Shooting a new pistol smoothbore

[mountainman]

Asking for a friend, Does anyone here have had any experience with shooting a pistol with a smooth bore 10" colerain barrel .54 caliber? If you have had any experience I would like to hear what works best and what types of loads you have used like patch thickness and lube, and ball size and so forth? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Daryl]

Hi Dave - Taylor built a .58 smoothbore pistol for a friend and shot it.
That day, I was shooting my .54 barrel (66" twist) with 00 buckshot and a patched ball.
I put a patch over the 3 buckshot on top of the ball.
At 12 yards, all the .526" balls were in the 10 ring of a B27 target, yet the buckshot always radiated
around the central ball, about 5" from it, in a circle, hitting the 8 & 9 rings.
That would make an effective self-defense load.
This is the smooth bored pistol Taylor made. It was subsequently lost in a house fire.

[Daryl]

Just remembered, Justin Urbantis has an original smooth bored pistol and had a thread on it.

[Bob Gerard]

I have a 10 inch, .50 Colerain barrel smoothbore pistol (which I built from a MBS kit). It is very accurate out to 25 yards, with just a front sight. I love shooting it. 30 grains of 3f and a .490 prb. Patch was .015 or so, spit lube. Here it is in action- the gong is about 25 yards distance.

[alacran]

Nice looking pistol Bob. I like the way you are shooting the way you are supposed to.

[Bob Gerard]

Nice looking pistol Bob. I like the way you are shooting the way you are supposed to.

Thank you!