My bare ball results

[Bbell]

With all the interest in the other thread I thought I would post up what I shot today. Shooting my Tip Curtis French fowler 20ga. Not sure actual bore diameter cause my calipers went belly up. I was shooting .600 balls that I took the sprue off of. Load was 90fffg Swiss, ball, then a thin overshot card. 50yds I wasn’t able to group very well. You can see my 50 yd attempts above and left of the plate. This was only my second time shooting ball out of a flintlock so it was all me. Here is my 5 shot 25yd group. This is off hand. That is a 6” paper plate for reference.



Brandon

[alacran]

Not bad at 25 yards. Specially it is only your second outing. There is more art than science when it comes to shooting a smoothie. Practice till you are comfortable with results at 25 yards. Then go to 50 yds.  It takes lots of balls to get good at this.

[Daryl]

"We must endeavour to persevere" - Chief Dan George, legend of Josey Wales.

The chief said he was quoting Pres. Lincoln.

[Mike Brooks]

I like the tight group right in the middle of the plate. If you could do that all the time at 25 yards you'd be the champ.

[Hungry Horse]

 Lose the big thick wad holding the ball in, and go with something like an over shot card, or a wad of greased wool blanket.
 You have to remember that larger powder charges can make your group impact higher. You’re on the right track, you just need to find what your gun likes. A .600 ballis likely a little big, unless your bore is a .625 like mine.

  Hungry Horse

[Bbell]

Thanks guys. Hope to keep working on it and take it out for spring bear. Hungry horse it was the thin overshot card. I need to order some more RB so I will probably get some .595 and try those. I started with 90gr cause thats what shoots in my GPR, figured one charge would be easier to remember.  I will have to bump it up a little bit and see how that works at some point.

Brandon

[Daryl]

You need more guns, Brandon, to work on your powder-charge-remembering-brain cells.

Taylor remembering remembering stuff like that as well Brandon, so he has a bag/horn set-up for each gun he shoots.

Each bag is fitted with the necessary paraphernalia (all of it) for that particular gun, thus, of someone new wants

to joint us, Taylor picks a gun for them to try and grabs the appropriate bag- check and replenish with patches, balls

powder and good go go.

[Mike Brooks]

Thanks guys. Hope to keep working on it and take it out for spring bear. Hungry horse it was the thin overshot card. I need to order some more RB so I will probably get some .595 and try those. I started with 90gr cause thats what shoots in my GPR, figured one charge would be easier to remember.  I will have to bump it up a little bit and see how that works at some point.

Brandon

I had a 20 bore I shot bare ball for years, it had a Gostomski barrel. I shot a .600 RB in it with a 60gr powder load, no patches or cards anywhere. I shot a fouling shot or two to start out then just dropped the ball in and chased it down with the ram rod. I tried not to point the muzzle down, but on the occasion I did I found the ball hadn't moved. it shot great, I could usually finish near the top in steel rifle matches. Shot a lot of deer with that gun too, nothing past 50 yards or so.

[Daryl]

LOL - I had a Curly Gostomski Hudson's Bay Trade gun in 12 bore. Because it weighed all of 5 1/2 pounds, that is where my flintlock flinch got a running start.

[alacran]

I just inlet a Gostomski barrel in a piece of hard maple. It is one of the slickest bores I've ever seen in a smoothie.

[Bbell]

Yeah it doesn't kick hard with 90gr, but there's just something about a small explosion by your face.  I just focus on the trigger squeeze and if I catch myself thinking of something else, like kick or the flash, I stop and restart my shooting sequence.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Recoil or at least the memory of it, is there to remind you to prepare for the pain.

[Hungry Horse]

If you get major recoil even in a  fowler or trade gun, it has to be caused by poor memory. Like if you forgot you were shooting undersized bare ball, and wrapped a patch around the ball insread. Bare ball makes lots of smoke, butnotlotsof recoil.

  Hungry Horse

[Daryl]

Or velocity, I suspect. Can't have one without the other.

[Flint62Smoothie]

... shot bare ball for years ... RB in it with a 60gr powder load, no patches or cards anywhere ... shot a fouling shot or two to start out then just dropped the ball in and chased it down with the ram rod.

Huzzah! Finally, someone besides me knows how to shoot the ‘real’ bareball method! I too ‘shoot em’ the way it was historically done.

[hanshi]

I start to notice BB recoil around 90 grns and up.  Prb loads give more velocity with 70 grains but sharper recoil. 

[Hungry Horse]

Another bare ball loading  advantage for smoothbore shooters that have bent their barrels to make their guns shoot where you want, is they don’t generate enough pressure in most cases to straighten out the barrel.

  Hungry Horse

[richs]

I shoot with the North-South Skirmish Association (Civil War guns) and started shooting in the smoothbore match.  After talking to many very good shots in the club, I learned that large powder amounts are not needed.  Most people dropped their powder charge from 70 grains of 3fg to 45 grains for 69 caliber smoothbore muskets.  A couple other tricks is to dimple the balls with a file or just put a bunch in a metal coffee can and shake them around until you get your desired texture.  Then cover the balls with Lee Liquid Alox and shoot without any wads.  Many shooters do real well with this technique ( but I stink at it!).
Rich