Brown Bess– First Chance to Play with My Balls
Today is looking like the first really good day in a while. The snow is almost completely gone. It’s heading towards the low 60s today. I had reasons not to go to the farm, but I did have time to get my two new molds out and cast balls for the Brown Bess Musket.
The first mold is a .735 brass mold I got from Dixie Gun Works. This produces a tight fit with the thinnest patching, and I’m figuring that this will produce the most accurate loads. The other just arrived in the mail this morning: a Lee Precision .69 aluminum round ball mold. I am going to try my hand at making my own cartridges, and the .69 ball is able to produce a decent group when shooting multiple reloads without spit-patching between rounds. I really don’t expect to be doing much volley fire with my ‘Bess, but you never know. You can buy balls from places like Track of the Wolf, but I already have a significant collection of molds for black powder, rifle, and pistol, so adding a couple of more was not a big deal. If you are figuring on getting a ‘Bess, be careful to line up your molds ahead of time. There is not a whole lot of demand for them. In fact, this whole Brown Bess project has been one big scavenger hunt. I’m still waiting on sling swivels that are back-ordered 6 weeks. I guess I shouldn’t complain when you figure the Brown Bess stopped being used by the British after the Napoleonic era. It’s kind of amazing really when you think about all the bits and pieces still being made and still available in somebody’s catalog.
I used straight pure lead and cast up a good dozen of each, dropping into water. It took a good long time to get the brass mold up to temperature and I managed to cast a bunch of crenelated monstrosities before it settled down. The aluminum mold came right up to temp. I don’t claim any of them as best of class, but they’ll do for testing the Bess for basic function.
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If the apocalypse comes and you find cause for using a volley with your Brown Bess (making use of . 69 balls) might I suggest you taking advantage of some of your more purpose suited firearms? Keep up the reports and please let us know if you find a faster way to get your brass to temp for small batch work.
Oh, I’m not shelving the 30-06s yet. I just figured this might add a little spice to things.
The brass mold presented a stiff challenge, but I finally got the hang of it. My Lee furnace can be adjusted to do a slow drip (less than 1/sec) I just put the mold under the drip and let it roll down the round sides into the ingot mold. That brought it to temp in less than a minute.