What's your longest shot with a smoothbore?

[utseabee]

I've been spending more time shooting my smoothbores this year than anything else. For My 62 cal 50 yards is about it, but my 58 might be a different story. My 58 is shooting about 2 -2 1/2" at 50 yards of the bench and does good off hand if I do my part. It is a Lehigh styled gun with a 44" rice swamped 58 caliber
smooth swamped barrel. I've tried several different ball and patch combo's using .562 and .570 balls. This one loves a .570 ball and a .010 patch. Going to try 60 and maybe 75 yards with it next time out. What has your experience been at ranges of longer than 50 yards? What's your longest shot with a smoothbore? I think I am going to leave the flint rifles at home and go smooth for hunting this year.
Thanks
John

[axelp]

I can hit the gongs pretty well out around 80 yards with my smoothbore. I have not tried it on paper past 25 yards but at 25 yards I can get 2" groups on a good day if you dont count the random flier.... I do not get out for practice more than a few times a year. I think with regular practice I could do much better. My smoothbore certainly has the capability to do much better with a better shooter holding it.

My load is 70 grains of FF .595 ball wrapped in a .015 patch. I too seem to be moving away from my rifles and shooting more and more with the smoothbore.

[WKevinD]

My longest shot with a smoothbore was about 150 yards.

I never hit anything but I tried.

[Hungry Horse]

 I'd love to say this shot was perfectly planned, and beautifully executed, but that would be a lie. I was at a rendezvous, with a bunch of friends. We took off on the trail walk, and found out the first shot was a long gong of about 18" at two hundred yards. I poured the charge for my trade gun, and to my horror, found that I had been experimenting with some 3FA blasting powder in my trade gun, and had forgot to replace the powder in my horn, before heading off to rendezvous. I shot my regular charge of 65 grains, and got a hoot from my buddies as the ball fell short by a bunch, and bounced past the target. I asked for another shot, just to see if I could come up with a more usable charge. I put two 65 grain measures into the trade gun and fired. I rung the gong with a center hit. Of course they wouldn't let me score it.
  It started to rain a couple of targets later, and everybody in our group switched over to my powder (which was heavily graphited, and we shot the entire course without failures) so I would say 200 yards for my longest shot with a smoothie, but don't ask me to duplicate it.

           Hungry Horse

[T*O*F]

I was shooting my 24 ga flint smoothy as backup shooter at our trap range, which is on top of a hill.  They let a straightway high flyer go and both guys shooting their percussion doubles missed it.  I took the final shot at 70 yards and literally dusted the clay.  Surprised the heck out of me.

[hanshi]

I've shot lots of targets at 50 yards.  But the longest hunting shot was a deer at just over 20 yards.  What makes it memorable is the fact that it was a running shot.

[utseabee]

Thank you for the replies. Where I hunt 50 yards will be a long shot with most being 35-40 yards. I was just curious what could be done with one of these. I am going to spend some more time shooting at some longer ranges, but I will still limit any shots at game to 50 yards or less. I still get 1 to 2 fliers if I shoot a 10 shot string. Just when I think I am doing good, I get that flier that brings me back to reality. They sure are fun though!

[bob in the woods]

100 yard gong at the range.  50 yards [measured ] at a deer two years ago. Perfect broadside shot.
Both taken with my N.E fowling gun.   120 gr FFg and a .735 ball
Black bear..same gun, 140 gr FFg  at 30 yards

[Tony N]

A .62 RB with a well placed shot at 50yds or less is devastating to a deer from my experience.


~Tony

[Old Ford2]

I shot at a ground hog this summer.
I paced it off at three hundred fifty two long steps, I missed the ground hog by a mile, but I did stretch the barrel 4"  

[volatpluvia]

My 12 guage fowler put a .69 ball 6 inches low and dead on for windage at a hundred yards one day in my hands.  My shooting partner was devastated.

[Daryl]

The longest hit was on a 150 yard plate about 2' square. The longest attempt was at a plate about 4' square at some 250yards. The first ball hit about 30' to the right, proper elevation. The next shot hit about 15' short of the gong, but right on for windage.  Hitting at long range with a smoothbore, is purely accidental, but sometime accidents happen. Please limit hunting shots at big game to the range you can consistently keep ALL the balls on a  9" pie plate, rifle or smoothbore - THAT is your effective range and also the range of your firearm.

[Leatherbark]

First shot of the day with a Thompson Center New Englander 12 gauge.  90 grains of 2 f Goex, wool wad .715 ball with a wool wad over top.  Took careful aim at the standard 100 yard rifle target with the New Englanders bead right dead on the bull's-eye and hit  a 10x at 100 yards.  Everyone at the range was impressed so I tried it again.  I hit the edge of the black in the 7 ring. I said "wow smoothbores are more accurate than those guys on the forums said".  Then I tried a third, fourth, fifth shot.  Never even put them on paper.  Never could duplicate it again.  Finally settled on being able to keep them on the same target at 50 yards in  6 inch group on a good day.

