Smooth bore questions

[MuskratMike]

In a few days my first smooth bore will be finished and on its way to me. It is a .54/28 gauge. I don't know if it will have a rear sight or not as I only give Don Bruton the wood choice, the caliber, and length of pull. The rest I leave to his imagination. I will shoot primarily patched round balls. If you have a .54 smooth bore here are my questions:
2f or 3f powder.
.520 patched balls or what?
What thickness of patch?
How much of what type of powder for both target and big game hunting?
Accuracy I should expect at 50 yards.

I know a lot of you shoot smooth bores but am looking for specific answers to these questions.
Of course I will post pictures of it when it is done.
"Muskrat" Mike

[WVrazd]

I use 40 gr. of 3F at 25 yards, 45 gr. of 3F at 50 yards for target shooting and 60 gr. of 3F for a deer hunting load. 60 gr. puts me 3" high at 25yd, still just a bit high at 50yd and dead on at 75yd. My 44" Colerain didn't group well with 2Fg. I shoot a 530 Hornady ball with 15 thousand ticking. I can shoot an 8" group at 50yards offhand and 4" off of a bench no sandbag.

[John SMOthermon]

There’s some Guys & Gals out there that can out shoot most rifle shooters with their smoothbore.

If you’re fortunate enough to get too make Friendship…
Hang around after the first weekend until Monday Tuesday…
On the Primitive side , some of them are still lurking….
And still shooting.
Sorry I have no info a a .54 smoothbore.
I shoot a 16 gauge 70 grns ffg Goex 16 th patched .626 roundball.
Unfortunately, I’m not one of the shooters I mentioned above…

[Jeff Murray]

I use 65 grains of 2F and an ounce of shot to train birds to dodge mid-flight.  The pattern with a conventional wad setup was pretty evenly distributed in all four quadrants when testing.  It also did the job on a 4 ft diamondback that I stepped on while quail hunting.   Used the same load with a 530 ball and .018 ticking for roundball.  Mine does not have a rear sight but does have a slight notch filed in the tang for reference.  Have fun.  It is a great gauge/caliber combo.

[bob in the woods]

I had a Chambers Penn. fowling gun in .54/28 smoothbore . It was a joy to shoot.
I originally built it for use in our Provincial Muzzleloader smoothbore matches, and it did not disappoint .  I used 60 gr 3F , 1/2 of a lubed cushion wad, a bare .530 ball, and a thin card wad.  I know that you will be mainly shooting round balls, but you should try some shot loads. With an ounce of shot [ mine liked #6 ] the 28 can compete with the bigger guns. Mine patterned beautifully.
A friend drooled over it everytime he saw it, and I foolishly sold it.

[martin9]

I also foolishly sold mine after I built my 20 gauge fowler. Will definitely build another. They certainly do punch above their weight class.

 Mine liked pretty much everything I put down it. I shot .520s patched for awhile but ultimately went with .530 bare ball over powder with an overshot card over the ball. The bare ball was easier to load and shot just as well.

 In the shot pattern pic that says 60 grains of #4 shot. I remember tweaking my shot load a lot trying to find a turkey load. I wound up with a load that put 11 #4 pellets in a small tuna can at 25 yards. It was a "magnum" load though...1&3/8 oz shot if I remember right. I saved the target with the load data but can't find it at the moment.

[Clark Badgett]

Forget the patched RB. Bare ball it with tow wadding.

[walt53]

I shoot 60 grns of 3 f with a 530 ball and 18 lubed patchin mine.Like others have suggested try some shot go for a rabbit or squirrel or a grouse ,you may enjoy it.walt

[Hungry Horse]

 I use 2F in all my smoothbore guns when shooting shot. It creates a lot less pressure, and doesn’t blow the pattern. I do use 3F when I’m shooting round balls in it. Oh, by the way its a 20 gauge and I don’t waste my time with a patch. I dump it all in, and cover it with a card, or some tow. Powder charges for bare ball are typically 1 1/2 time normal.

Hungry Horse

[hanshi]

Mine's a 20 ga and I use 3F, 60 to 70 grns and rarely use shot but the 60 grn charge and around an ounce, + or - of shot.  My shooting is 95% patched ball and accuracy is about as good at 50 yds as some rifles.

