Shooting ole sparkie.

[Ironramrod]

I always suspected rd. balls expanded to make a tight fit in the barrel, when the rifle is fired. The big pure lead conical bullets (e.g. T/C maxi-balls) certainly do expand, because the base 2 bearing bands are heavily engraved by the rifling at recovery. They are lightly engraved at loading (pulled bullets), because they are just slightly over bore size. Also, the big conicals always performed the best on paper w/ heavier loads, and didn't shoot well at all w/ lighter loads. For me the heavier loads that perform well for hunting also perform the best for target work. They do knock one around a bit more, but the results are worth the effort, too.

Regards
IR