#5 or #6 Shot for .56 Smoothbore?

[August West]

Then when I decided to have a .62cal smoothbore Virginia built, I bought a Rice smoothbore barrel and sent it to Caywood the have their Full Jug Choke installed, before sending the barrel on to the builder...it works great AND shoots PRBs for deer hunting great as well.

Been thinking a lot about having my barrel jug choked. I have a new barrel, 36" octagon to round for my renegade. I have never shot it but it is at home waiting on me to get there. I am thinking I will put a rear sight on it and shoot it some when I get home in Feb then after turkey season I might send to Caywood and have a choke cut in it but I want to shoot it a bit first. If I can't get it to shoot tight enough for turkeys I will just used my pedersoli with the modified barrel, I know it shoots tight enough. Chris

 

[md2020]

Tell us about the 36-- oct to round barrel for a Renegade-- obviously something assembled with parts--- how is the thimbles--ramrod attached etc

 

[August West]

Just ordered everything from TOW, 36" oct to round barrel, hooked breech, underlug and rib and plain iron, thimbles. Gun is not finished, I am in Korea right now and get home Feb 1 and will finish it then. My renegade is the single trigger model, so I thought it would work better as a shotgun, the stock is virtually identical to a new englander stock except for the octagon barrel channel.

Coyote Joe has a couple of guns made up like this and gave me the idea, his are really slick. One thing I kinda wish I had done different, looking at a lot of 1850 and later shotguns, especially from New England, they had wooden under ribs which in my opinion look pretty slick. I might build another for my dad and make a nice walnut underrib for it. Chris

EDIT: Thimbles are soldered on.

 

[md2020]

Thanks for the reply..That's exactly what I want to do cause my GM smooth bore barrel is so front heavy..

 

[BigDeutscher]

so what is jug choke

 

[tv_racin_fan]

Thanks for the reply..That's exactly what I want to do cause my GM smooth bore barrel is so front heavy..

Got a friend with a lathe? You should be able to find someone who can turn the forward part of that octogon barrel down. I would leave an area as big as possible right near the muzzle and do a band right at the transition area myself.

 

[Joel/Calgary]

At least in my experience, while it wasn't a common occurance, I could not permanently eliminate the occasional "slug effect" where the paper shot cup didn't open and the entire charge sailed through the target like a slug...maybe some have but I was never able to. So while the paper shot cups did tighten patterns some, I finally decided as hard as it was to get a Tom turkey's small head in range during turkey season, I didn't want the risk of getting the slug effect at that very moment and miss the rare opportunity.

Joe, did those "shot cups" have separate petals like the modern ones, or were they rolled but not slit, whether open-topped or cartridge-type? My experienced with shot cartridges and rolled but not slit shot cups was similar to yours, but I've never had a failure with a shotcup with separate petals.

Regards,
Joel