Rifle with smoothbore more accurate...?

[Roger Fisher]

I have a notion with no proof that a gun with rifle lines and grip but smooth bore is easier to shoot with accuracy than the trade gun with it's blockier lines and fit.

Or am I simply talking my self in to building one?

What say you out there with those pretty smoothies with the rifle lines???

I refer here to guns & rifles w/o rear sights.....And single triggers no setts!!

[Scott Bumpus]

I think it would depend on the person and which gun fit them better.  You can always shoot better with a better fitting gun.  I agree that most smooth rifles are shaped more to what we are used to shooting and probably would therefore let us shoot better.  thats just my ramblings

[Mike R]

probably a combo of 'rifle fit', stiffer barrel and rifle sights could make the smoothrifle more accurate. a gunsmith friend made up a .50 smoothrifle not long ago and first try with it beat all comers at a 'rifles only' shoot at a rondy [shooting variety targets].  He had not even sighted it in and guessed at a load--but he is an experienced shooter, smith, and ex-Marine sniper.

[northmn]

Two things that would make a smooth rifle more accurate.  Use of a rifle lock which is usually a little faster than the larger Trade gun type locks.  Fowlers often had finer locks however.  Another is the finer trigger pull.  Some original smooth rifles had DST's even.

DP

[George Sutton]

I have a .54 caliber smooth rifle made by Charlie Wallingford that shoots like a rifle. I can shoot it much better than either of my "smoothbores",  An old Centermark, and a Ken Netting fowler both are 20 ga.

The Wallingford gun has the profile of an early Southern style rifle with a large Chambers (Siler) lock, DST, Swamped octogon Getz barrel, with both front and rear sights.

I also have a "Woodbury school" smooth rifle by Butch Darrell .75 caliber that shoots very well also.

The rifle profile and sights along with the DST make a huge difference in accuracy.

Remember that fowlers and trade guns for the most part are 'point and shoot guns'

Centershot

[Daryl]

I made a .44 smoothrifle years ago, which is still being used by the second owner's son.  It made head shots on bunnies out to 50 yards, yet I've broken 10 for 10 from 16 yards on trap using a mere 1/2oz. 9's.  With a snug patch, that .44 made tea-cup sized groups at 60 yards off the bags.

[Don Getz]

Daryl.....I know you're a nice guy, and one heck of a good shot, BUT,  when you say you broke "10 for 10" on a 16 yard
trap range with 1/2 oz of 9's, I'm moving to Missouri and have become a "show me" man.   I have shot a lot of trap and
skeet in my lifetime, but what you are telling me is fantastic.   If you can truly do this, you are wasting your time up there
in the Yukon, you should be down here shooting for money.   Now, if you said you broke 10 straight at 16 yards, by placing those birds at 16 yards and shooting at them there, I would believe it......sorry................Don

[Daryl]

  Did that in about 1983 or 84, Don. I won that BP trap event, beating the double 12's and 10 bores. The closest to me was an 8/10.  No birds were smoked, of course, but all were broken into 2 or more pieces. I thought I had missed one, but was informed a chip came off.  yeah- it was pretty good shooting. 2" jug choke - about .008", lapped in.
I quit modern-stuff trap shooting in 1974 - too expensive for a cop - and took up prone and 3 position shooting as well as IPSC to go along with the BP rifle shooting. Too many hobbies.

[northmn]

S##t Happens.  I noticed you mentioned you did this once.  Depending upon the pattern characteristics, some patterns cluster to the center and if one is really on the shot charge may not mean as much.  When they cut down the International trap charge limit from 1 1/8 oz to about 1 oz because scores were so high, they were surprised to find that the one oz (28gram) load was giving even higher scores.  they now use the 24 gram or 7/8 oz load.  I cut back to 1 oz for sporting clays and had no difference in scores.  One of the most worthless loads is the 410 3 inch with 11/16 oz of shot.  good shooters have consistantly shown the 1/2 oz 2 1/2 inch to be as effective.  A 410 strings out terribly.  Also the use of finer shot is interesting.  There are a lot of #9 in a pattern.  While they do not break trap targets decisively, a break is a break.  Also .008 in a 44 is a tighter choke than in a 12 bore.  Might be equivalent to what we call a skeet out or even modified.  I had a choke table once, but smaller bores need less constriction than a 12.  If you think about it, it may be the percentage of restriction that works.  One of the problems when they experimented with chokes in the late 1800's was that they over choked and wrecked patterns. 

DP

[Daryl]

True about overchoking - that's for sure and todays chokes, with plastic wads need less choke than when horsehair and cards were used.

My .44 used a .410 wad over a 1/8" card, with a "B" wad over the shot.

My .410's get 2 1/2" x 1/2oz loads for grouse - only.