Small caliber smoothbore?

Hello,
I'm considering a 0.45 caliber smoothbore. I would be interested in comments specifically on:
Historical relevance - did such exist in 18th century?
Performance experience - for those that might have small caliber smoothbores, how does it perform?
Thanks

I've been thinking about doing a smaller smoothbore for small game, Traded for a .50 that had a bad bore. don't think it was ever cleaned after being shot, might send it to be bored smooth. After cleaning it with a green pad with polishing compound it shot great, now don't know if I will or not. Look up some of Brittsmoothys posts on using his .50 smoothbore.

Des52 said:

I've been thinking about doing a smaller smoothbore for small game, Traded for a .50 that had a bad bore. don't think it was ever cleaned after being shot, might send it to be bored smooth. After cleaning it with a green pad with polishing compound it shot great, now don't know if I will or not. Look up some of Brittsmoothys posts on using his .50 smoothbore.

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I think Brittsmoothy’s is a 45 smooth bore? I recently saw a listing for a .42 cal smooth bore, it was a pretty old rifle.

I have a 28 gauge/54 cal smooth rifle. I believe that the smaller bore smoothies shoot very accurately out to 50 yards. I never shot a 45 cal smoothbore but I would bet that it could keep up with a rifle with the right load up to 50 yards.

RiverRat said:

I have a 28 gauge/54 cal smooth rifle. I believe that the smaller bore smoothies shoot very accurately out to 50 yards. I never shot a 45 cal smoothbore but I would bet that it could keep up with a rifle with the right load up to 50 yards.

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What's your load with the.54 smoothie? I just patterned my TC and out of 9 different loads, the best pattern was 60grs of Triple7 and 1oz of #4 shot. Pattered at 25yds.

Perkiomen Bruce said:

Hello,
I'm considering a 0.45 caliber smoothbore. I would be interested in comments specifically on:
Historical relevance - did such exist in 18th century?
Performance experience - for those that might have small caliber smoothbores, how does it perform?
Thanks

Click to expand...

Our member Britsmoothie hunts with a 45 caliber smoothbore on a regular basis. Perhaps he will jump into this thread.

Mossback said:

What's your load with the.54 smoothie? I just patterned my TC and out of 9 different loads, the best pattern was 60grs of Triple7 and 1oz of #4 shot. Pattered at 25yds.

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If I am shooting a patched rb, I load 70grs of 3f GOEX. For shot loads, I knock it down to 50grs with an equal amount of #7 or 8 shot using the powder measure. I don’t use the heavy nitro cards, they blow a hole in the shot pattern. Instead I use the thin over shot white card under and over a 3/8th inch fiber wad, then a white over shot card over the shot. I put a pin hole in the center of the over shot cards to let air escape when loading.

It should work fine. .410 shotgun wads should work

RiverRat said:

If I am shooting a patched rb, I load 70grs of 3f GOEX. For shot loads, I knock it down to 50grs with an equal amount of #7 or 8 shot using the powder measure. I don’t use the heavy nitro cards, they blow a hole in the shot pattern. Instead I use the thin over shot white card under and over a 3/8th inch fiber wad, then a white over shot card over the shot. I put a pin hole in the center of the over shot cards to let air escape when loading.

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What does the paper cards before and after the fiber was do? I'm using the lubed 3/8 was and the thin overshot card.

Mossback said:

What does the paper cards before and after the fiber was do? I'm using the lubed 3/8 was and the thin overshot card.

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The thin card shields the fiber wad from disintegrating from the explosion of the bp. Can I prove this, no, but I have been doing it this way for years and I get good shot patterns.

RiverRat said:

The thin card shields the fiber wad from disintegrating from the explosion of the bp. Can I prove this, no, but I have been doing it this way for years and I get good shot patterns.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I'm gonna try it. With the pin holes of course.

Mossback said:

What's your load with the.54 smoothie? I just patterned my TC and out of 9 different loads, the best pattern was 60grs of Triple7 and 1oz of #4 shot. Pattered at 25yds.

Click to expand...

I generally use about 70 grains of 2f and the same amount of mixed shot in my .56 smoothbore. I drop down to about 60/60 in my .45 smoothbore. And use sheep's wool over powder and shot in all my smoothies. The .45 is great for small game hunting. Anything you can hunt with a modern .410 can easily be hunted with the .45. I believe that load I use has a little more pop than a .410. was gonna try turkey hunting with it year before last but made a last minute decision to go with the .56 instead. Didn't really matter because I didn't get a shot anyway...

made a 410. from a stevens ss bolt, cut off where brass cart. area. drill n tap 5/8s-18 used grade 8 breach plug. fit to underhammer receiver, marked for nipple,drill n tap. use 40gr. 3f, table spoon cornmeal to take up space of 410 cart., shot cup,1oz#6 oliveoil wet fiber wad on top. first outing n first shot nice gray n still had hickory in mouth. have photo not sure how to post. can send to cell #. mike

planefixer da50 said:

made a 410. from a stevens ss bolt, cut off where brass cart. area. drill n tap 5/8s-18 used grade 8 breach plug. fit to underhammer receiver, marked for nipple,drill n tap. use 40gr. 3f, table spoon cornmeal to take up space of 410 cart., shot cup,1oz#6 oliveoil wet fiber wad on top. first outing n first shot nice gray n still had hickory in mouth. have photo not sure how to post. can send to cell #. mike

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That sounds like an interesting project.

I use between 1/2- 3/4 oz in mine, any thing from 7.5-#4 shot. Just thin cards Vis a leather punch for wads.
Adding a lube helps .
Fine powder 4 or 3f and not much of it.
How many photos do you want?

We had a discussion on “half inch” (.50 smoothbore) imported squirreling pieces in the 18th C. a while back.

Not technically the same but if I may I can extrapolate my experience with modern shotguns. At normal hunting range the ie. The skeet field the 28 gauge(54 cal) is the full equal of the 20 and 12 gauge. Extensive records bear this out, including mine. The .410 ga shows. Much less percentage of birds broken.
However:
I enjoyed many days s shooting dove with a 410 SxS.
Shooting flying birds is a different thing than stationary game.

I have a 38" smooth .47 7/8 straight barrel bored out by Jim Everett, and a.45 smooth swamped barrel by Ed Rayl. Both have breech plugs set up for a L. Day swivel lock.
I'll get around to putting the rifle together one day, but at 78 , if someone makes an offer...?

My 1570's Durch Matchlock by Rudyard is a 44 bore smoothbore - I shoot 90gr Of Goex FFFg (or NZ Holy Smoke) with a longish wad column - thin over powder/3 dry felt /3 lubed felt/3 dry felt /thin card - patched .430 ball from a Dixie Mould - why all the wads? Well the more I put in the tighter the group became - it has done cutting groups at 50meters. Have tried shot with a lighter charge for fun and it seemed to shoot ok - but mainly I shoot it in MLAIC events - Tanegashima and Hizadai. As an aside I milled the top off the Dixie mould and fitted a more conventional sprue cut-off plate but made the plate of Aluminium - sounds weird but it works - I got the idea from an NRA Publication.

Still works , the itty bitty.45 took two pigeons today for two shots off the wing.
One was lost in thick cover .