Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders BIRD SHOT FROM A 56CAL.

My brother wants to turkey hunt whith his 56 smooth bore.We tried 110 gr. of powder to an equel volume of shot.The penatration was good but the pattern was way to open at 25 yrds. my question is "will A 28gauge wad fit A 56bore and what is the most shot he can safely shoot?

too much powder - contact thompson center they used to have a loading manual for them

A 28 ga wad will almost certainly fit down the bore. However, you're not going to have any choke, so you're in effect going to be shooting an open bored 28 ga. Standard 28 ga load is 3/4 of an ounce. I don't know what the volume
equivalent of that is in black powder, but I'd try that and ignore the plastic wad's wt. Use magnum 6 or 5 shot would be my choice considering your maximum effective range. For a turkey, I suspect that you are going to be restricted to about 25 yards max (and maybe less) for a reasonable chance at a killing head shot.

Thanx .I am hoping to find A solid shot cup like the ones used in steel shot. MY logic being "for all thats worth" is that it will hold the shot for A'' LITTLE LONGER''. I have A tk2000 12ga.black powder gun for turkeys and its awsome. 40yds.is the outmost ,If I could get A desent pattern at 25yds whith A 56 I would be happy.

well joe, birdshot and Turkey loads are worlds apart aren't they?

And steel or bi-smuth shot as it applies to cup's for BP use asto lead shot and Wad is a whole nuther world too ain't it?



What are you really looking for? Excuses, Validation, or Advise?

No. A 28 gauge will not fit a .56, Proper,,sure,,wanna stuff it in there it'll go,, but don't wonder why you get "donut" shaped groups after that.

If your gonna use "volume" as a measurement than ya gotta know steel and lead are WORLDS apart!

JoeBear:

Not sure what that following post meant.

Rem makes 28 ga steel loads for skeet, etc but I don't know if the components are available. I think you're going to need at least some slits in the wad to get good wad/shot column separation.

A little further research reveals that the standard Bl. Powder Dram Equiv. for 3/4 ounce is 2 drams or 55 grains. Some use 1 1/2 dram eq. which is about 41 grains. I'd try common 28 ga wads and see what happens using, as I said, hard shot in 5, 6, 7s (hard to come by) or even 7 1/2s since the pattern density, not the energy, is likely to be the limiting factor. Needless to say, smaller shot = more shot in any give size area.

Again, further reseach shows that some people are using 28 ga wads as sabots in 54 calibers and reporting some plastic build up. Not sure you will have this problem since you will be using less powder, but it is something to watch for.

THANKS I.I.F.I.DIES, I'll give that A go.I've got A bag of copper coated #6 that should do trick. thanks for the research.

i have a 54 flinter. 28 gauge. i think the 28 gauge would be too loose.
i just use 2 cards over powder - 1 over shot but i'm not going after anything as big as a turkey.
try a cushion wad??
or a heavier gauge or a round ball. how does yours handle rb. mine sucks past 25 yards. its a jackie brown.
my patterns are low too, so i'm going to try 2f.
luck to you in the big bird hunt.

I personally haven't shot r.b.s in the gun,it's my brothers gun. Though he says its great out to 100. I watched him thump A large doe, at all of 80yds whith A double lung shot.

That was my point what confused our moderator"If it fly's it dies" ..a .58 is a 20 gauge.(period). Hevin forbid I dis a moderator!!
.56 is larger than 28 gauge! won't fit..too loose,,,,,,,,,if you want to get a decent group you'll have to dump the idea of "gauge" and use wad and card just for that .cal.. gun!!
You'll not get group buying "over the counter" products for a .54 thru .58 ,,,,,,, so what do ya want,,validation from some one with 1300+ posts or the truth,,at this point I could care less,,but I don't know what "if it fly's it dies" means at all with any of the post I've seen on this thread!??

sounds to me "iifid"'s was giving some ideas as to loads. but yes a 56 is not a 28ga. or a 20ga. any time i tried to boost the load in my 28ga.(54) i blew the patterns . a buddy of mine has a rough bore in his double so he's using paper shotcups wrapped around a dowel and filled with shot. i still feel a 26ga.(56) is too light for turkeys but that's your call.
i'd feel better with a round ball backed up with you having your 12 ga loaded with shot. if he can do a white tail @80yards ... no prob.

tacks:



First of all, since you are relatively new here, maybe you don't know that there are no moderators except for the sites owner, Rick Bin, and I certainly am not one.







