10 gauge round ball
- Thread starter jsb30
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We used to hunt with SxS 10 Ga. w/ patched R/B in doe season Pa. As the shot gun came from the factory , the right barrel was on center at 30 yds. . The second barrel was a little low and to the right. Both barrels would have killed. Both 10 Ga. hit the same w/ patched r/b. Both were identical Pedersoli 's. oldwood
I've never tried it, as I haven't owned a SxS muzzleloader, but there's no reason you couldn't do so if you wished. Lots of people have/do load their SxS frontstuffers with balls, whether patched, wadded with tow, etc. As oldwood noted, and based upon my reading on the subject over the years, you can expect different points of impact from each barrel. Other than that, no worries. A 10 ga ball should weigh in at about 1.5 or 1.6 oz, depending on what size you settle on, which is a reasonable payload weight in a 10, and the gun doesn't care if that weight is one projectile or a bunch of smaller ones. As always with MLs, you'll have to experiment with ball sizes, patches, wadding, powder charges, etc. to find what your gun likes best.
edit: I recall specifically a pretty extensive chapter in one of Fadala's old books about him trying to regulate the barrels of a SxS 12 gauge (iirc) to get them to shoot close to the same point downrange with balls. He did a lot of filing of the muzzles and a few other tricks, but all these years later I don't recall the exact outcome. If you don't have the desire or feel qualified to do such tweaks to your gun and your gun shoots a good bit off with one barrel or the other, it may be best to just settle on using whichever barrel shoots closest to POA and use that barrel for ball for hunting larger critters, if that's what you plan to use the gun for.
edit: I recall specifically a pretty extensive chapter in one of Fadala's old books about him trying to regulate the barrels of a SxS 12 gauge (iirc) to get them to shoot close to the same point downrange with balls. He did a lot of filing of the muzzles and a few other tricks, but all these years later I don't recall the exact outcome. If you don't have the desire or feel qualified to do such tweaks to your gun and your gun shoots a good bit off with one barrel or the other, it may be best to just settle on using whichever barrel shoots closest to POA and use that barrel for ball for hunting larger critters, if that's what you plan to use the gun for.
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I shot a .731" ball from my Brown Bess. Still have the mould.
I’d suggest measuring the bores before investing in a mold or purchasing balls, my Pedersoli 10g double is cyl bore in both barrels and measures about .765 ish, according to Pedersoli it’s so you can use modern 10g shotgun wads for steel shot etc, just something to think about.
.765" verses .775" to make the difference in using steel proof wads! Really?
I would like to see this quote from Pedersoli please.
To answer your question, yes it’d be perfectly practical to shoot/hunt with round ball from your Pedersoli, as long as you find the correct load and know where the barrels are shooting with your chosen load, Track Of The Wolf has a large assortment of ball sizes you could experiment with, with that said let me clarify what I said in my earlier post when I mentioned plastic wads, which by the way I do not use nor are the allowed discussed here per the forum rules, I only mentioned the wads to point out that according to Pedersoli, at least when my gun was built, 1985, they made the 10 gauge with a smaller bore, .765 or thereabouts vs .775, now the only reason I mentioned this is that if you plan on eventually ordering a custom mold for your gun you’ll need to know what size your bore measures so you can order the correct size according to your patch thickness etc, apologize for any confusion.
Look on the bottom of the barrels at the breech end you’ll see a number on each barrel, that will be the barrel dimensions, it’ll be a metric dimension btw.
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Just adding my experience with a Pedersoli sxs shotgun. It was nominally supposed to be a 12 ga. But, it actually measured as a 14 ga. with both barrels choked. I found it impossible to load with a patched ball and almost impossible for a shot load with wads. 14 ga. wads were too large to get past the choke. I had a gunsmith ream out one barrel to cylinder bore and that barrel shot great after than. Neverthless, I never liked the gun and was happy to sell it. Lesson learned: for factory made ml gun, rifle or shotty, the stated caliber/bore is only nominal. I have another Pedersoli 12 ga. that is actually an 11 ga.
I’m assuming you have one cylinder bore and one choked, mine are both cylinder bore but smaller, should be easy to buy wads etc if you wanted to go that route.
Irrespective of any choking that measurement is the barrels. So they are well withing a nominal bore for a 10g.
Pedersoli today say nothing of undersized bores to facilitate anything!
Willy
36 Cl.
I've use patched .690 roundballs in my 12 ga double. They worked well enough for deer hunting.
Woody Morgan
62 Cal.
Forum Rules
9: We do not discuss copper and/or jacketed, plastic/polymer tipped bullets, sabots, power belts, or other 'plastic-wrapped' bullets. Smoothbores using plastic wads and steel shot are an exception to this rule.
wm
megasupermagnum
45 Cal.
Yes, I have tried round balls from my Pedersoli 10 gauge sxs. I had an older model, both barrels cylinder choke, and the bore was .764". I really don't know the reason, it was dumb. I load 10 gauge shotshells, have a host of wads, and only a Remington SP10 wad will fit down a .764" bore. Both the BPD10 and SAM1 wads will not fit, meaning no steel shot can be used in these older guns.
Back to your question, it's really a crap shoot how yours will do. In my case neither barrel was even close to POA. I found a .760" ball and a certain charge of powder shot kind of close in the right barrel. In the left barrel I used a patched .735" ball and a different charge of powder to kind of get it there, but neither was anywhere to where I would hunt with. With some work, I could have got one of the two barrels good enough for deer hunting to 40 yards. If allowed, buckshot is a much better option. Who knows though, maybe yours will shoot straight. I got adequate groups for 50-60 yard shots, just couldn't get it to shoot to the bead.
Back to your question, it's really a crap shoot how yours will do. In my case neither barrel was even close to POA. I found a .760" ball and a certain charge of powder shot kind of close in the right barrel. In the left barrel I used a patched .735" ball and a different charge of powder to kind of get it there, but neither was anywhere to where I would hunt with. With some work, I could have got one of the two barrels good enough for deer hunting to 40 yards. If allowed, buckshot is a much better option. Who knows though, maybe yours will shoot straight. I got adequate groups for 50-60 yard shots, just couldn't get it to shoot to the bead.
Never use Plastc wads with any B/P load.. You'll spend the next season trying to remove the Plastic lining from your tubes.. No fun when it's P(h)easant time.. OLD DOG..
Woody Morgan
62 Cal.
megasupermagnum
45 Cal.
You don't have to. It's real obvious who has never shot a plastic wad in a muzzleloader. I've shot both muzzleloaders and cartridges with blackpowder and plastic wads. They shoot fine, if there's any fouling at all, it's cleaned out with the powder. I have yet to see streaks of plastic like some claim, and that's in at least a dozen different guns. The only plastic fouling I've ever got was in modern guns, after hundreds of rounds on the trap range. I doubt I ever spent more than 5 minutes cleaning a shotgun barrel.
