Back to jug chokes and round balls

[billd]

Thank you for the many answers to my previous post.

What I learned from everyone is it all comes down to maybe, every barrel is different. It may shoot round balls, it may not.

I decided to lean a different way if I can afford it, so here's another question. Building strictly a fowler for hunting, I saw barrels available already choked the conventional way.  I could save money going this way, but wouldn't a full choked barrel be hard to get the wads down when loading? With a jug choke there is no constriction.  Am I correct in my thinking?

Performance wise, it sounded to me like everyone was happy with their jug choked barrels.

One more question, who do you trust to jug choke your barrel and about what does it cost?

Thanks,
Bill

[Daryl]

Billd - the wads squeeze down on the sides (entered on edge) then turn and flatten back out just fine in a normal choked gun.  I'd think you'd have better luck with a jugshoke, if you wanted to shoot ball, though.  You'd need a very thin patch to get the ball past the choke, then it would be too loose to fit the bore and fouling might be a problem.

One way around that, with a normal choked gun, is to use a card, then lubed fiber wad, then patched ball, then overshot wad to hold it there.  The patch is merely to help hold the ball in the middle of the larger bore section and to prevent it's migrating up the bore(along with the overshot wad).

[Dave Marsh]

I had two flint smoothbore barrels jug choked, $75 each, and they're outstanding.

Lowell Tennyson
209 E Lotte St.
Blue Grass IA. 52726
563-381-3711
Kb0ba@att.net

I had one done by Lowell and second Roundball's outstanding comment.  Ed Hamberg AKA Longknife on this site will do it as well.  I have dealt with him before and his work is outstanding as well.

[FL-Flintlock]

Bill,

Absolutely, every barrel is unique unto itself, some vary only slightly while others can vary more.  I don't care for messing with conventional constriction choked ML's, I've had a few over the years and while Daryl gives good advice on starting the wads sideways, I'd rather avoid the issue because most times I run pre-made paper cartridges and turning them sideways isn't an option.  If you're loose-loading at the muzzle, it's not a big deal.

If you do have a problem with PRB's running through a jug/tula choke, go to a bore-size ball or paper-patch the ball and load it between wads like Daryl describes.  In bores with conventional constriction chokes, the ball is normally under-sized by roughly 0.060-0.080" then loaded with a "concentrator" that is easily compressed (usually a wool felt slit wrap ring) allowing the ball to easily pass the constricted portion of the bore without creating excessive pressure rises.

[northmn]

I just built a shotgun using a modern full choked barrel and reamed out most of the choke as it was a PITA to load and it shot too tight for my uses anyway.  A 690 ball would not go down the bore sideways if the sprue interfered.  This was on a Lee mold.  I really doubt that you could get a decently patched ball down the bore.  A heavy patch on a pure lead ball would likely squeeze the ball slightly oval and then become loose beyond the choke.  It is now about IC or Skeet and works much better.  For shot you use thinner cards and do as Daryl stated by loading sideways and then straightening with the jag.  The Foster hollow base slug was developed to go through chokes and was not noted to work as well with a full choke but liked about a skeet 1.  Roundballs in shotshells were dropped in favor of the slug.  They did not even work in a breechloader.

DP

[Daryl]

With proper wadding, you can obtain 8" groups from a cylinder 12 bore double at 100 yards with BP loads - mine did.  Several friends over on nitroexpress.com are working with BP round ball loads for their old (and new) double guns, 20 through 10 bore.  Some are having better success than others - it's all in the wads & how they're used.  I used .684" WW balls in .725" bored, 24" tubes. The heavier the load, the better they shot-- to 7 drams.  That was a kicker in a 7 pound double. Taylor said it spun me around like a weather cock.  It did split the wrist, but the repair held.  Nice, powerful load. No reason the same type of loading wouldn't work in a cylinder or jug'd musket or fowler.  What is needed, is a wad that will centre the ball in the bore - the rest is in load development.  The original light 12 bore load was 110gr. fine powder. FUN, FUN, FUN.

[arcticap]

I saw barrels available already choked the conventional way.  I could save money going this way, but wouldn't a full choked barrel be hard to get the wads down when loading?

While it's not traditional, threading a barrel to accept removable choke tubes would provide extra versatility due to their interchangability and the wide range of constriction options that they provide.
And utilizing an extended choke tube would also make it much easier to unscrew & replace it for loading wads between shots.
Threading a barrel to accept choke tubes by itself isn't too expensive and the threaded portion can always be removed without losing much of the barrel length.
For instance Carlson's charges $145 plus shipping for one of their barrel threading packages which includes 3 extended choke tubes and 2 wrenches.

http://www.choketube.com/instal.html

[Gene Carrell]

Lowell has done two barrels  for me and they each perform exactly as requested. He is  quick too.

[arcticap]

I found that Caywood does jug choking.

http://www.caywoodguns.com/Jug%20Choking.htm