I shoot both, but prefer a smooth bore. We found when doing hunt or starve trips in wilderness areas, you sure eat better with a smooth bore.
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Do you prefer a smoothbore over rifles?
- Thread starter NorthFork
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Even though I have both, when it gets right down to it, I'm about 60-40 in favor of the smoothbore. I've always been a fan of the shotgun since I was old enough to handle my dad's old Stevens 16 ga single shot. From there it transitioned into muzzle loading doubles and back to single barrel fowlers. In fact, my favorite is an original percussion English single barrel fowler of 12 gauge. When out hunting I not only carry shot of different sizes, but some .690 round balls. For some reason, it likes a bit smaller ball with a thicker patch (I use cut up denim) with a mixture of beeswax, Crisco and toilet bowl ring as a lube.
Gordoncourtney
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The patched ball in smoothbore ML seems much better accuracy than a tight ball or slugs in a modern single barrel shotgun with chokes removed I used slugs in Nigeria but they were not very good Because of uk laws we cannot shoot deer with a shotgun I am impressed with ML. Smoothly accuracy But I have lost count of the foxes I have downed with bb shot,
i have several flintlocks uk laws wont let me hunt with. but i can , if i change them to smoothbore i can then hunt with them
of course a Lancaster is an oval smooth bore thats another topic
I have the best of both worlds a ML cape gun a 12 bore smoothly alongside a .610 two groved rifle 1863 mint condition by EM. Reilly
I wish you all well
thanks enjoyed your threads
i have several flintlocks uk laws wont let me hunt with. but i can , if i change them to smoothbore i can then hunt with them
of course a Lancaster is an oval smooth bore thats another topic
I have the best of both worlds a ML cape gun a 12 bore smoothly alongside a .610 two groved rifle 1863 mint condition by EM. Reilly
I wish you all well
thanks enjoyed your threads
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I recently moved from Limon, CO. We had a statue of a frontiersman carrying a double shot gun. One barrel loaded with shot, for birds, the other with bullet, for deer or other larger game.
They have a lure to them the smooth bore. I have owned a couple 56 bore. They shot extremely well at game distance. The ability to shoot shot is the plus for sure. If I had lived in the trapper days it would have been a double smooth bore for me. What would be better than the sights lined up for one of the barrels patched up with a round ball for a buck and a nice load of small shot to dispatch a rabbit for stew.
One point however;
I like my smoothies, and if I had to go spend a year in the tall timber I think I would reach for a smoothie.
But
A deer will feed you for a week or more, 1/100 of a pound of powder and 1/2 ounce of lead.
A Turkey will feed you for a couple/three days. Same powder as the deer, twice as much lead
A bunny or squirrel won’t make a light meal and cost the same as the Turkey.
If your packing powder and ball for a year you need be careful with supplies.
Mind you lots of shot was sold on to the frontier in the old days
I like my smoothies, and if I had to go spend a year in the tall timber I think I would reach for a smoothie.
But
A deer will feed you for a week or more, 1/100 of a pound of powder and 1/2 ounce of lead.
A Turkey will feed you for a couple/three days. Same powder as the deer, twice as much lead
A bunny or squirrel won’t make a light meal and cost the same as the Turkey.
If your packing powder and ball for a year you need be careful with supplies.
Mind you lots of shot was sold on to the frontier in the old days
In the year alone scenario I’d grab my .32 flinter deeis not out of the realm of possibility with proper shot placement and it’s very cheap on lead and powder. As long as some bear doesn’t try to make me part of the menu
Another reason to like my 20 ga. smoothie. The bears here in the Poconos are kind of on the large size, well over 500 lbs. I don't ever want to shoot a bear, but a 20 ga. with that big punkin ball down the spout I feel a little safer when I come across one.In the year alone scenario I’d grab my .32 flinter deeis not out of the realm of possibility with proper shot placement and it’s very cheap on lead and powder. As long as some bear doesn’t try to make me part of the menu
In your scenario I’d definitely take my 20 here in east Tx I can get away with smaller. When I lived in Wisconsin I would’ve definitely gone with the bigger caliber for the bear scenario
megasupermagnum
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All of my bug out bags include fishing line, and some hooks and tackle. Might weigh 2 ounces, mostly due to the snuff cans they are in. Even my Emmrod might be a pound, far less than any longarm. Between my ears are ideas for traps, both fish and animal that can be constructed with things you find in the wild. As a hunter, the idea of living solely off of hunting big game is unrealistic. Native tribes around the globe are able to be effective in large groups. A single person would never make it. What game that can be got on a fairly reliable basis are things like fish, rabbit, squirrel, ducks, geese, swan, raccoon, turkey, frogs. While you can certainly shoot these kinds of animals with a rifle, if I were to bet my life on one gun, it is going to be a shotgun. I don't see much point in the small bore smoothbore's, but anything 54 and up should do a good job with shot.
