Sprue UP or Sprue DOWN. That is the question.

If you are loading round balls and the balls are cast as opposed to swagged,  these balls will have a sprue sticking out.  This sprue is caused by pouring the lead into a bullet mold and cutting it off.  The question becomes is there a "best" way to place these rounds into the cylinder.

I have seen two answers, sprue up and sprue down.  Either one moves the sprue away from the cylinder walls.  The sprue down also presents a rounded surface for the pusher to seat against.  Sprue up presents the sprue against the face of the pusher.

Sprue up makes sure of the orientation of the sprue, but the rounded surface of the pusher does not have a uniform surface to push against.  One solution is to relieve the rod face to clear the sprue.  Using a drill larger that the size of the sprue, remove material from the center of the pusher.  Now the pusher will only press on the ball.

We would like to hear your comments on this issue