Smoothbore round ball accurate barrels etc?

[P.Bigham]

Looking for others experiences shooting round balls from smoothbores. Barrel preferences ,caliber, length. front sight only.   And flintlocks only.   I shoot at 2 clubs regularly that shoot them .  I've had 3-28 gauges. 1- 24 gauge and 3- 20 gauges.  It's been my experience that the barrels made from modern steel shoots more accurately than others. Curious what others have experienced  . Thanks.

[Maven]

I have a Green River Forge 20ga. NW Trade Gun (no rear sight)*, which quite accurate @ 25 yd. with a patched round ball (.597" -.598"; patch thickness is of little consequence) and 65 - 70gr. FFg.  Cheek weld is really important, especially at longer ranges, e.g., 50 yd.  At that distance 90gr. FFg seems to improve things.  Additionally, a bore sized RB (,618" -.619") with card stock wads and a grease wad is almost as accurate, at least at 25 yd.  The attached photo shows 25 yd. results with a patched RB.

*flintlock; bbl. of modern steel I presume.

[john bohan]

The one I built last year seems to be very good, after sighting in I put 2 out of 3 in a 6 in. bull at 100 yards. I used a rice barrel with a .600 ball,.015 patch ,and 80 gr. of schutzen. I was really pleased and man did it do a job on a deer.

[Daryl]

This smoothbore flinter was made by someone in the Western States, and named Hunkeler.
It is 20 bore, of English design and 1/2 stock. The barrel is 31" long and has a patent hooked breech.
This target was shoot off a rest at 28 yards. The particulars are on the target. I have not been able to
duplicate this target, but have shot some 3" groups with it at 25 yards, since shooting the top group.

[Mike Brooks]

42 to 44 inch swamped C weight in .55 caliber. Currently holds the national record at F ship.

[Hungry Horse]

 First off I don’t think modern steel has anything to do with smoothbores accuracy, it’s more about barrel thickness. Modern barrels for the most part are clubs compared to most old barrels unless you lump punt guns in with the older fowling barrels. Secondly, twenty yard shot don’t mean much of anything. Where a smoothbore really shows it metal is when the velocity starts to bleed off, that’s when the ball starts to drift.
 I think the most important lesson to learn if you are going to get the most out of your tradegun, or fouler, is to scrap all the knowledge you’ve accumulated from shooting your rifle, and start fresh, don’t apply any rifle shooting techniques to shooting your smoothbore. And the less wads, cards, and patches, you put into the load the better.

Hungry Horse

[Mike Brooks]

42 to 44 inch swamped C weight in .55 caliber. Currently holds the national record at F ship.

50 yards. 13 shots keep the best 10. Scored a 99 which is still unbeaten since 1999. Was shot by a Brooks gun of course.


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[Jim Kibler]

Who?  Cecil?😂

[alacran]

42 to 44 inch swamped C weight in .55 caliber. Currently holds the national record at F ship.

50 yards. 13 shots keep the best 10. Scored a 99 which is still unbeaten since 1999. Was shot by a Brooks gun of course.


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Gee whiz, a self shooting gun!

[bob in the woods]

I have had a number of smoothbore guns and it took much work on the range to see what they really liked, however, I can say that they generally don't play by rifle rules.  I've had better luck with paper cartridges, and or a ball on powder load with a wad on the ball. Sometimes a linen patched ball will equal these loads for the first few shots, but I've never been able to get the consistency I want with a patched ball.
Here are a couple  of targets shot with my 20 bore. 25 yards does tell me much, but 50 yards does.  I've heard many folks talk about 3 in or so groups at 50 yards, but I seen very few who can actually do it when put to the test. I know the guns are capable, but only shooting will tell you what they really like. Just my opinion of course, which together with a dime won't buy much 

[Maven]

Amazing results, bob in the woods!

[Daryl]

They sure are.
The only time I've shot a 3" group at 50yards with a smoothbore, was Leatherbelly's Pennsylvania Fowler that Taylor build and now owns.
Seems to me, there were 6 shots in the group, 3 by me and 3 by Taylor. We did this as LB was complaining it didn't shoot well. Patched .021"
denim with a .608" pure lead ball.

[Waksupi]

If you plan on hunting sometime, 20 bore.

[Daryl]

I think a 16 through 12 bore might be a better hunting smoothbore.
Bobinthewoods uses a 10 bore.

[Dphariss]

42 to 44 inch swamped C weight in .55 caliber. Currently holds the national record at F ship.

50 yards. 13 shots keep the best 10. Scored a 99 which is still unbeaten since 1999. Was shot by a Brooks gun of course.


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Every time I see something like this I remember Kendall in the Warner-Lowe papers and the “smooth bore” rifled with “coarse emery”. Won all the turkeys at a smooth bore turkey match.  Said to shoot almost as well as  rifle for 100 shots or so. Warner and Lowe would have known.

[Daryl]

First thing I thought of as well, Dan.
That said, Taylor and I did make a target of 3" for 6 consecutive shots at 50 yards, from a rest using
a 20 bore smoothbore, no scratched-in rifling. We used 85gr. 2F and a tightly patched round ball in a
Chamber's Penn. Smooth 20 bore. I believe the ball we used was from Taylor's Lee mould which cast
.608" pure  lead balls, iirc. The patch would have been 10 ounce denim, measured at that time at .0225"
tightly compressed in calipers. It also ran .021" in my micrometer, compressed by the ratchet alone.