[Brokennock]

I usually don't use a patch. When I do both my smoothbores like patch/ball combos a lot looser than one would use with a rifle.
Normally I use a wad and ball sandwich of some type.
Powder, thin "overshot" card, lubed soft wad (felt or tow), .610 ball, thin overshot card. One gun doesn't like the thin cardboard under the ball, or any other stiff wad or card between ball and powder. Generally I load that one with a dry felt wad or 1"×2" strip of grocery bag paper folded to 1"×1", then a lubed tow wad, .610 ball, then overshot card to hold it in.
I've found accurate powder charges with these combos at or around, 65 grains 3f, 75 grains 2f, and 80/85 grains 3f, depending on which gun and which wad combo.
I am not willing to burn 100 to 150 grains of powder per shot just to not use a wad of some sort, and satisfy someone else's idea of what should be.
Oh, I generally get about 3 to 4 inch groups at 50 yards with these loads,,, anything larger than that gets rejected,,, and I don't have use for developing a load for further than that.... Funny how certain schools of thought tell us what they load and that we should too,,,, but don't tell us what their standard is for what makes that load good enough.

[Panzerschwein]

I use 2F in all my smoothbore guns when shooting shot. It creates a lot less pressure, and doesn’t blow the pattern. I do use 3F when I’m shooting round balls in it. Oh, by the way its a 20 gauge and I don’t waste my time with a patch. I dump it all in, and cover it with a card, or some tow. Powder charges for bare ball are typically 1 1/2 time normal.

Hungry Horse

What accuracy are you achieving with your bare balls and tow, H²?

[Hungry Horse]

 I rarely use tow, simply because it hard to get in California. I do use thin cards all the time. They are punched out of cereal box thickness cardboard and cut to the center on one side so they will come off the ball easily when they exit the bore. I usually hit within about five inches of my point of aim. This is a velocity game, the minute your velocity drops below the point of stability, the ball starts to wander.
 By the way I use the bare ball method because I bent my barrel to make it shoot center. Patching, and wads, generate pressure that over time will straighten the barrel to a degree. Bare ball doesn’t seem to create enough back pressure to do this. Since rebending my  barrel, and going to bare ball, I’ve had no trouble. My barrel is a new unused shotgun barrel from the 19th century, so a modern barrel may behave differently. Good Luck.

Hungry Horse

[Nessmuck]

50 yards ..Offhand ...62 cal

90 grains FF

Patched Round Ball

No rear sight

I could use more trigger time...but at 50 yards ..I can’t complain

[Dphariss]

In a few days my first smooth bore will be finished and on its way to me. It is a .54/28 gauge. I don't know if it will have a rear sight or not as I only give Don Bruton the wood choice, the caliber, and length of pull. The rest I leave to his imagination. I will shoot primarily patched round balls. If you have a .54 smooth bore here are my questions:
2f or 3f powder.
.520 patched balls or what?
What thickness of patch?
How much of what type of powder for both target and big game hunting?
Accuracy I should expect at 50 yards.

I know a lot of you shoot smooth bores but am looking for specific answers to these questions.
Of course I will post pictures of it when it is done.
"Muskrat" Mike

Just guessing, about 4.5” for 5 shots at 40-60 yards with a good rest.  50 cal smooth rifle.  It would throw 2-3 to a good group but there were always fliers.  I have other targets but these are typical. Larger balls with thinner patches shot worse.







And if the shooter shoots a 4” group 50 yards standing  then the group could  be 9” or if the “wobble” is right  the shot might be center. The law of compensating errors as a friend calls it. 

Heck modern slug shooting shotgun barrels are often rifled.

[hanshi]

Mine has a rear sight which kinda simplifies shooting.  I do not load ball as tight in the smoothbore as I do in rifles.  Usually patches from around .012" to .015" work best in mine with a .600" ball.  Bare ball loads can be quite accurate but prb most always group better.

[elkhart]

I have a North Star West 28 gauge. Shooting 65 grains of 3f, .520 ball, patch is .015.

Also likes a .530 ball, no patch over two felt wads on the powder, cardboard overshot to hold it all in.

I haven't tried it with shot yet.

Also found it does not group well off a rest for some reason. Off hand it groups very well.