Since you seem to know so much about ga and bore diameters, I'm sure you know that the maximum US STANDARD 28 ga bore diameter is .565 and the minimum is .545. The nominal bore diameter is called .550. There in NO question that a 28 ga plastic wad will work in a .56 diameter bore if the pressures are high enough for wad base obturation. Whether they are or not with 2 DE of BP is to be determined by JoeBear, maybe he can give us some feedback. He will obviously have to have a larger overshot wad.



I certainly apologize for not understanding your first post in this thread. Perhaps I would have done better if you had learned basic English communication and writing skills. They have remedial courses available. Highly recommeded in your case.







PS a 20 ga is not .58 (period or any other time) it is nominally .615.

quick question- do you have to use steel shot on turkeys. i think in canada we only have to use steel on migratory but there is a turkey season here in alberta. never put in for it so i don't know if steel is mandatory. i'd be interested in the effect on steel on the barrel of joebears smoker. (or should this be a different string?)

In most places in the US, the answer would be no. There may be some state regulations that require the use of steel (non-toxic) shot for all birds in certain areas and there are some Federal Wildlife Management areas that require steel (non-toxic) shot for all birds, I believe, but in general, in most places you only have to use steel or other non-toxic shot on waterfowl.

Well I might not talk goodn nuff for ya,but I don't give out just "blanket" info when they ask,,
I say what I know,, I don't speak your way like above, using words like,,"in most places",,"There may be",,"but in general".
If'n i don't know I won't say,, so you go ahead an tell'em all about all you've done and know,, cause with this one here "kahuna", you're barkin up the wrong tree.
Now you've offended me and I've re-butt,, I'll not respond too ya public again,, if you've words then shar'm with me,,
that's said simple enough, ain't it?

Tacks:



Well, I used those qualifying words about the use of non-toxic shot, because, just like in shooting there are few absolutes when the laws vary from place to place. If he had asked for a specific locale, I probably could have provided that information to him, which is a helluva lot more than you can do.



But rest assured, I am absolutely glad that I offended you and you will not respond to me again.







Y'all keep shooting that .58 20 ga now as you say "what you know" correct or otherwise.

I don't know much about 28ga shotguns but I do know that some folks are using 28ga sub-bases in their 50cal muzzleloaders under the sabot to keep the magnum loads (150 grain approx) from tearing the sabot apart. It reasons to me that if it will fit down a 50cal bore that it will most likely be too loose in a 56.

Read about it here......

wpayne:

Thanks for the site. Those Savages sure shoot well, don't they?

I read that same general information as well on a different site and wondered how they managed to stuff it down there. So, I got off my dead butt and went out to the reloading room and dug up some 28 ga wads. The only ones I could find quickly (haven't loaded a 28 in a LOOONG time, since I found a close out on 28 loads dirt cheap a while back)were Winchester AA 28s. To my surprise, and noting that measuring a plastic wad base is not exactly total precision, they miked between .485 and .495. No wonder they can stuff them down a .50 barrel.They obviously obturate about .07 to seal a smokeless 28 ga bore. Whether they will do this with the lower pressure of 2 DE of BP is certainly debatable.

I wish I had some 20 ga wads to measure (since I consider the 20 ga to be an abomination <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> I don't reload for it) but based on the 28s being .065 to .055 smaller than nominal bore diameter, if the 20 wads are in the same ballpark that is .055 or .065 smaller than the .615 nominal 20 ga bore they MIGHT be about .56 in diameter and MIGHT work perfectly in a .56 barrel. I'll go cut up a couple of 20 ga shells later and see what they measure. However, being loaded for a while, they might not be the same as loose wads. Velly intellesting. Hope all this controversy helps Joebear.

Hoped that would help clear things up.... My instincts tell me that the 20ga may be a little large, but I've never measured one so I can't say for sure. I don't think the 28 will obturate enough to give a GOOD gas seal in the 56 though.... Hope him nothing but luck though...



I can only say what I've read about the Savage MLs... I opted for the T/C Omega, kinda second guessing that now. Oh well, there's always room for another (grin).



I'm glad my 20ga was far enough from the PC to not read your "abomination" comment... It'd be scarred (grin).