Opening Day Smoked Woodies

[Osprey]

Opeing day of our early duck season yesterday, had a blast.  First fowl hunt for my 16ga I built last spring, went one for one early in the morning on an incoming drake, then one for four shots jumpshooting in the flooded timber of an old beaver drainage during mid-day.  Learned that a 44" barrel is not so easy to swing on ducks when they're rocketing from behind stumps and twisting through the trees!   

[rudyc]

Waterfowl with a flint fowler  ---  SWEET

rudyc

[Dave K]

What was your load or more exactly, what shot did you use? Great fun!

[BrownBear]

Learned that a 44" barrel is not so easy to swing on ducks when they're rocketing from behind stumps and twisting through the trees! 

That's my concern every time I fondle a long barreled fowler and the principal reason I haven't built one yet.  My hunting circumstances dictate really fast offhand shooting with rifles, and long barrels are a liability even with great balance.  It just doesn't seem reasonable that a smooth bore would make a long barrel swing and point any faster.   

[northmn]

Not all fowlers have to be long barreled as this one only has a 31" barrel.  I just got this Ruffy with the flintlock its hanging from.  Hardly real sporting as it was sitting, but anything with a flintlock is rewarding.  I use a measure set at 85 grains and use whatever amount of #5 shot that holds.  I have shown the gun before but I wanted something kind of like an English fowler.  The barrel cost $5 at a gun show, the stock dried out of a tree I cut and split the blank out of.  Other parts were "stuff" laying around my shop.  I know a few potholes I could try for woodies at but the weather has been very warm and not really all that great for ducks.  Still fun to go out once in a while with these older styled guns.

DP

[Kermit]

Boy, does this take me back. I got my fowling piece about 25 years ago when I was living in a remote logging camp. Friends thought I was nuts. I had a ball learning to shoot ducks with a 44" 20ga flinter. Tried doing it from a canoe. Gave that up real fast. Nice to connect with a couple, but nicer to be out on a beaver pond in the timber on a great fall day. The gun and the ducks--oh, and a dog--make for a perfect way to use a Saturday.

[wattlebuster]

very nice congrats

[smylee grouch]

Wood Duck is also pretty good eating and even more so when taken with a flinter.   Gary

[Osprey]

What was your load or more exactly, what shot did you use? Great fun!

90 grains FF Goex, overcard,#2 steel, enough to fill a plastic wad, overcard.

I'm anxious to try it later in the season, I pass shoot a lot of divers and geese from one marsh point on my place.  Really want to lay a nice canvasback alongside the powder horn.    

[bob in the woods]

I'm a little hesitant to use steel shot in my fowlers. How is your barrel holding up?

[northmn]

To use steel if you use a plastic wad you need to get a good steel wad.  Ballistic Products sells one called the LBC (Limited Bore Contact) which has grooves on it.  I like to cut off the cup and slit the wad full length for a 12 bore.  You can get a "slug" effect where the wad stays with the shot and blows one hole in the patterning paper unless you sue a very strong powder charge.  By doing the slitting full length you will not have this.  Also the LBC wad permits some lubing.  I have a short starter where I can seat the card wad and then the steel shot sleeve to just below the barrel level.  Its then easy to fill it with shot and place an over shot wad on top and seat the whole thing.  This works for a 12, a 20 bore can use another type of steel wad.  The 16 only has one that I know of from BP that was called the "multimetal".  I think they now go under their Italian name.  Some have had luck with heavy paper.  Steel wads are said to be able to bridge jug chokes and only shoot cylinder bore patterns.  Steel obviously cannot hurt the choke of a cylinder bore.  It also does not need to be driven at the speeds ammo manufacturers want you to think it does.  At close range BP it works.

DP

DP

[northmn]

Wasn't all that impressed with the paper today when I tried it, but it might work with furhter experimenting.

DP

[Osprey]

Bob, barrel is holding up fine, but only a few dozen or so shots of steel through it so far.  Don't foresee an issue, this is just an occasional day of play, my diehard waterfowling will still be with the old 870 - and I've only shot one barrel out of that gun in 20 years.   

I can't see needing special steel wads, the ones I've got are full coverage, pre slit all the way down and seem to work fine.  Certainly kills.  Pretty tight pattern, too, more than lead without a wad.  Moot point anyway, only wads I've found in 16ga in a year of looking!  I do need to pattern them with lead for turkey hunting, I think they will help greatly for that.

[northmn]

I have no idea how much steel you are getting into a wad, but not a lot, maybe 3/4 oz.  A steel wad like the multi-metal or whatever will take up to an ounce with smaller shot.  A cut down 12 bore wad for a 16 (I have slit them length wise and trimed to fit the bore will hold over 1 & 1/16.  I can shoot about 1 1/4 in my 12 using steel wads.  Whether BP setbacks are so severe as to cause the steel from pushing through the lead wads I do not know.  With plastic I always use a over powder card wad.  I think the paper wads where they are doubled would still serve as a good protection.  Some use shopping bag or brown wrapping paper.  One advantage of a BP fowler is that you do not have case capacity restrictions.

DP

[hanshi]

Osprey, that's a pretty good haul for a flinter.

Not all fowlers have to be long barreled as this one only has a 31" barrel.  I just got this Ruffy with the flintlock its hanging from.  Hardly real sporting as it was sitting, but anything with a flintlock is rewarding.  I use a measure set at 85 grains and use whatever amount of #5 shot that holds.  I have shown the gun before but I wanted something kind of like an English fowler.  The barrel cost $5 at a gun show, the stock dried out of a tree I cut and split the blank out of.  Other parts were "stuff" laying around my shop.  I know a few potholes I could try for woodies at but the weather has been very warm and not really all that great for ducks.  Still fun to go out once in a while with these older styled guns.

DP

For some reason that shorty gun is very interesting.  From what I can see it sure looks good.  I like the idea of a nimble smoothie.

[northmn]

It was a kind of an interesting experiment for me.  The barrel started out in life as a 32 inch single shot.  I saw it at a gun show with a broken action and picked it up for $5.00.  From there I just wanted to see if I could make something inexpensive that would function.   There was also a discussion on drying wood where there were those that stated how long you would ahve to let a plank dry.  I also experimented on fast drying a blank and it worked.  I cut the tree in March and started the gun in June.  Stock is still stable.  Track does sell 31 inch shotgun blanks that are for English guns, but this one is far from an English gun.  I call it English "inspired".  Its so light weight its almost too much of agood thing.

DP