I also think some of you guys are thinking in terms of American 3+ meals a day. I've not tested the limit, but I often do fasts. I've gone as long as 7 days not eating, only drinking water or tea. After about a day, you don't even notice you are hungry. The thing I noticed most about the long fast is you loose energy after a few days. I now prefer to fast for 2 days, usually a weekend once a month. From the research I've done, fasting is the normal human experience, except for the very near history. I doubt any serious research has been done on the subject, but I see claims that natives around the world could live just fine on only 500 calories a day. They key difference is they always lived that way. Our bodies are now accustomed to 3000 calories a day. We couldn't drop to less than 1/5th that and expect good things to happen without a long adjustment process.
The point being, a rabbit is not a snack. There's enough meat on one rabbit for a couple good meals at least. A turkey is huge. You would have to preserve the meat to make use of it. A single person could live a week, if not two on a turkey. What are you going to do with a deer? Carry around 40 pounds of jerky and other preserved meat? Better have a donkey with you to carry all that stuff, or plan on staying in one location for a while. I think native Americans were onto a good thing with pemmican, although I'll admit it reminds me of dog food. Even now when I'm living a normal sheltered life I can go out on a morning hunt for ducks and come back with enough meat for a week. I'll admit I waste as much as anyone. I take the breasts and legs, and throw the rest. I only use the legs as grind for jerky or sausage. If you roasted the duck whole, you could get a lot more off them.
If you go out with your rifle or smooth rifle, don't get a deer, and can't get any small game to stand still long enough for you to line up a shot, then what? You had better be a good fisherman.
I also think some of you guys are thinking in terms of American 3+ meals a day. I've not tested the limit, but I often do fasts. I've gone as long as 7 days not eating, only drinking water or tea. After about a day, you don't even notice you are hungry. The thing I noticed most about the long fast is you loose energy after a few days. I now prefer to fast for 2 days, usually a weekend once a month. From the research I've done, fasting is the normal human experience, except for the very near history. I doubt any serious research has been done on the subject, but I see claims that natives around the world could live just fine on only 500 calories a day. They key difference is they always lived that way. Our bodies are now accustomed to 3000 calories a day. We couldn't drop to less than 1/5th that and expect good things to happen without a long adjustment process.
The point being, a rabbit is not a snack. There's enough meat on one rabbit for a couple good meals at least. A turkey is huge. You would have to preserve the meat to make use of it. A single person could live a week, if not two on a turkey. What are you going to do with a deer? Carry around 40 pounds of jerky and other preserved meat? Better have a donkey with you to carry all that stuff, or plan on staying in one location for a while. I think native Americans were onto a good thing with pemmican, although I'll admit it reminds me of dog food. Even now when I'm living a normal sheltered life I can go out on a morning hunt for ducks and come back with enough meat for a week. I'll admit I waste as much as anyone. I take the breasts and legs, and throw the rest. I only use the legs as grind for jerky or sausage. If you roasted the duck whole, you could get a lot more off them.
If you go out with your rifle or smooth rifle, don't get a deer, and can't get any small game to stand still long enough for you to line up a shot, then what? You had better be a good fisherman.
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If I was told today, I could only have one gun, it would be my .62 smoothie. When I bought it, a rear sight had been silver soldered on. Man was I impressed !
I had to remove the rear sight to compete in smoothbore matches, it took me two or three times to bend the barrel to where I could get a good shot minus the rear sight.
I once went to a shoot, where they had silhouettes out to 200 yards for rifles. At the end of the relay, I asked the range officer if I could try a shot at the rams. He said go ahead, figuring I wasn’t going to hit it anyway, not many rifles managed it.
Yep, I hit it and knocked it over. The gun went off, follow through, and I had it off my shoulder with the butt about my elbow when the ball reached the target.
I had to remove the rear sight to compete in smoothbore matches, it took me two or three times to bend the barrel to where I could get a good shot minus the rear sight.
I once went to a shoot, where they had silhouettes out to 200 yards for rifles. At the end of the relay, I asked the range officer if I could try a shot at the rams. He said go ahead, figuring I wasn’t going to hit it anyway, not many rifles managed it.
Yep, I hit it and knocked it over. The gun went off, follow through, and I had it off my shoulder with the butt about my elbow when the ball reached the target.
Not spent my life living on the land. However I have spent a bit of time in the woods with out food, eating what I killed.
