Deer rifle, Squirrel Rifle and Smoothbore

[nkbj]

Murphinator please check the regs of the locations you plan to hunt. As Brockennoch stated some locations have minimums.

When I was younger and learning, using cartridges I was taught by an older gentleman from the South East that a .410 would do what I needed if I did my part.

That included deer, duck, pheasant and turkey at appropriate range. Having done that for food I know it works. I do not recommend this for deer except for survival though.

Well I'm long winded but I currently use a .50 smoothbore TC Hawken. Shot to 30 yards for flying birds or small fast moving and PRB or LEE 360 grain improved minie for everything else.

Please sir, tell all about your smooth bore .50 loads for small game.

 

[LSLibelo]

nkbj please note that this is my way and your milage may very.

Please remember that each firearm like each shooter is onto itself and has it's own preferences.

To any this may offend I apologize but My beliefs will not allow me to post photos of any animal I have killed.

My shot loading for the .50 Hawken started with 7/8oz of lead sandwiched between TOW(heavy wool felt) about 1/2" OP and about 1/16-1/8" OS set on top of 63 grains fffg Swiss measured by volume.

I say started because that was the loading I found performed best. I have been relocated to and am currently in California. Since I don't use shot cups and my barrel was not made for steel, California does not allow lead for hunting, I'm trying to find proper bismuth loadings so almost all of my BP loading data for hunting was with lead and outdated for my current location.

Please remember that changing powder or shot volumes will change patterns and the shooter will need to experiment safely to determine what specifics would be best for the desired results.

 

[ryoung14]

New Englander it is a fully round barrel

Also the Black Mountain Magnum and the Greyhawk if you can stand synthetic stocks.

They also have rubber recoil pads if you want those with the 12 Bore. Never shot ball with mine but it's a soft shooter with shot.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

Earlier I posted about needing a rifle to start out with for deer hunting and I posted about a DGW Mountain Rifle which I ended up not buying. Earlier this morning and over the past few days as well a forum member here who has been very helpful to me in the past and a fellow Marylander @SmoothboreMurph sent me a couple of PM's asking me to come over to his farm and shoot his collection to fet a feel for what I want and need. So I shot his friends Jaeger and found its shortness not to my liking. I shot his Brown Bess and that was an awesome experience, especially his Turkey load that feels like a mule decided to send your shoulder off to California via air mail. After talking with him and his friends and explaining to them what I wanted in a rifle they gave me a good starter point to take off from. They suggested that I just build a Kibler kit. I got to talking about an everything rifle for all the years to come and well the answer seemed simple to them. "Kibler Colonial .58 caliber", that way I could hunt all over the country if I ever wanted to do that. I never even thought of that, then they suggested a few smoothbores. The biggest two suggestions were either a 16ga folwer/fusil or a 12 ga as they werent big fans of the .62/20ga. Im definitely got a Brown Bess though from Murph he was fixing one up, a Pedersoli he bought from a local who didnt take care of it right. Its got some surface rust I get cleaned up but for his price at $475 I couldnt turn it down hell the barrel marking makes it only 3 years old that beats the $1100-$1200 retail price. He did tell me that a bess is merely the tip of the iceberg and a fowler is better for hunting. Lastly, they suggested a squirrel/game rifle. They all kinda decided that .32/.36 are the best calibers but they dont own any so they said to ask questions here. Over the coming days or weeks I will ask the forum a few questions to try and get all my ducks in a row and finally get this damn train of mine moving. This is why this forum is a godsend. I have always wanted to get into traditional muzzleloading and at first I was terribly lost trying to sift through all the different things. But after about 6 hours yesterday of spewing smoke and making about 2 acres of land smell like rotten eggs as well as a few long disscussions I can move on with getting my first hunting flintlocks.

I hunted geese for years with my Brown Bess Carbine…great all purpose smooth bore. That gun has taken 2 deer, and countless geese, rabbits, squirrels, pheasants, quail and doves. Very versatile, loads of fun.

A nice 20 gauge is no slouch either…it’ll do everything that the Bess can do, and do it with less powder and lead.

 

[Tom Compton]

Flintlock arms that cover my uses.

.40 flintlock saw handle pistol 8” Oregon bbl solely for targets.

.36 long rifle a rescue I salvaged. 13/16x42” bbl. no particular school. Fun shooter and small game gun.

.40 SMR 13/16 x 36” barrel. Recently converted from percussion. Nice and light. Looking forward to load development here. Recuperating from back surgery.

.48 SMR after almost 40 years the 7/8” x 42” .40 was getting heavy and land to land went from .400 to .403 so off to Hoyt to pare some weight (see above).

.54 GM barrel on a TC Renegade stock L&R lock, Davis triggers and Hawken shop furniture. Main gun for deer, elk, hogs and I hope a Buffalo.

20 ga NWTG. 36” bbl. So far Likes .600 ball, .015” lubed patch over 60 gr FFg. Need more load development on shot but no doubt it’ll do for Turkey, upland birds, rabbits & squirrels. This may go on the Buffalo hunt but with a bit more powder. I have nothing against bear black or griz.

If I can’t do it with one of these, we’ll I don’t need to mess with it. My percussion guns are kept due to personal associations with makers.