10 bore deer hunting loads

[PvtC]

Gonna need to develop a 10 bore smoothie load for deer huntin. Anyone care to share theirs? I'm thinkin .735 ball, .020 patch with about 100 grains of 2F. Please also share your gun style and recoil experience with your load recommendations. Digressin a bit, does anyone else remember a Muzzle Blasts article featuring a guy who hunted with original bess muskets? His powder charge for buck and ball was allegedly upwards of 200 grains of sifted powder :shocked2: I was surprised the NMLRA let that one slip through despite the liability disclaimer. This guy did report that the animals dropped with very little "residual movement".

 

[SCATTERSHOT]

Seems like I remember that article. His name was Ted Belue, if I recall.

 

[rich pierce]

It's going to kick and the drop is going to be significant, but you're probably sticking to 50 yards anyway. I'd be shooting about 120 of FFG or FG powder just because that would my upper limit for recoil unless the gun was heavy. I shoot 90 grains of FFG in my 20 ga with round ball and it kicks pretty good for bench shooting. Offhand is not so noticeable.

 

[guncobbler]

I use a .735 ball in my 11 bore (75 cal). Think you could get better accuracy with a bigger bullet and thinner patch. The DGW catalog lists the diameter of a 10 gauge at .775. Your combination looks a little loose.

I'm shooting 100 grains pyrodex under the 600 grain 735 ball. This is the first gun that I have heard the twack of the ball hitting the target backer. Haven't weighed the rifle yet but it is heavy. Maybe 9, 10 pounds. The recoil is not sharp but it does push back a bit slowly... Shot 18 rounds off the bench the first time out and did not get a sore shoulder. Not sure if the headache the next day was related.... GC

 

[ffffg]

generally approximatly .015- .020 under bore size is a good place to start for ball diameter.. id go with .020, some others my pitch in about this... .. then try .015 patch and go up .005 and down .005 with patch thickness with different loads and types of powder and see if you can get her to shoot well.. dont worry about knocking thier sox off, they doent wear them.. just get a good accurate hit, and youll have massive bleading, and youll get your meat.. .. usually smoothbore usesses less poweder for best accuracy.. you should wait until you get the gun and mike the bore, and have jeff tanner make you a mould.. he is in england and still making custom odd sizes as far as i know.. you have to cut the spru by hand.. just put jeff tanner and mold (or mould) in your search engine and he should pop up.. big bores are tougher becouse the balls diameter tends to make it a little harder to load if its a little big so size will be important.. if the ball is a little small you can get blow by,.. but each gun has its best load and it will be different from most other guns.. so youll have to do some experimenting, .. good luck dave

 

[Wes/Tex]

Can't help with the article but have seen one similar done many years ago by a guy using original Besses, Baker Rifles and English fowlers. He seems to have started the sifting powder idea. He had made a multi-level box with slide out trays of different sizes of screen to catch the various sizes of powder grains and blow away the dust found in all powder cans. His Bess load was .760" ball for the first shot and .750" balls for follow-up shots out of an original Bess with a true 10 bore (.775"). He also loaded the original 5 gram load which is about 135 grains of FFg, a bit heavy for use with modern powders, to say the least.

For whatever it's worth, I've used 80 grains of FFg for most hunting loads with any modern Bess copy. The velocity isn't supersonic, I'll grant you, but those big balls are still loaping along at a fair speed to topple any deer you'll find in this country. Good luck.

 

[J.D.]

PvtC,
For smoothbore patch/ball dimentions, figure that bore size minus ball diameter should equal 2X patch thickness. For example, My 11 bore mics .748 and I shoot a .715 ball. .748-.715= .033. .033/2 = .0165, or .017 patch thickness.

In my case, I had over a yard of .015 thick fabric and tried some patches of that thickness. This patch/ball combinations thumb starts and shoots well enough to hit an 18" diameter gong at 100 yards fairly consistently, when shooting off hand, so I stayed with that combination.

I think the 10 bore mics around .775, so .775-.735=.040. .040/2 gives a patch thickness of
.020, so you should be in the ballpark with that combination.

My load in the Italian Bess is a comfortable 80 gr of GOEX FFG, so, again, if you can stand the recoil, a 100 gr FFG is in the ballpark.
J.D.

 

[PvtC]

Thx JD. What is your sight picture when bangin the 100 yard gong?

 

[J.D.]

Sights? They have sights? :rotf:

I just put the front sight on top of the gong, and lower the butt about half way down the shoulder. This seems to work for me, but your mileage may vary.

Keep in mind that I sometimes hit the ground in front of the gong and get a hit on the rebound, so to speak. Bouncing them in is considered a hit in this area. A hit is a hit, even if the ball bounces off someting to get there. :shocked2:

I read a post on another list where someone painted his musket balls with flourescent orange paint. He reported that the balls were highly visible when the sun was behind the shooter.

You might try this to see where your balls strike the ground near, or not so near the target, as the case may be. :winking:

Hitting long range targets with any gun depends on practice, and what works for me may, or may not work for you.

Good luck and have fun. These big bore guns are a hoot to play with.
J.D.