Another Smoothbore Question

[Ponderosaman]

Never hunted them but buck and ball might work pretty good on yotes?

 

[Brokennock]

As for why? WHY NOT? Do you ask a 21st Century person why they dress up as someone from Centuries gone by, and interact with others that do the same?

Yes, yes people here do,,, all the time. Maybe not Hanshi, but others.

Sometimes the reason someone wants load or gun info can influence the answer, or prevent someone from going through with a bad idea.
The reason might lead to a "why not."

 

[skwerleater]

Loading buck n ball, or smoothbore with patched ball or bare ball, shot loads with wadding or hornets nest or card wads or paper or leaves, double balling a rifle, my sense of it is, it doesn’t have to make sense to others if you want to try it, even if it’s just to see how buck n ball or other loads would perform on a paper target. We can argue that there is no point in using most of the items/techniques and we use in muzzleloading but then all the fun would be gone!

 

[Ponderosaman]

Loading buck n ball, or smoothbore with patched ball or bare ball, shot loads with wadding or hornets nest or card wads or paper or leaves, double balling a rifle, my sense of it is, it doesn’t have to make sense to others if you want to try it, even if it’s just to see how buck n ball or other loads would perform on a paper target. We can argue that there is no point in using most of the items/techniques and we use in muzzleloading but then all the fun would be gone!

I have shot buck and ball in my pops .69 smoothbore Springfield. He wanted to see it on paper because he’s a big history buff. It was about a 4 or 5 inch spread at 25 yards if I remember correctly.

 

[stephenprops1]

We tend to forget that during the French and Indian War (F&I), those wearing the dapper red coats were on our side.

Buck and Ball loads were common to both sides whether the uniform was white (F&I French), blue, red (F&I & AWI) or blue or gray. These were loads intended to create as many casualties as possible to the other side.

Actually, regarding the F&I War and those in the dapper red coats, we were on their side. We were British citizens then.

 

[Woody Morgan]

Apparently in case of red coats. Maybe its a good load for foxes Britsmoothy

I dunno if I'd use "Britsmoothy" and "red coats" in the same post. You might be declared a red fox(x).

wm

 

[tenngun]

Since we are no longer engaged in formal hostilities there is no reason or use for buck & ball loads. Even if we were I'd choose a more modern arm. All one needs to handle everything from clays to deer is a patched ball load and a shot load. In shooting buckshot loads, both muzzleloaders and modern, 25 yards is only a maybe while 50 yards is more of an "are you kidding"?! One big round ball drops deer like a sledge hammer while shot loads work wonders on everything else.

Yup
A fat ball in the lights will drop most any game. The extra wounds from buck would just be extra blood shot

 

[Ray-Vigo]

I've shot buck and ball quite a bit in all of my different smoothbores at paper targets as well as several borrowed from friends. It was to see what the load could do at various distances because I am a history buff. I experimented with it quite a bit over several years.

My experience was that, for a large majority of the smoothbores, buck and ball decreased the accuracy of the ball compared to a tight single ball load, with the benefit in return being that you have a couple shot pellets thrown out somewhere in the vicinity of the target. The effectiveness of those added pellets at 50 yards was not terribly good. At that distance, they just seemed to fly wherever. Occasionally one would land on a torso-sized target. At 35 yards and under, you could reasonably consistently put the ball and the wayward shot pellets on a torso-sized target.

However, a tight ball load, carefully loaded, was more accurate. The buck and ball was not significantly less accurate than a rushed "military" type load with a single undersized ball to facilitate loading. The biggest drawback of the buck and ball was dealing with the additional small pellets when loading for speed. It's easier to account for that one large musket ball and ram it home. I found it easier to fumble with or drop pellets here and there during rapid loading. I'm sure with more practice, it gets better.

Having tried it in probably dozen or so different smoothbores, my impression is the buck and ball load is best used as a sort of shock weapon to demoralize enemy troops and cause a degree of wounding at relatively short ranges. This is conventional wisdom, and my fooling around with the loading seemed to go with just that. It is not something I would use for hunting (the tight, carefully loaded ball in the smoothbore was best for pure accuracy - no surprises).

 

[nightwolf1974]

I never claimed it was for hunting..........but point taken. I always keep my options open, and look to the past to think about the future.......

 

[hanshi]

Just for comparison, these are a few of the many three shot targets where only one (1) round was loaded at a time. These targets are typical for the gun (flint smoothbore). A 330 grain ball patched or non patched works in the deer woods. So NO, if you are ever stormed by enemy troops do not get out the BP smoothbore. Rather grab that multi-shot unmentionable. BUT; if OTOH you just like to experiment, test loads or just have fun burning powder, go for it! Nothing wrong at all with doing that. I like to "mess around" with stuff like that myself.
Bare ball target on the left and prb target on the right.