Cleaning Between Shots with a Shotgun Muzzleloader.

[cannonball1]

I have accepted an invitation to let a bunch of young men shoot my English Sporting Shotgun at clays. I will be loading the gun for them. The SHOTGUNNING with blackpowder is quite new to me; however, I am an old hand at rifle muzzleloading. I know how to load the ML, just don't how many shots I can expect to take before cleaning it. Would appreciate any input.

 

[TreeMan]

Depends on your loading components. I use spit lubed TOW over powder and shot. I can shoot for infinity without swabbing. If you use cards and wads n such maybe every few shots. If you use something lubed maybe more.

 

[cannonball1]

This is a 12 Ga. Basically the Skychief formula thus: Powder, white over shot wad, 13 ga nitro wad(fits, but goes down the barrel easy), shot, white overshot wad, and olive oiled fiber wad.

 

[SciAggie]

With my gun loaded with the same load I get many shots (>12) with no issues. I just seldom shoot more than a dozen shots out hunting so I don’t know where the limit may be. YMMV

 

[Lorne Johnson]

I find that 25 to 30 rounds per barrel is the limit with my Pedersoli 20 gauge, less with the 12. YMMV. It's different than rifle.

 

[BoomStick]

Fired as many as 24 with no swabbing and no real difference in loading from the 2nd shot and after. It's a 20-gauge, cards and fiber wad all lubed with track's mink oil. I did start to notice the fouling around the vent and flint were getting a little troublesome, but loading was fine.

 

[fleener]

I dont clean between shots. However, my wads fit tight and clean as I am loading. I use a lubed wad, some I know simply soak them in water prior to loading.

Fleener

 

[Britsmoothy]

I shot over 100 crows the day this photo was taken.
I used a breech loader in tandem to a muzzleloader.
I had about 40 vials of powder and the same for shot.
I think I shot the lot but didn't clean once.
I did use plenty of lube regularly.

 

[ohio ramrod]

I shoot my shotguns with out swabing between shots up to 50 shots with no problems.

 

[Kansas Kid]

Too much swabbing will most likely muck the flash/powder channel up causing misfires and anguish. Liberal use of lube on your wads like others have said will eliminate the need for swabbing.

 

[Black Powder Guy]

Another member from here was talking about sheeps wool as tow. It is not flamable. I now live in southeast Arizona. Shooting a smoothbore will not cause
fires in the desert. Remember this if you shoot in a dry spell. The wool has Lanolin in the raw state.

 

[Oso136]

I went duck hunting a few weeks ago and then again today. Last time I shot 20 shots without swabbing and it loaded the same every time. 80 gr real black, nitro card, greased 1/2 inch thick wad, 1 ¼Oz steel shot and over shot card. Pedersoli 12 ga sxs.

 

[hanshi]

I never swabbed a smoothbore gun until cleaning time arrived. Nothing seemed to change from shot to shot to make me even think about it.

 

[Ponderosaman]

When I was patterning my gun for turkey, I didn’t use the waxed fiber wads and found subsequent shots to be incredibly hard to load. Since then, I’ve used the waxed fiber wads and that makes loading manageable indefinitely.