I made about 40 balls for the Brown Bess.  
My ladle is too small.  I sometimes had to pour twice and ended up with mould lines around the balls (eww, that sounds discusting!).
My pot is the Lee four pounder w/thermostat.  I like it because i rarely shoot more balls than that per outing.  I mould my extra lead into the bottom of (clean) beer cans, then rip off the can.  It makes nice cylindrical ingots.  They fit nicely into the pot and melt quickly.

That reminds me, i need to make some maxi-hunters for this season.  Better get busy...

Cool, I use an old big spoon my mother threw out years ago to make my ingots.  I always enjoy molding bullets for my muzzle loaders and cap'n ballers when the weather turns cool.  Maybe a month or so.

OK, i took two (2) Besses to the range yesterday.  I also took my friend George and his 16yo son, neither of whom had shot before.
I showed them a reliable load-chain and got them underway.  They were both giggling like fools in short order.  Of course so was i, what with the noise and smoke and smell.
The weather was sunny and hot.  Humid.  The fouling in the pan gave some trouble as it turned to mud but we preserveared.  And actually hit the target a few times.
At one point I accidentally sliced my thumb on one of the flints and bled for a while.  Not too bad,  though, it didn't stop us for a minute.  Just remember:  those flints, especially on the edges, are SHARP!
I also brought my Traditions Crockett .32 just in case the kid wanted to shoot something smaller, more reliable, or with better sights.  He is a natural!  He was knocking over bowling pins regularly-even with the smoothbore!  (Gotta' love reactive targets)

Lastly i let them both shoot a .22 S&W revolver i had in the car, to let them shoot a more modern gun.  Both were trepidatious but had fun once the novelty wore off.  In fact they shot up all my ammo quickly and asked if i had any more.

Some of the other guys were down there, with a variety of guns, and came over to talk and see what we were doing.  Introductions were made all around and George n' son got to meet some nice gun owners, and see a bunch of different guns up close.  The members made a good impression and showed that we were all just regular guys who like shootin'.


Two more converts, folks.

Sweet . I have never met anyone who is not awed at BP guns .  Sometimes they'll only shoot a few shots then switch off to their "Hi Speed stuff" , but everyone is amazed .

I have a hard time running ball that big. I cast 12 gauge slugs which are roughly the same size as your Bess roundball. I find that a bottom pour pot helps somewhat,as you can just keep pouring,and avoid the occasional two piece casts that occur when you can't reladle another spoonful into the mold fast enough. Are you using the Lee ladle or the big RCBS?

Neither.
Its a thing i got at the salvation army for a buck.  More like a big spoon.  Its all rusty and crapped up but i don't care.  except for the .75 caliber balls (.735) it works ok.  I usually just run a bunch of 44 or 49 RB before the season starts (whichever one i plan on using)
I was checking out my pot also.  it looks like the bottom of it is starting to rust.  When it becomes unusable I will replace it with a bottom-pourer.  
One day a friend of mine and I moulded a whole squat load of 9s, 38s, and 44s. We used his bottom-pourer pot.  I could not imagine triing to do that with a ladle.

I hear you. I started casting for .490 with a coleman camping stove, a beat up cast iron deep skillet and a cheap lee ladle. It worked fine untill I started casting for .38,.44 and .45 with 6 cavity gang molds.
As long as you're casting with a single or double cavity mold, I think the non-bottom pour is a lot less hassle. The rust is easy to scrub out for the most part.