Round ball in shotgun--.690 or .730?

[6thMichCav]

With slugs going for $5 a box, I'm thinking about getting a round ball mould and reloading some slugs for deer and target practice.

Does anyone have actual experience shooting round ball reloads in a 12-gauge? If so, did you use the .690 inside the shotcup, or .730 with the petals cut off? How was accuracy?

[Ruger4570]

Some time ago I loaded up some .690 balls just for gits and shiggles..Actually, they weren't all that bad out to maybe 50 yards and would certainly bring down a deer. I no longer have the groups but my recolection was they ran around 6 inches +/-. I remember trying a few shots at a target out to 100 yards and I think I hit a 2 foot square paper 1 time out of 5 shots. Pretty dismal performance much past 50 yards.
These were shot out of my Model 37 Ithaca Deerslayer, which supposeddly has a very uniform diameter barrel fron breech to muzzle.

[.45 COLT]

I've loaded .690" balls a lot of different ways, both with shotcups intact and with petals removed. Blue Dot was always the powder I liked, but I just loaded up a bunch with Herco and WT12 wads. Haven't tried them yet. Depending on the load and the gun, accuracy has ranged from very good to terrible. I just keep playing with them until I get one that works, then play some more.

If you're going to buy a mold, another one you might consider is LEE's one ounce slug mold. Again, depending on gun and load, very good to terrible. I had one of their 7/8 ounce molds, never did get anything approaching acceptable with those.

DC

[mikenbarb]

We used to shoot pupmkin balls and their just like shooting a BB gun(with more kick). They curve all over the place and cant hit anything with em. And alot of states outlawed pumpkin balls or any type of round shotgun ball for hunting.