Do I NEED a Fowler or Fusil?

[Treestalker]

Well…. A big smooth bore will eat a lot of powder up fast. I’m trending more to a small caliber rifle with a peep sight..

I'm presently building a 9mm/.35 cal. smoothbore which hope to be able to take small game with, maybe it won't gobble too much powder. But, I have a .60 caliber smoothie barrel waiting in the corner, if the 9mm doesn't cut it.

 

[sawyer04]

Smoothies are ml for experienced ml shooters

Unless you cut your eye teeth using one. The first rifle I had experience with I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, finally got it tuned in, but went back to the smooth bore for ease of loading and versatility.

 

[Loja man]

I’m not sure about you but now I think I need one! I have been thinking for a while it would be great to go after turkeys, squirrels and rabbits with a black powder shotgun. But a fusil would let me hunt deer to!

 

[tenngun]

People have their disagreements, but if it was a survival situation I would choose a fusil.
Old saw is At rendezvous and western fur trade/plains period ‘Canadians’ choose a fusil and ‘Americans’ chose a rifle.
So it’s not a wholly modern debate

 

[rj morris]

ypu need a 24 ga. tradegun

 

[mushka]

fowler, fusil, don't really know or care about the difference. I'd just take any single barrel smoothbore flint lock 62-20 with or without a rear sight. I'm easy.

 

[Nuthatch]

People have their disagreements, but if it was a survival situation I would choose a fusil.
Old saw is At rendezvous and western fur trade/plains period ‘Canadians’ choose a fusil and ‘Americans’ chose a rifle.
So it’s not a wholly modern debate

I just finished up a Boone biography last night. I believe the author said that at one fight, possibly the Battle of the Blue Licks, Boone had a fowler (fowling gun/smoothbore/boomstick) with buck & ball, the preferred setup for close-range engagement, though many of the others had rifles. Seems that, like today, different people have different tools for different reasons at different times.

 

[Travis186]

I will say, I'm more of a "spirit of" kind of guy. I'm not worried about being 100% historically accurate or correct anymore. I just want to enjoy these firearms for what they are, the challenges that come with using them and hunting with them, and give honor to the men that came before us by using them to fill the freezer and have a good time at the range.

 

[ArtyGunner]

I have taken black bear with .620 rb out of an English fowler and grouse with my Bess musket. The most satisfying way to harvest game by far. Signed a flintlock addict

 

[Blue_Duck_97]

I went through this decision a year ago. I wound up picking up a Pedersoli Brown Bess. I've not had the opportunity to hold or shoot a fowling piece but I imagine a fowling piece is a bit lighter and probably points quicker. As such I'm still inclined to buy another smoothbore that is a dedicated fowling piece. As it stands now, my Bess gets much more range/hunt time than my Lyman flintlock deerstalker.

 

[Ferret Master]

I use my Brown Bess for squirrel hunting. Hard to beat 2oz of #5 shot for puling squirrels out of a big oak tree. I have a Fussil De Chase as well but my Bess load throws a bit tighter pattern. I use 45 yards as a max range.

 

[Yewbender]

I bet you shoot it more than your rifle!

A rifle is like a wheelie bow, a smoothbore is a trad bow.
Now it may just be me, but when a see a trad bow take a game animal I always think the archers grin is just a tinsy wincy bit wider

Well said Brit

 

[Juniata]

I'm a fan of smoothies.
I built my first one 2 years ago. A NW trade gun.
Fun to shoot, easy to load, easy to clean the bore.
Patched roundball I'm pretty deadly out to 50. I shot 2 deer with mine last fall. One at 50 the other just over 50.
Then in late season, load it up with shot and go shoot squirrels. Very versatile.
I since have built a rifle and I like having that rear sight, it's a 45 so I'm limiting myself to 80 yards or so.
That's one thing about a smoothbore, you gotta know how to hold it account of not having that rear sight.
I would put a rear sight on my trade gun but then I couldn't complete at our club in the category under smoothbore.
If I were you I'd get one. Why not?

 

[tenngun]

Back in the day rifled gave the ‘miracle of accuracy’. A smoothie might hit a barrel four out of five times at a hundred yards, a rifle could hit a tankard.
When the Brits adopted the baker rifle and printed targets with 8”-12” groups at a hundred yards, and folks ohhhed and ahhhed.
At the start of the revolution folks in Massachusetts were awed to see a company of westerners shoot a 9”x12” shingle at sixty yards.
Today we expect one ragged hole at a hundred yards even if we don’t get it.
Silly pursuit.
Should one be able to hit a a dinner plate at the range you hunt you put deer in the freezer.
But if you show up at the Nationals and your rifle is getting an eight inch group at a hundred yards don’t bother joining a competition.
Just go home and have some venison stew.
On the other hand when you make a good shot with a smooth bore, folks ohhh and awwww.
You get to put on some fake humility and talk about how you really have to work with a smoothie to get it to shoot well. Hours and hours of hard work at the range (sic).
When you miss, we’ll you just smile and say “what’s you expect it’s a smooth bore after all’
Win win

 

[Docgp]

Where you located in SE TX?? Maybe we can go shoot!

Shot you a PM

Doc

 

[The Crisco Kid]

No one on their death bed ever said, gee I wish I hadn’t bought that ( fill in The blank).

That's only if the dying man had never shopped at Harbor Freight or Walmart!

 

[Art Caputo]

I was a late comer to the Fowler/Smoothbore, acquiring one about 15 years ago when a muscle injury put the kabash on my favored longbow for turkeys. I made the decision to hunt turkeys with a ML. Being predominately a deer/squirrel hunter using flintlock rifles for decades, I acquired a 62 cal Fowler. I did some load work with LRB’s with the goal of trying out the versatility of using one ML for all game here in the Northeastern woodlands. The results certainly proved this out with the Fowler. I must admit that out of long term habit, I still prefer my Flint rifles for deer, coyotes, and squirrels…..My Fowler for turkey, and the occasional rabbit/bird hunt.