Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Smooth bores?

I have always been fascinated by smooth bore flintlocks. I know of a Pedersoli Trade Musket for sale. .62 cal. Front blade only.
Any fowler shooters here? I would only be looking at patched RB loads. Tell me about loads and accuracy....

I have a couple.


One I had "jug choked". It's a 30 yard or so turkey gun and 50 yard or so deer rifle.



50yd roundball group off bags.










I have a dedicated turkey gun. Colerain turkey choke barrel. It's like a fixed choked barrel. Shot only. With nickel plated #6 shot, it runs 130ish in a 10" circle at 30yds. With #9 TSS it's incredible.


That's a 30yd TSS pattern.






***I do NOT advise shooting TSS from muzzleloaders not designed for it! Do it at your own risk! Don't blame me when you blow up! Lol. Seriously...it's an unknown risk.


I have rear sights on both Longrifles. Both are customs.

Fowlers interest me about like a case of the s hits!

They are a ton of fun. And very accurate if you take the time to work up a proper load.

http://traditionalmuzzleloader.com/index.php/loading-the-smoothbore-gun

I have a 16ga that shoots about 2.5" at 50 yards off the bench with a patched round ball.

It's also jugged.

I shot a few squirrels with it this past month, and I plan to take it after turkeys this spring.

Mine is not a new gun...just new to me. The prior owner had a rear sight installed, so it's more a "smooth rifle," I guess. It is built as a fowler, but has a rear sight on it.

This may be a dumb question, but what is a jugged?
I'm still fairly new.to front stuffers

I have three;

1760 Brit lt. Infantry fusil approx. 67 cal.

French Fusil de Chasse 20 bore

Virginia smooth rifle 20 bore.

Top fusil is a military firearm. Not really a hunting gun.

Mauser06, Beautiful guns you have there. You obviously have spent the time to become acquainted with them. Two thumbs up.

That's my fowler and a tree rat it plopped.

The question, "What is jugged?".....

So if you run an actual choke/constriction at the muzzle, it precludes shooting a round ball.

To shoot round balls, the muzzle can't be smaller than the nominal bore/caliber for the barrel.

As I understand the process of having a barrel jugged, the bore is opened slightly wider than bore/caliber. Then it comes back to the designated bore/caliber shortly before the muzzle. This allows a shot column to expand a bit, and be compressed right as it leaves the muzzle, which is supposed to tighten shot patterns.

Supposedly it's good for round ball accuracy, too. I can't argue with this gun's RB accuracy. Here's three off the bench at 50 yards, and the left one was the first after changing a patch lube.

I’m getting old! I have 4! Forgot my 20 bore Barnett Northwest Trade fusil.

It’s piled in there with all the others!

Only looking at RB. No time for small game hunting.

Strayer,

I’ve killed several hogs with round ball out of my fusil de chasse.

If you want roundball only, why mess with a smoothbore? It definitely is a limiting factor. My rifled barrels are more accurate and allow for a longer range. Just my thoughts. I don't usually shoot beyond 50yds...but it's nice to be able to when i need to.

not a flintlock (or fowler) but i have done a lot of smoothbore shooting at 25 and 50 yds in NSSA. further distances than that, all bets are off. a reasonably well-fitted ball will shoot tight groups at 50 yds, provided you get the powder charge right. i know people using a properly set up weapon have gotten good smoothbore accuracy out to 75 and 100 yds, but in my experience 50 was the last bastion of repeatability.

the biggest accuracy difference to me was realized by adding a rear sight. without it you have to use other visual cues to get a repeatable sight picture. i dont think any of the really serious shooters were not using a rear sight.

definitely a more labor intensive operation than shooting a rifled musket, partly because we couldnt use patches. so fouling and projectile fit was always a concern. ever hand-filed roundballs to make them round, then find a way to get lube to stick to them?? good times.