I trekked from Grand Junction ( Fruita really) to Fort Bridger, then three years later and a bit moreHC from Fort Bridger to the south end of the Tetons, east to the wind rivers and south to Pinedale.
I was young and stupid and I didn’t follow game laws, nor did I kill what I didn’t eat. I found six to eight pounds of meat a day didn’t leave you feeling stuffed. Within two weeks I was eating big at a sitting, though often once a day.
I ate more then one rabbit, including jacks
, some prairie chickens, did a little fishing and built a couple of illegal fish traps. I ate mostly boiled deer
Boiled deer ain’t bad, as long as it’s boiled with a little hot sauce in the water.
One thing we tend to forget about the ordinary people who lived in most of the world prior to the mid-19 Century is that not only was their diet composed of fewer calories eaten per day against more caloric output/work per day than present day first world humans; but their diet was A LOT BLANDER IN TASTE.
Salt, pepper, sugar, and spices of any description were expensive. With the exception of salt the others were often worth their weight in silver, and at times in gold. They were locked up, and often hidden away from casual sight. The early Colonists most often ate a diet that was heavy on corn meal foods, because wheat was far harder to grow, and the seed more expensive.
Things we take for granted, like flavoring the water used to cook boiled deer with hot sauce, would have been unthinkable. Same thing as for putting salt in the water to flavor foods being cooked. Salt was too expensive to waste like that, it would only have been used to flavor already cooked foods.
As to this thread, if I had to choose it would be an English fowler in 16 gauge built with one of Rice's, 4140CM steel, thin-wall, 41" long, original barrel wall thickness, octagon-round barrels in a Classic Spanish 40%/60% pattern. Equipped with front & rear sling swivels, and a nice wide sling. With a Lowell Haarer-style, tang-mounted, ghost ring rear sight in the rear. And, a nice bright, brass bead front sight that can be drifted to adjust windage.
Suitable for wing shooting, still hunting of small game, and big game hunting.
Salt, pepper, sugar, and spices of any description were expensive. With the exception of salt the others were often worth their weight in silver, and at times in gold. They were locked up, and often hidden away from casual sight. The early Colonists most often ate a diet that was heavy on corn meal foods, because wheat was far harder to grow, and the seed more expensive.
Things we take for granted, like flavoring the water used to cook boiled deer with hot sauce, would have been unthinkable. Same thing as for putting salt in the water to flavor foods being cooked. Salt was too expensive to waste like that, it would only have been used to flavor already cooked foods.
As to this thread, if I had to choose it would be an English fowler in 16 gauge built with one of Rice's, 4140CM steel, thin-wall, 41" long, original barrel wall thickness, octagon-round barrels in a Classic Spanish 40%/60% pattern. Equipped with front & rear sling swivels, and a nice wide sling. With a Lowell Haarer-style, tang-mounted, ghost ring rear sight in the rear. And, a nice bright, brass bead front sight that can be drifted to adjust windage.
Suitable for wing shooting, still hunting of small game, and big game hunting.
I agree about ‘blander’ in taste, although many recipes we know of were rich flavored but I don’t know about lower calorie. Of course they worked hard.
British and American naval rations were about three-thirty five hundred calories a day.
Just as a base, a pound of pork or beef, ships bread, and a gallon of beer works out to about 3500 calories.
Oatmeal, cheese,butter, might replace meat on Bunyan days and fish was oft in the place of meat.
Army had similar rations, but more of an opportunity to get fresh food
Instead of empty calories like sugar they got molasses.
Yes they worked hard but got full bellies.
Lumber camps were very hard work but from the great lumber boom after the 1870s records show men getting from five to seven thousand calories a day.
British and American naval rations were about three-thirty five hundred calories a day.
Just as a base, a pound of pork or beef, ships bread, and a gallon of beer works out to about 3500 calories.
Oatmeal, cheese,butter, might replace meat on Bunyan days and fish was oft in the place of meat.
Army had similar rations, but more of an opportunity to get fresh food
Instead of empty calories like sugar they got molasses.
Yes they worked hard but got full bellies.
Lumber camps were very hard work but from the great lumber boom after the 1870s records show men getting from five to seven thousand calories a day.
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Gonna weigh in here on this here subject.
Were I 20 years younger and fixin to wonder for a year or two, my satchel would be pretty lite.
Good 3 year old hoss
Sturdy pack mule.
30 pound fishin line ... around 100 yards or so.
20 or so various hooks including some small treble hooks.
My 62 smoothie and 25 lbs of #5 shot along with my ball mold.
5 lbs 3F powder best quality I could find.
