The original question, or a close variation, actually wasn't answerable with certainty by the firearms curator and historian of a very large and famous museum. Granted they are a bit more cautious in their answers. It has actually kicked off a bit of research on their part. The variations in ball sizes for a small group of individuals traveling together could be fairly high. The question not only has implications for the frontiersman/trapper of the time but the proprietor of the trading goods store as well. What size of balls would you carry for purchase, did they sell it buy the lb by the count, etc.

The issue is a bit more complex when you consider you may be gone for a year or more before being able to re-provision. If you were going to just be hunting for a few days and return back to the homestead it would be a bit different pack then an extended trek.

I'm looking forward to hearing the results from the curator. And yep they thought it was a "unique", (they didn't say weird out loud), question as well.