Patch or Cards

[iloco]

When shooting round ball in your smooth bore do you use patch or cards.  I am fairly new to smooth bores so curious what you use.

[smokinbuck]

Patches.

[wattlebuster]

I use patch just like a rifle

[Kermit]

Me too.

[George Sutton]

Patch cut at the muzzle.

Centershot

[Dan'l 1946]

Patch. And just like a rifle, you have to find the combination the gun likes.

[Hungry Horse]

 The best accuracy I ever got out of my home grown trade gun, was with a patched round ball on top of a nitro card and a 1"long cushion wad. I used this for years, until I ran out of the old 1" cushion wads I had gotten at a yard sale, I couldn't find any more like them, and never got the load to work with any other combination. These wads, were hard as rocks, from age. I think they protected the patch and ball from escaping gasses, that might put a spin on the ball.

                    Hungry Horse

[Kermit]

One inch long? Wow! Some cushion.

[Daryl]

pre-cut patches

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Like Daryl:  pre-cut patches.  I use cards and wads in the same gun with bird or buck, but for ball, it's patches (and tight!)

[Tony N]

I use a tight patch, and get pretty decent groupings out to about 50yds. I had a rear site added a few years back and for me it made a world of difference.

~Tony

[Maven]

iloco, I was at a woods walk yesterday with a shooter using a patched RB for his 20 ga. smoothie (had a rear sight).  He hit many of the targets, but he also used a larger dia. RB (.610" v. .~600 wi. patch) with OP & OS wads.  With the larger ball & wads, I watched him hit a target 100 yd. out.  Btw, my trade gun  (no rear sight) does pretty well with a patched RB with some kind of OP wad (lubed felt or cardboard) over the powder charge, but not so well with a naked ball and wads.

[Daryl]

Paul - we used to have a steel silhouette shoot at Hefley Creek - shooting 2 1/2" diameter steel pins at 25 yards, then the chickens, pigs, turkey's spread out at various ranges out to about 110yards or so.

It is quite interesting, that year after year, the best smoothbore scores rivaled those of the best rifle scores.  The smoothbore shooters, 2 primarily come to mind, used patched round balls and were incredibly steady shots - their follow through showed no movement.  If they had a flash in the pan or straight miss-fire there was NEVER any movement - steady and solid as a rock. The point of this post being, a great shot with a smoothbore can be competitive with average shots with a rifle - out to 110yards, at least.
I have see those two guys ring steel gongs with their 20 bore smoothbores at ranges most rifle shooters missed.  $#@*-house Luck? - possibly, but they do it so @!*% often.

[Maven]

"With the larger ball & wads, I watched him hit a target 100 yd. out."

Daryl, That particular shooter always uses a smoothbore, and always one with a rear sight.  Needless to say, he is a very good shot.  In fact, I'm seriously considering using my 20 ga. GRF trade gun (Barnett replica) for the woods walk in December. albeit with an OP card or felt wad and patched .597" RB.  If nothing else, it will be an opportunity for me to learn how to handle  the gun. It should be great fun as well.