprue up for me... ol timer told me if the sprue got in the rifling it could throw your shot off
Title: Re: The age old question, spur up or spur down?
Post by: little jim on August 19, 2008, 01:42:52 AM
Quote from: Da Backwoodsman on August 19, 2008, 01:08:28 AM
ol timer told me if the sprue got in the rifling it could throw your shot off
Of course that ain't true. But he knew something was askew and that was a his rational assumption. When you tumble the spurs off, the bigger voids will show thru as a dimple. The ones you see here probably won't show. You can see that if you align the voids at different positions the gyroscopic centers will be quite different...
Title: Re: The age old question, spur up or spur down?
Post by: Da Backwoodsman on August 19, 2008, 01:57:32 AM
little jim iffn you sy gyroscopic one more time i have to ask you to define the word
Title: Re: The age old question, spur up or spur down?
Post by: little jim on August 19, 2008, 02:03:05 AM
Don't do that !!!! ??? :o
Title: Re: The age old question, spur up or spur down?
Post by: Da Backwoodsman on August 19, 2008, 02:09:16 AM
well you best not be using dem 6 bit word a round here got me a strong hankering for knowledge and when my interest is peaked i tend to enquire!
Title: Re: The age old question, spur up or spur down?
Post by: Ironwood on August 19, 2008, 02:11:03 AM
Backwoodsman...... You are wading into some mighty deep waters asking to have gyroscopic explained.   ;D
Title: Re: The age old question, spur up or spur down?
Post by: Da Backwoodsman on August 19, 2008, 02:22:52 AM
imma leave it alone iron wood
Title: Re: The age old question, spur up or spur down?
Post by: Ironwood on August 19, 2008, 02:34:38 AM
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v68/Ironwood/Emotes/rotf.gif)
Title: Re: The age old question, spur up or spur down?
Post by: Chaffa Hosa on August 20, 2008, 09:31:35 PM
gyroscopic = one of them doctor peoples that doctors on womens, right?
Title: Re: The age old question, spur up or spur down?
Post by: Hawg Haggen on August 23, 2008, 04:47:58 AM
Quote from: jbullard1 on August 18, 2008, 12:41:20 AM
I vibrate my balls

That sounds kinda kinky. Don't think I'd have admitted it either. ;D  Sprue up.