Bob

[Daryl]

Smoothbores, some, seem capable of amazing accuracy. The fellows using them at Rendezvous BC show this every year, sometimes with scores as good as or even beating the rifles on the same course of fire.  Those shooters are few and far between, however, out of the dozen's who shoot nothing but smoothbores, only a few shine.
The best I saw consistently made 3", 5 shot groups off the bags at 50 yards, deliberate fire. Mine will not do that, no matter how hard I try. It simply will not, however I have made hits oft times at the 100 to 109yard targets on our trail- even hit the bunny in the hole, a 100yard shot at a rabbit sized and shaped plate. Does that mean my 20 bore is a 100yard moose or deer gun - not by a long shot. At most, it is a 40 to 50yard moose or 35-40yard deer gun.

Hit a few, miss a few and so it goes.  If on real game, I'd be inclined to say 80yards is about max for a really "accurate" shooting smoothbore shot by one of the lads who shoots nothing else but THAT smoothbore.

[utseabee]

I am going to shoot mine at longer ranges just for my own curiosity but will still limit my hunting ranges as I said earlier. With a little more practice, I may try a woods walk with it. My .58 out shoots my .62 by a good margin. I think I am going to build or have built( undecided which way to go yet) in a .52 or .54. I will be using the .58 for deer and bear this year in Pa.

[hanshi]

A .62 RB with a well placed shot at 50yds or less is devastating to a deer from my experience.


~Tony

You said a mouthful, Tony!  That aforementioned deer fell in her tracks as if a piano had dropped out of the sky and landed on top of her.  I called it "the hammer of Thor".

[nosrettap1958]

My only experience with a smoothbore.  The Sunday after deer hunting we held a friendly shooting challenge.  We used 12 oz. beer cans as targets.  We all had rifles except one. We started at 25 paces and when someone hit his beer can they would have to move back 5 paces. All the guys with the rifles were out to 75 paces before the guy with the smoothbore finally hit it. The next year he took is rifle.

[bob in the woods]

Smoothbores are weird, unique and  temperamental firearms. Especially when it comes to shooting round balls.  I can and have been able to get any of the rifles I've had , shooting well with a standard ball /patch combo .  My smoothbores simply don't work that way. I've never had much luck with the often suggested tightly patched ball. Actually, I have now switched from a .735 ball to a .715 and from a .610 to a .600 in my smoothbores and accuracy is much improved. My best accuracy ...and I mean 1 and 1/2 in 4 shot group at 40 yds [ my back yard range ] is with my paper cartridges. My guns love them. They load easily and I can shoot 8 to 10 without wiping before fouling becomes an issue, and then I simply load a wet patched ball [ not tight ] and shoot.....then I'm good for more cartridges. The cartridges are all I use for hunting now. Even in my rifles.

[smylee grouch]

Bob, what kind of paper do you use for those cartridges and where do you get it?

[axelp]

A month ago I shot paper at 25 yards with my Chambers PA fowler. I happened to have two thicknesses of patch in my bag. One was too thin (I thought) at .010 or .012. The other was thick ticking I am guessing thicker than .018 but not sure. I was shooting .595 ball. The thicker patch combo was very hard to ram down. The thin patch was too easy to ram down I felt. Out of my 10 shots I had 6 shots centered in about a 2" group. I had 3 shots that were lower and strung east to west just under the center. and one that was a flier that hit about 4 inches right of my center group. All stayed on the letter size paper.

I am pretty sure that the thin patched shots were what I had most if not all of my 6 shot group with. I specifically remember the lower shots being the thicker patches. The far right flier was a flinch that I also remember.

I have always been a advocate of tight patching but this session gave me pause as it made no sense. Maybe it was coincidence... dunno. Gotta get out and try it again.

[Daryl]

The gun that shot this target- with a quite tight patch. Particulars on the target, range 28yards.

[bob in the woods]

I just use computer/copier paper. Works fine.  Look up some of Daryl's posts re cartridges.
I do the same thing. My cartridges are tapered so that I can insert them into the muzzle after tearing of the end...the powder drains into the barrel while I'm drawing my ramrod. Then I just ram the whole thing down the bore.  Easy and fast.  I dip the ends containing the ball in a mix of bear oil and beeswax.Mix ratio depends on the temp/ time of year, but I like it relatively soft.

[smylee grouch]

Thanks Bob and Daryl for the info on the cartridges. I will be trying them out in my bear buster next spring maybe.

[heelerau]

Daryl, timely with the paper cartridges, am making some up for a mates Brown Bess.  I once shot a rabbit at about 35 yards with a Pat 42 smoothbore British cap lock musket, using a patched round ball, about .69 cal. I was about 14 at the time. I remember being quite surprised at how accurate a smooth bore could be.

Cheers

Gordon

[bob in the woods]

I forgot to mention about the " grain" of the paper    Make sure it's running the right way so you can easily tear the end of the cartridge. Otherwise, it could be a toothsome frustration