30 or so good English green flints.
3 # 0 leg hold traps
3 # 4 leg hold traps.
50 lbs dry beans
50 lbs flour
25 lbs salt
Now most of my game eatin would be caught not shot. The traps and fishin line would feed me just fine and not broadcast my location doin it. When the opportunity rose, I would kill and dry a deer for the lean days to add to my gathered greens and an occasional bucket of cooked beans. Turkeys and sage hens would be caught on baited hooks and dispatched with my walkin rod. Very much walk away from elk or bear as just too much meat to go bad before a solitary fella could eat. Fish for change or more often.
Believe life to be good with a good ridin hoss and a good mule ta haul my possibles with.
Id carry my smoothie loaded with shot but have a ball handy if opportunity presented for a little buck, fork or smaller so as to be able to keep it just long enough to stuff my belly before it goes bad.
All in all this has and always was my dream. Problem was that I found a perfect woman to start a family with and with that ... had to let others do my dream. Now that I have less responsibilities and retired ... I find that my energy and drive seem to be lacking.
I still go to the deer woods. I still fish and very much enjoy camp fires and heavy kettle cooking ... but my back and legs desire my comfy bed at night.
Now that I have prattled on, can't member what I wanted to say in the beginning of these here words. Guess I will wind this down with this ... if I could only have one gun period ... my flint 62 smoothie half oct, half round would get the nod every time. Far as feeding myself, fishin line n hooks as well as my traps is all that really is required to feed this ol coot. Greens and wild onions n such to stew up with small game thusly caught would feed just fine. A good short bow would go far and weigh little for what it can provide as well.
Were I 20 years younger and fixin to wonder for a year or two, my satchel would be pretty lite.
Good 3 year old hoss
Sturdy pack mule.
30 pound fishin line ... around 100 yards or so.
20 or so various hooks including some small treble hooks.
My 62 smoothie and 25 lbs of #5 shot along with my ball mold.
5 lbs 3F powder best quality I could find.
30 or so good English green flints.
3 # 0 leg hold traps
3 # 4 leg hold traps.
50 lbs dry beans
50 lbs flour
25 lbs salt
Now most of my game eatin would be caught not shot. The traps and fishin line would feed me just fine and not broadcast my location doin it. When the opportunity rose, I would kill and dry a deer for the lean days to add to my gathered greens and an occasional bucket of cooked beans. Turkeys and sage hens would be caught on baited hooks and dispatched with my walkin rod. Very much walk away from elk or bear as just too much meat to go bad before a solitary fella could eat. Fish for change or more often.
Believe life to be good with a good ridin hoss and a good mule ta haul my possibles with.
Id carry my smoothie loaded with shot but have a ball handy if opportunity presented for a little buck, fork or smaller so as to be able to keep it just long enough to stuff my belly before it goes bad.
All in all this has and always was my dream. Problem was that I found a perfect woman to start a family with and with that ... had to let others do my dream. Now that I have less responsibilities and retired ... I find that my energy and drive seem to be lacking.
I still go to the deer woods. I still fish and very much enjoy camp fires and heavy kettle cooking ... but my back and legs desire my comfy bed at night.
Now that I have prattled on, can't member what I wanted to say in the beginning of these here words. Guess I will wind this down with this ... if I could only have one gun period ... my flint 62 smoothie half oct, half round would get the nod every time. Far as feeding myself, fishin line n hooks as well as my traps is all that really is required to feed this ol coot. Greens and wild onions n such to stew up with small game thusly caught would feed just fine. A good short bow would go far and weigh little for what it can provide as well.
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I love Smoothbore military muskets and my favorite is my Pedersoli 1816 percussion conversion that I had a rear sight added to.
It will put them right on top of each other all day at 50 yards and it's honestly more convenient for me to shoot at my gun clubs 50 yard pistol pits, because you can set up in one and no one bothers you.
If I have rifled stuff I usually have to work around other people at the rifle range.
It will put them right on top of each other all day at 50 yards and it's honestly more convenient for me to shoot at my gun clubs 50 yard pistol pits, because you can set up in one and no one bothers you.
If I have rifled stuff I usually have to work around other people at the rifle range.
Gordoncourtney
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I have a pile of guns , but I can only shoot rifled barrels at the range uk so gone over to making my first oval bore on my machine but it’s a long job with a led lap I only need .006” of oval. My shooting favourite is a greener 12b martini. $150 Gunn but it’s got charisma and a long barrel And it’s partner is a greener with a .577 3”. Barrels. What a cannon Theses days I concentrated on flint London rifles Happy days gordon noww
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Gordoncourtney
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