24ga Trade Gun ball size?

[HardBall]

Do you guys shooting smoothies have better luck with an undersized ball and thicker patching or a ball closer to bore size and thin patching?

For a 24-bore would some .535" balls wrapped in thicker patching, like cotton duck or denim, work ok?  Or should I stay in the .550", .562" or .570" range?

Right now, I'd like to use swaged balls if possible which means .535 or .570  Anyone had luck with those diameters?

[smylee grouch]

Hard Ball., its not a 24 but 20 and I had good groups with 575s and 20/1000 ticking and a thin flannel cleaning patch under the ticking. One large sized ragged hole at 25 yds and alot less than min. of deer at 50. 75 gr. 2f swiss

[Dphariss]

The "1/2 ounce ball" was the typical trade ball for the 24 ga trade gun this is about .530-.535.
I would expect these to work well with a ticking or medium heavy denim patch.
Smooth bores require a significantly smaller bore for a given bore size than a rifle would.
Dan

[Hungry Horse]

I shoot a .562 in mine and like it a lot.

           Hungry Horse

[NAF#123]

I have a 28 ga so the barrel is .550 and I use .535 hand cast balls with .018 pillow ticking. That has worked out real well for me.

[Jim Hart]

24ga is .58 cal - the ball size supplied by the HBC was .550 cal. or 28ga.  These sizes were not dead on - after all it was, and is just a matter of windage.

[HardBall]

Thanks for the responses. 

It looks like the swaged balls of .535" and .570" will require patching at the extreme ends of thin and thick with .550" and .562" working well with more common patching in the .015" to .020" range.

[Vomitus]

   Go with the .562. .022 patch.