Muzzle crown on a smoothy!!

[Roger Fisher]

A co shooter has taken delivery of a straight Oct smooth barrel to start on a smooth rifle!!

He seems to think the champher at the muzzle is to shallow and should be deeper!
I suggested that on a smooth bore a deeper champher should not be necessary!

I further suggested to him to build the new lady then try her and if too shallow and tearing patching he can always go a bit deeper!

What say you?  Do you use em as you get em with a shallow champher?

[Sam Everly]

Roger , on a smooth bore you don't have anything to tear a patch. Cutting or tearing the patch is from trying to push the lands in to the patch and lead ball, from the rifleing. Even with a new smooth bore barrel i have never cut a patch, but i do smooth the crown up a bit .     

[Acer Saccharum]

Just file, scrape or stone the lip of the bore to make a small radius. No need for a whole crown, when a slight radius will do.

I didn't ask if he intends to pound a roundball flush with the muzzle, and then cut off the patching. This would be contrary to my idea of a smooth bore, but some folk like to run real tight loads in their smoothies. If he finds that his patches are cutting on the muzzle, it can easily be radiuses a little more, even with the barrel int the stock.

[Stophel]

My own personal opinion is that shooting patched round balls in smoothbores is, for the most part, a modern idea.  I think in the 18th century, if you wanted to shoot patched balls, you got a rifle.  For large game with a smoothbore, my belief is that buckshot or buck and ball were THE loads used, not patched balls.  Again, only an opinion, based on circumstantial evidence only.

[Acer Saccharum]

Stoph, we are well aware that you have an opinion on many things. I wlll add this to the list.

Speaking of list, may I add you to Dixon's this year? You have time to plan for it, to set up a ride share, and to start saving money(good luck).

[northmn]

My last smoothie has a slight choke, so I cut crown in it to make starting wads and RB loading a little easier.  It doesn't hurt anything, don't cost much so I chamfer them a little more.  Lots of folks shoot a lot of RB out of their smooth bores, I mostly use shot and save the RB for rifles. 

DP

[Stophel]

You've kept a list?  Maybe you should make it a "sticky" so I don't have to keep coming here and straightening you all out.

 

[t.caster]

My own personal opinion is that shooting patched round balls in smoothbores is, for the most part, a modern idea.  I think in the 18th century, if you wanted to shoot patched balls, you got a rifle.  For large game with a smoothbore, my belief is that buckshot or buck and ball were THE loads used, not patched balls.  Again, only an opinion, based on circumstantial evidence only.

Does this mean you've never experienced the euphoria of taking the head off a squirrel with a patched .600 rb? I hate chompin on lead shot while eatin them little tree rats. I'll try buck & ball on them next time, but I generally don't shoot something unless I plan to eat it.

[Roger Fisher]

The smooth bores around here are used mainly for smooth-bore (or trade gun) matches so the patched r ball is the real deal!

[Stophel]

I never said I didn't do it.....

I have two .54 smoothbore guns that I don't think I have ever fired shot out of!!!   

[James Rogers]

My own personal opinion is that shooting patched round balls in smoothbores is, for the most part, a modern idea.

Agreed. A modern fad. ..........

I am searching for information to be proven wrong.

[tg]

I recall reading a list of supplies or a mention of batrrels of balls in various sizes like .560-.575 or something as such around 1700 these were balls shipped from France. I suspect for the hunting or trade guns in the Gulf coast area, but have not seen a lot in the way of buckshot in supplies , I don't think there has been as much small shot as larger shot in various digs  It would seem to me that the early smoothbores would have been used with ball to a pretty good extent, also the smoothrifle would likley have been used with ball at least sometimes, some of the smaller bored smoothrifles found don't seem to be really adequate for buck and ball, I suspect that wadding would have been used more than patching in the early guns, but that is just a thought based on my own fiddliong around with loading time and accuracy.

[northmn]

Buckshot, balls of 30 cal or so, would not be very practical in small bores.  The local natives in MN used the NWT 24 gauge or so in the early days, and some have been pulled from the Rainy River with shot in them, posssibly because they were hunting ducks and geese out of canoes.  Goose down in MN was a valuable commodity as winter nights can get down to -40 or so.  In those days they had moose, a few elk as well as deer and bear for larger game.  Buckshot would work on head shots on moose but likely RB was used.    Buck and Ball was used by military units in the 10 bore muskets.  Fowlers were called fowlers because they used shot to hunt waterfowl mostly.  The ruffed grouse in the early days was too stupid to waste powder and shot on and pheasants were not introduced until after the MLs.  Prairie chickens and sharptails in the west were often lined up to get more than one per shot.  Wing shooting, with a fowler was a luxuary for the more wealthy.  When it came to shooting all round ball, the rifle was predominant. The Appalacian area is a good example where rifles are popular in a poorer rural area. 

DP