Pitiful 20 ga roundball accuracy

[rich pierce]

Way back in the 70s or early 80s I bought a 20 ga barrel and fitted it to my Sharon Trade Rifle.  It’s 32” long, 1” octagon, Green Mountain. I never shot round ball in it back in the day. It’s a decent 25 yard small game barrel.  Today I tried round ball for about the 3rd time and it’s consistently pitiful.  My load was 60 grains of FFG, .600 ball, 0.015” wet patch.  It loads easy but patches are not blown, and I’m not sure I could go much tighter.  Groups are about 3” at 25 yards, which seems ridiculous. I am using a rear sight. My original 20 ga percussion double does as well shooting out of both barrels, and better than that if I just use one barrel, and it’s got rough bores by comparison.

Ideas?  I’d prefer to stick with this ball size, but could lap the mold if needed to get a few more thou diameter.

[smylee grouch]

Rich, I have a .608 Jeff Tanner mold you can try or buy if you think that will work. PM me if you want to talk about it.

[Skychief]

Rich, I don't know if you've monkeyed with your powder charge much, but my smoothbores show a lot tighter groups with 80+ grains of 2f versus 60 grain loads.

Good luck, Skychief.

[Maven]

Slightly larger ball as smylee... suggested and more powder as per Skychief's suggestion are what work for me, as do a .018" patch and a 5/8" dia. OP wad cut from tablet backing, milk carton, etc.; i.e., at least at 25 yd. with no rear sight.

[Ron Wehmeyer]

Try rolling a rasp over a few of the .600 balls to  dimple and raise the surface . What can you loose besides a few balls  and powder . RW

[Hungry Horse]

Ron’s suggestion is about 1/3 of the equation. I prefer dimpling the balls by shaking them in a can. Use no patch, or wad, simply drop the lightly greased ball on top of the powder charge. And make sure the powder charge is a good stiff one, I would start with a hundred grains of 2F. Then hold it all in place with a piece of greased wool blanket, or an overshot card, or some hornets nest. The stiff powder charge, undersized ball, and nothing between powder, and ball are key elements. Try it, it’s the way smoothbore muskets and tradegun were loaded, if not with paper cartridges, in the past.

  Hungry Horse

[rich pierce]

Well boys, I won the smoothbore match today. 80 grains FFG, greased cushion wad, 0.018 greased patch with .600 ball. They pretty much went where I aimed. Thanks, fellas. Will try the dimpled ball next.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Let's do a Postal Match this month with smoothbores instead of rifles!!

[Maven]

"Let's do a Postal Match this month with smoothbores instead of rifles!"

I agree, Taylor.  However, September would be better for me.

[Fowler610]

I'm up for a smoothbore postal match in September!

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I'm in!!

[PK]

I'm up for a smoothbore postal match in September!

I'm in as well. Already used mine for the first shoot.

[Maven]

I propose using the same target as well since it's easy enough to see and fire at with either an rifle or smoothbore.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Yup...sorry to hyjack your thread, Rich.

[rich pierce]

Hijack away, Taylor!  Sounds like fun to me.

[Maven]

No more hijacking of Rich's thread as I started a new thread re a SB shoot in September.  Sorry, Rich.

[richs]

Rich,
I'm going to suggest a different approach.  In the N-SSA, folks were shooting 80 grains or more of FFG powder with a plain round ball out of the 69 caliber 1842 musket.  Then someone tried 45 grains of FFFG with the balls lubed with Lee liquid Alox and a dimpled ball.  Now many, if not all, have switched to that load.  Try it and see how it works.  In the 69 caliber musket, most use a .678 round ball.
Rich

[rfd]

each gun needs some testing for what it prefers to eat best. 

my 20ga. with a .615" colerain barrel, prefers a .015" gato feo lubed patch, .595" ball from a jeff tanner mould, over 65 grains of swiss 3f. 

ymmv, as it prolly should!