Modern Fowler Barrel Wall Thickness Question

[frogwalking]

I bought some heavy wool felt at the cloth store.  Laid a piece of it on a board and covered it with Dixie old zip patch lube, rolling the excess out with a piece of large dowel. I cut the wads out with a 5/8 inch punch.  I load one under the over powder card wad, then shot, then overshot wad.  This is used in a Chambers 20 gauge and it shoots better than one would expect for no choke, and the old zip makes it easy to reload, over and over all day.  The card wads fit so tight I nick the overshot wad with a fingernail to let the air out as I ram it home.  Without some kind of lube to keep the fowling soft, it will get only two shots before it must be cleaned.

[Ray-Vigo]

I shot the fowler for the first time this weekend. The barrel handled ball just fine. The accuracy was relatively consistent. The gun is very light but the recoil is modest and it's pretty comfortable to shoot. It shot relatively well at 65 grains of FFG and a .595 ball with a .015 patch over a medium thickness cardboard wad.

I tried birdshot as well. The cushion wad over powder approach failed pretty miserably. The wads generated a doughnut pattern. It patterned much better with a cardboard wad over the powder and another cardboard wad over the shot. I used 7 1/2 and 8 birdshot, which is pretty small but what I would be using for trap shooting with it. I did the patterning at 25 yards, which went alright.