,69 Smoothie

[Not English]

I was recently shooting with some friends and brought a new to me .69 smoothbore that I hadn't done any work up on. Needless to say the patch and roundball ended up doing overfly tight, to the point that it had to be hammered down the bore to safely shoot. To keep shooting I ended up just rolling the round ball in mink oil and stuffing down the bore. It was semi tight and did not move once seated. The load shot reasonably  well. One of the "Roger's Rangers" fans suggested that this was probably pretty much period. My reason for posting is to look for info and opinions. All are welcome.
Dave - Not English

[Clark Badgett]

.69 smoothbores were normally loaded with .64-.65 balls. Yes, AFAIK, patching the ball in a smoothbore is more of a modern thing.

[Pukka Bundook]

Clark,
I don't have the quote before me right now, but one of the at times acetic old English writers, likely Col. George Hangar, or Peter Hawker,
wrote that if anyone shot his dog whilst out shooting, he would shoot their horse, and be prepared to defend himself with the other barrel.

He went on to say a few balls in the pocket, sewn up in greased leather , were be very fast to load.

Col. George Hangar had been on active service in the "American Revolution" so may have had experience with this from that time.

Richard.

[Daryl]

Interesting "find", Richard. Some times speculation about what was or what was not done, is not correct.

He went on to say a few balls in the pocket, sewn up in greased leather , were be very fast to load.

Clark's note about ball size in smoothbores, appears to pertain to the army paper ctg. loading in their .69 (approx.) issue muskets.
Was stated in the volume I have that was written about "that" time in history, that when tests were made to increase the ball size
to .65", that "hits" doubled. That meant, 2 turkey targets placed at 100 yards were hit in 5  aimed shots, rather than just one. (the US Army Accuracy test of the day)
The powder charge after about 1820 was reduced to 135gr., which included priming powder, the same as the previous 165gr. charge in their paper ctgs.

[Clark Badgett]

Clark,
I don't have the quote before me right now, but one of the at times acetic old English writers, likely Col. George Hangar, or Peter Hawker,
wrote that if anyone shot his dog whilst out shooting, he would shoot their horse, and be prepared to defend himself with the other barrel.

He went on to say a few balls in the pocket, sewn up in greased leather , were be very fast to load.

Col. George Hangar had been on active service in the "American Revolution" so may have had experience with this from that time.

Richard.

Very interesting. I'm wondering if the sewn up round balls were about bore size since he described fast loading.

[Pukka Bundook]

Clark,
I am sure the ball plus patch would be just a decent fit  in the bore.
After a day's sport the gun would be none too clean, and as it was a smooth bore, all that is required is something to stop the rattle and keep it on the powder.

[Daryl]

Ahh 14 bore - a VERY good size.

[Not English]

Hey All,

Thanks for the comments. I was loading 110 gr of 2Fg. It seemed to go off well and I couldn't detect any slowness of firing when priming with 2Fg. I suspect that I will keep shooting with unpatched balls and work up a powder load followed by a shot/powder load.

[Leatherbark]

Try some corn meal over the powder and then shot.  Of course, you'll need a paper wad over the shot.

Bob

[Bob Gerard]

I was shooting my .69 Fowler with 85 g of 2f powder and unpatched .662 roundball and getting good-for-me results at 26 yards (my first go at it with this gun).
Of course, blasting away at clay pigeons will be far more entertaining 🤩

[varsity07840]

I was recently shooting with some friends and brought a new to me .69 smoothbore that I hadn't done any work up on. Needless to say the patch and roundball ended up doing overfly tight, to the point that it had to be hammered down the bore to safely shoot. To keep shooting I ended up just rolling the round ball in mink oil and stuffing down the bore. It was semi tight and did not move once seated. The load shot reasonably  well. One of the "Roger's Rangers" fans suggested that this was probably pretty much period. My reason for posting is to look for info and opinions. All are welcome.
Dave - Not English

IMHO, a smoothbore  with patched balls usually like a smaller ball than one would use in a rifle and a thick patch.  A .005 or .010 ball with patch is tough to load because there is no grooves take up some of the patching. My original flint 1816 has a .687 bore and I use a .662 ball and .020 patch.

[Daryl]

Here's a 5-shot group I shot at 28 yards, with my 20 bore flint lock smoothbore. It has a choked barrel.
Shot from a sitting, rest position.



This is 25 yards, off hand, seems to me, similar load, but with 85gr. and .021" denim patch.