Bare Ball Shooting Smooth Bore

[Archer 756]

How many shoot their smooth bore without any patch. Shoot my 28ga. today and was surprise of how accurate it shoot with out any patch. I found out the Civil War smooth bores are shoot with no patch. One just have to get right sized ball. My 28ga shoots .550 ball.

 

[tenngun]

I think you will find one or two on this forum

 

[B P Maniac Shooter]

Yep...I've used mine plenty of times with no patch.

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

How many shoot their smooth bore without any patch. Shoot my 28ga. today and was surprise of how accurate it shoot with out any patch. I found out the Civil War smooth bores are shoot with no patch. One just have to get right sized ball. My 28ga shoots .550 ball.

That is not true. The Civil War smoothbore muskets were fired with musket cartridges using undersized balls. The paper was not separated from the balls before loading, and in fact acted as “windage”.

 

[Maven]

How many shoot their smooth bore without any patch. Shoot my 28ga. today and was surprise of how accurate it shoot with out any patch. I found out the Civil War smooth bores are shoot with no patch. One just have to get right sized ball. My 28ga shoots .550 ball.

Take a look at this, Archer: Tow Wads, Part 2

 

[Brokennock]

I shoot my smoothrifle with either 85 grains 3f under a .610 ball, with a thin card separating powder from a lubed felt wad, then the ball, then another thin card holding it all in place. Or, 65 grains 3f and a .594 ball patched with .010 pocket drill.
My Fusil des Chase always shot best with 80 grains 3f and a .600 ball with .010 patch. But, I hadn't experimented as much with wads and balls with it before a barrel pin lug let loose. Once I fix it I will play with loads utilizing wads some more.

Some guys have success with a truly bare ball. No wads or anything. But, I notice they are all using pretty heavy power charges to achieve the accuracy the rest of us are getting with wads or patches. Some recent chronograph tests posted on the ALR forum using patches ball vs. card wads vs. tow wads showed a significant decrease in velocity from patch to cards to tow. Which would seem to explain the need for heavier and heavier powder charges as one decreases the gas seal created by patch or wad.

Here are the notes I took from the video posted of the testing,

Hopefully my writing can be read and makes sense. The energy calculator was using the 65 grain 2f and 85 grain 2f patched ball data.

 

[flinter1977]

I get good deer accuracy with the
62 cal tow them ball then tow. The tow is lubed slightly with my beeswax and lard lube.

 

[George]

Some recent chronograph tests posted on the ALR forum using patches ball vs. card wads vs. tow wads showed a significant decrease in velocity from patch to cards to tow.

Thanks for posting that. I began my experimenting with tow wads using tow only, no cards, for both bare ball and shot. I had success with that loading, but always felt the loads weren't as strong as they should be. I suspected gas was leaking though the tow, in other words, I was getting a poor seal. I tried putting a brown paper wad overpowder and was not surprised to find the shots stronger and more consistent. I now use that combination anytime I'm shooting bare ball or shot wadded with tow, and am pleased with the result. I never measured velocities for any of the combinations, but I'm confident that brown paper wad increased them.

Spence

 

[Cruzatte]

How many shoot their smooth bore without any patch.

Yup. I do.

 

[tenngun]

Black powder tv did experiments with tow, and patch for velocity testing . Results were near 200 fps slower for tow wadded over patches. I was expecting fifty maybe a hundred.
That said a .62 ball at 1100 fps at the muzzle should turn most any North America game animal in to dinner at fifty yards.

 

[Grenadier1758]

@Brokennock , were your velocities measured in feet/second? The calculation requires the velocity to be in meters/second. 1184 feet/second would be 361 meters/second. And the mass would be in kilograms not grains. 342 grains would be 22.1 grams or 0.0221 kg KE would be 1,440 joules

 

[Brokennock]

Were your velocities measured in feet/second? The calculation requires the velocity to be in meters/second. 1184 feet/second would be 361 meters/second. And the mass would be in grams not grains. 342 grains would be 22.1 grams

The online calculator allows you to choose your unit of measure.
I screwed up and took a screen shot of the ones before I figured that out.
Didn't realize til now. Thanks.

 

[Brokennock]

@Brokennock , were your velocities measured in feet/second? The calculation requires the velocity to be in meters/second. 1184 feet/second would be 361 meters/second. And the mass would be in kilograms not grains. 342 grains would be 22.1 grams or 0.0221 kg KE would be 1,440 joules

Here it is with grains and fps selected,

For the record, I don't see this as a great predictor of anything. It is simply a set of data points for comparison. I usually just use IDPA power factor as it is easier.

 

[Grenadier1758]

That KE calculator doesn't allow for the selection of grains, the g is grams so you would have to convert grains to grams, kilograms, ounces or pounds. The 342 grains converts to 22.1 grams. The result is 1,439.12 Joules.

None the less, once we get the correct units we can have a data point that we can use for comparison.

https://www.calculatorsoup.com/calc...cond&sf=0&given_data_last=energy&action=solve

 

[Archer 756]

To all the point was shooting with out patch. As I was told Civil War acting has to shoot bare balls only. That is a rule they have to follow. N-SSA

 

[smo]

I'm a bare baller too.....

 

[toot]

I two am a true bare baller also. my 54 CAL and my 62 CAL smooth bore rock locks are fired with no wadding or material under or on top of the ball. just the ball crushed into the powder. the ball is a tight fit when inserted into the barrel.

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

A 62 roundie with a full load is enough for any animal short of an Alaskan elephant.

 

[flntlokr]

How many shoot their smooth bore without any patch. Shoot my 28ga. today and was surprise of how accurate it shoot with out any patch. I found out the Civil War smooth bores are shoot with no patch. One just have to get right sized ball. My 28ga shoots .550 ball.

I have shot my smooth .54 both ways. My gun has a tight bore; about .538. I shoot a .530 ball with either a thin patch or a half-thickness fibre wad with a thin card over the ball to keep it in there. My feeling is that the wad shoots better, but not so much that I can really tell. I like the simplicity of patch better tho'. Just work it out both ways, and decide which is better for you.

 

[hanshi]

I've done a fair amount of bare ball shooting but not hunting, so far. I'd be comfortable using it for deer up to 40 or maybe even 50 yards.