For an old guy like me coning is labor intensive, each barrel took me about 2 hours, a couple of sore hands and lots of 220 wet or dry sandpaper.
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To add a middle ground to this thread:
I read the patent application by A. Clark, April 24, 1840. He believed a 0 degree crown (dead flat and sharp) to be the best ballistic solution for the exit of a patched projectile. He also recognized the such a muzzle would very likely damage the patch, ruining accuracy - and noted that the normal solution to the damaged patch was a crowned or rounded muzzle, which also induced poor accuracy (funny, in his patent note he included a 1/8” crown - and a funneled barrel - both will “almost certainly, is, that the quality of the piece for accurate shooting will be impaired”). Thus his proposal for a false muzzle that would solve both problems, by providing a funneled barrel you could remove after you got your patch and ball loaded.
So, pick your poison:
>Use a modern crowned steel barrel, as provided by the barrel manufacturer, for the best ballistic solution - provided you get the patch into barrel undamaged…or
>Use a coned (funneled) barrel to make sure the patch is entered to the barrel undamaged, eliminating the inaccuracy induced by a damaged patch, but marginally reducing optimal ballistic accuracy.
Note: Clark assumed a short crown or “enlarged” muzzles were common.
I have four muzzleloaders, some coned, some not, each to a purpose:
1. A Miroko pistol from 1970 that was rebuilt and restocked. It had a 0 degree muzzle and was impossible to load (turned out it was 44Cal not 45Cal - which is what the original box said). Funneled it with a Joe Wood tool. Went from couldn’t hit 2’ panel at 15 yards to hitting an 8” target. Offhand.
2. A Chambers York flintlock with a Rice A weight barrel in 45Cal, with round bottom grooves. Funneled it so I could thumb start it. Did not see a drop off in accuracy, but I shoot it off hand.
3. A ToTW Jim Bridger Hawken, sporting a Goodoien 60Cal target barrel. No touchy with Coning tool. Bench shooting.
4. A Pecatonica Gibbs rifle shooting 500 grain Lee Shaver postals. Drop load so no Coning. Bench shooting.
Match the tool to the job.