Choke Bored Smoothie

[Pete G.]

I am contemplating a fowler and noticed that Colerain offers a choked bore, obvoiusly for shot only, so I got to wondering why a guy with a closet full of rifles would ever need a cylinder bore. Anybody had experience with one of these? How about buckshot? Could I just use a cylinder bore and just dump in more shot to get a denser pattern?

I'm looking for a little insight, since I have zero experience with these things.
 I wish that global warming stuff would kick in a little so I can quit sitting by the fire and thinking of new projects.

[P.Bigham]

 I have heard that a Jug choked smoothbore will shoot shot in a tighter pattern than a cylinder bore and is capable of still shooting a round ball with good accuracy.  I am sure someone else with more experience will give you there thoughts.  Liked the one on the  Democrats  I will have to remember that.

[roundball]

"...a cylinder bore. Anybody had experience with one of these? How about buckshot? Could I just use a cylinder bore and just dump in more shot to get a denser pattern?..."

I've really gotten a lot of enjoyment out of .54cal/.28ga  and  .62cal/.20ga GM Flint smoothbore barrels...doves, squirrels, crows, turkeys, and some clay targets.

I use the old rule of thumb "little powder, more lead, shoots far, kills dead" and its worked well for me.   As an example, in my GM .28ga, I use 70grns Goex 3F and 100grns #5's...bagged 2 squirrels at 30 yards off the same beech tree one afternoon.  (No modern shot cups with any of these)

So yes, cylinder bore guns are great, and to be honest an awful lot of small game is taken in the 18-25 yard range, pretty well covered by a cylinder bore.
A tiny skeet target crosses at 21 yards and 60grns 3F with 70grns hard #9's does fine.

And with a .62cal I had jug choked 'Full', a made a couple of head shots on toms out at 40 & 30yds respectively...so when the rifles start to get boring, a smoothbore opens up a whole 'nuther world to experiment with

[octagon]

Roundball ,is .62 a 20 gauge? I want a TVM Fowler after my Early Virgina

[roundball]

Yes, .62cal/.20ga...I have a work order in at TVM to have a smoothbore built as a twin to the .58cal Virginia...bought a Rice smoothbore barrel and sent it to Caywood first to Jug Choke in it 'Full'...(they claim their Jug Choke has no negative affect on PRB accuracy)

[woodsrunner]

I concur with Roundball fully. I have a 16ga/.65cal New England Fowler, 51 inch Ed Rayl barrel made by David Dodds and jug choked 30 thousandts by....ah heck. What's his name. Lives out in Iowa or Nebraska. Anyway.....it will consistantly put 15-20 #6 shot in a turkey head target at 40 yards, and put 5 round balls out of 5 in a 4 inch circle at 50 yards. I will not shoot squirrels closer than 25-28 yards, however, and even at this range it messess 'em up pretty bad!

[Lucky R A]

Pete,  I had one of the Colerain "Turkey Choked" barrels.  From what I understand the design was the brain child of Keith Casteel a very competent builder.  The barrel is constricted from 62 cal to basically 58 cal.  It seemed like a great idea, until you try to figure out how load and keep a load tight against the breech.  I was never able to discover/learn of a loading technique that would allow the wadding to securely swell enough to hold the load in place after passing through the very constricted muzzle.   I ended up removing all the choke but about .005 and it worked like a charm.   It shot nice 30 yard shot patterns, and did right well with a patched ball.   If I were you I would stick with a cylinder bore barrel and if you feel the need for tighter shot patterns, go with a jug choke.   

[northmn]

I built a 12bore out of a modern shotgun barrel and releived the choke to about .005 or so.  The skeet choke was developed not because they needed a tighter pattern than a cylinder bore but because it was felt that a little constriction eliminated the donut hole pattern sometimes seen with a cylinder bore by holding back the wads.  The full choke was too tight to load.  As to jug chokes, there is some indication that they may work for roundball, but not as well as a cylinder.  Cylinder bores work very well and I have killed game with them.  A flintlock smoothbore takes a lot of practice for wing shooting, but gives me a good excuse to pot shoot.  Some get to liking the smoothbores very well as fowlers are very nice to carry as compared to rifles and are accurate enough with round ball to be useable at closer ranges.  My 12 bore weighs in at maye 6.5 pounds and is a joy to carry.  I could shoot it with roundball but it would hurt.  Other fowlers I had used included a 20 gauge and a 12 bore I built.  If ball molds were more available, as in Lee's, I would build a 16 ga as that is a beautiful all around fowler.  The ball is heavy enough to get big games attention and it will handle shot better than a smaller bore, but to be honest, a 20 bore will do about anything I use one for or a 12 bore should I decide to try for ducks.  Depending on your uses, smoothies are fun.  Get a very good lock to go with it.

DP

[roundball]

I was never able to discover/learn of a loading technique that would allow the wadding to securely swell enough to hold the load in place after passing through the very constricted muzzle.

Oxyoke prelubed wool wads turned sideways and slid in edge first, then flipped back horizontal work well...if you shoot a lot and are not independently wealthy, making / lubing your own using real felt from DuroFelt is a good option

[northmn]

I was never able to discover/learn of a loading technique that would allow the wadding to securely swell enough to hold the load in place after passing through the very constricted muzzle.

Oxyoke prelubed wool wads turned sideways and slid in edge first, then flipped back horizontal work well...if you shoot a lot and are not independently wealthy, making / lubing your own using real felt from DuroFelt is a good option

I have done that but a very constricted full choke is still a PITA to load with most wads.  A good arguement for a jug choke in a ML.  Full chokes on a fowler are good for turkeys but are limited for any use I would have for them.  You can learn to "edge" patterns to reduce saturation on shooting rabbits and squirrel.  A wider pattern does not hurt shooting flying.

DP

[roundball]

I agree a Jug Choke is excellent and is my preferred way to go...the .62cal smoothbore Virginia being built will be my 3rd such barrel.


I also noticed something during pattern testing for the best turkey load in a 'Full' Jug Choked GM barrel...while manipulating wad configurations I saw that it was possible to get less dense patterns closer to a 'modified choke' result, but still short of blowing a doughnut hole in the pattern.

Plus, as you know, smaller volume shot charges and/or larger size shot pellets will thin out a pattern of course...so at least with that GM smoothbore barrel there was lattitude for general purpose use with thinner patterns other than just dense patterns for small targets like turkey heads and squirrels.

I hope the Caywood 'Full' Jug Choke responds the same way...but if not I have a couple of .28ga cylinder bores, and a .20ga Jug Choked Imp. Cyl. PLUS and the three of them provide a lot of flexibility...my bigger concern is that the only flying game I have access to are doves and crows...no gouse or pheasants and where I can hunt, I don't think I've kicked up a rabbit in 4-5 years.

[Pete G.]

[/quote]
I use the old rule of thumb "little powder, more lead, shoots far, kills dead" and its worked well for me.   As an example, in my GM .28ga, I use 70grns Goex 3F and 100grns #5's...
[/quote]

100grs #5 is less than 1/4 oz. Did you mean maybe 400 ?

[roundball]

70grn setting on the powder measure for the powder charge
100grn setting on the powder measure for the shot charge