A local shop has a Thompson renegade with a .56 cal smooth bore. I'm thinking about buying it, but I have no idea where I can buy, or how I can go about making shotgun wads for it? However,I have found some places I can buy round balls for it, but if I were to buy it I would really prefer to use it primarily as a shotgun.

what your looking for is something about .010 over your bore size
ToW sells .560
58/24 gage wads might work but if your bore is .560 they would be alittle to tight unless they were soft wads

the other thing you could do is make a cutter that was .570 and punch your own wads and cards .
i know not much help.

I vote for punching your own.

In my rifle, I just use a jumbo cotton ball shooting PRB. Works very well and protects the powder from lube should I not fire a charge.

Have no idea how well that would work in a smoothbore with shot, though.

Josh

Thanks Guys,If I were to make my own wads and cards any suggestions on what make them out of?

Hey Hawken,
Not to cause a problem, but ask over on historicaltrekking.com or on the american longrifles forums. Lots of smoothbore shooters using traditional smoke poles. Also, there is a shop in Lodi Ohio that is striclty trad ML stuff and has a web business. You can call them and they are very willing to help out and advise you. www.logcabinshop.com
Good Luck!

i make my soft wads out of old horse hair carpet pad . i then hot lube them with bee's wax and windex .
for hard cards , i make them out of construiction MDF or Black board
for the thick over the powder cards . matting board found at art supply stores works real well .
over the shot cards i punch just from regular poster paper .

now all the above being said . you dont need all that .
a wad of leaves or bee's nest over the powder and another over the shot will give a relitivly good patern and hold things in place .
but truthfuly your patern wond be as good with the leaves .


on the comment about cotton balls .
be very carful . the powder can ignight the cotton exspecialy if lubed . it can leave a smoker out ther in a time of year when fire dangers are normaly high

razz is also correct . the log cabin , muzzleloading emporum . muzzleloader builder supply . all may have something that will work . you will just have to look and see

jasons place " historical trekking " would be a good place to ask .
but i would go to frontier folk
http://frontierfolk.net/phpBB/index.php?sid=c17d8c52db7e2c7400a32bcfb7241207
however your going to get more of a historic information there

both places are good and will give you information to build on

Thanks, I'll post some Pictures later after I pick it up.

Circle fly sells any type of wad you need for smooth bores.
http://www.circlefly.com/index.html
Cat

O.K. so I didn't pick it up yet. I brought my bore light and the bore looked Ugly lots of rust and no shine. How concerned should I be being it's a smoothbore?

IMO a pitted smooth bore is a PITA
mostly concerning cleaning .

the thing is though , you never know how pitted a barrel is , tell its clean .
rust grows like a mushroom . it starts in a small pit and then spreds out on the serface . so what you see may be alot of serface rust that will clean out .
the other thing is as long as its not to deep you can runn a hone down it and re polish .
Or you can have it reamed a couple thousands and bring the bore back to life .

but again you have to ask yourself ; is it worth the cost . if your getting the gun cheep then it probably is .
but if the asking price is at the top of what its worth without a pitted bore . then IMO you should pass if your not willing to put in more money to clean it up

Got to reading more about smoothbores.

Traditionally, wasp nests - the paper kind - were used. They pack nicely.

Josh

If the bore is yucky, try putting a bronze brush on your cleaning rod and spinning it up and down the bore with a drill motor, well lubed with a bore solvent of your choice. Wipe clean. It might surprise you how it turns out.

For shot wads I would begin, and end, my search with Circle Fly. They have every size imaginable in nitro card, fibre, and over shot wads. Such is the selection and cheap pricing that I don't even think about punching my own any more out of found materials, and I'm a die-hard do-it-yourselfer. I've tried wasp nest, leaves, etc. and gave it up when I got blown patterns when I finally got around to shooting at a pattern board. I suspect it just doesn't have enough integrity to withstand the explosive effect of black powder to prevent gas blow-by up through the shot column. That stuff will do in a pinch if there's nothing else available. I can't help but think that the ancients who used it in the backwoods would have gladly given it up if they had access to proper wads. A buckskinner who is dedicated to "living the life" will argue about that, but it's a fact.

As for round balls, once you have the bore squeaky clean, determine bore diameter and use a ball .010" undersize with a .015 pillow ticking patch loaded as if it were a rifle. Accuracy out to about 50 yds. or so will surprise you.

Not the cheapest boys around, but they handle everything. Get a catalog from Dixie Gun Works.


maddog

I found a pristine .56SB hanging on a gunsmith's wall last year, that I was able to buy for $50, since they're no longer popular in this area. (They were once upon a time the only muzzleloader allowed by law in my state for deer)

I use 28ga shotcups & an overshot wad in it.

I've since won a gunbroker auction for a likewise-pristine .54 Renegade barrel that was a drop-in, so now have a 2-barrel set.

.

Here is a great place to buy everything you need:

http://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categories/SubList.aspx?catId=2

If you can pick up the gun cheap enough you can send the barrel to Ed Rayl in W Va to have it refreshed or opened a little bigger. I bought a rough and worn 54 Renegade and had it bored to 62 smooth.......one of the coolest guns i own now.