Mike:

Did you put a nitro card wad under the ball? If not that is the likely answer. A nitro card wad or two and a scoop of COW under the ball makes a world of difference.

When I first loaded round balls, all I had was 0.690" which was too big for any shotcups I could find so I cut petals off to just under the equator of the ball then shot. Accuracy was not good and recovered wads were all distorted. Without support under the ball, they were wrapping around the curved surface and the gas seal was blowing.

By adding nitro card wads that supported the bottom of the shotcup and stopped wad destruction. I never did get accuracy with the 0.690" balls though but that is another story.

I also found that with some loads, gas seals blew at the edge and in some cases wads really suffered from what I think was high pressure. Even with no sticky extraction (which is an over pressure sign to be aware of) I think the faster powders may be too hard on some wads. I use mostly Blue Dot and IMR4756 which are both pretty slow powders.

Unique should be a better choice than Red Dot but as long as pressure with Red Dot is okay then wads shouldn't self destruct. You might try a lighter charge too.

Did you get sticky extraction? Did the metal head swage into the extractor groove? Take a look here:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...ltraSLug/page4

Post $65 ~ If the head of the hull looks like that you have too much pressure.

Give that a try and see what happens.

Longbow