Do you prefer a smoothbore over rifles?

[Nb4j]

Started with rifles, a hawken and later a custom built .40 cal. In '95, I built a NSW early English trade gun. It was love at first shot. Now five smoothies later, my rifles have not been shot in 25 years. I do clean them occasionally.

 

[Many Klatch]

I like to shoot both rifles, smoothbores and pistols. Either flintlock, caplock or suppository. They all have their own particular challenges. However, if you can shoot a smoothbore flintlock accurately you have climbed a particularly steep learning curve.

 

[pat i.]

I cant see rear sights anymore so it's a smoothbore for me.

 

[Maven]

Where've you been Pat?

 

[olskool]

i do not have one, yet, but i am looking. i plan on having one by turkey season here in SC "march" we can't use rifles and i like the smell of BP so a smoothbore flinter it will be,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[Black Jack]

I cant see rear sights anymore so it's a smoothbore for me.

Same with me because of diabetic issues and just plain getting old. Just got a Pedersoli Bess that should be a lot of fun.

 

[pat i.]

Howdy Paul. Hope you and yours are well. I've just been gliding along under the radar hoping things get back to somewhat normal conditions.

 

[Grenadier1758]

Well for one, I get to wear a great uniform. I know, others have different opinions.

Many years ago I noticed that the smoothbore shooters really were having a great time shooting the targets on Sunday at Rendezvous. Being new to Rendezvous, I had to ask, what made shooting the smoothbores such fun? The answer was "We don't shoot until Sunday, if we hit anything we have a chance to win it all, and by Sunday we're too hung over to flinch and we can't see the sights anyway."

 

[tenngun]

I do have to chuckle. About 1980 I saw a magazine article about Curly Gorstomski and his NWG. I thought about that same time why would any one want a smoothie except for shot. I got a cut off Brown Bess and shot was all I put in it.
Saw a boy at a shoot at around the same time who had rear sight on the back of his Bess. I thought ‘what’s the point?’.
By the late eighties I had a smoothie I was really enjoying ball in. Was at Mid America Rendezvous in 83 or 4 in Cuba Missouri Don Pappy Horn wanted a smooth bore shoot on the docket for the next year and was voted down... but just a few years after thinking who would want one I thought oh that might be fun. I got a Centermark in 94 or 5 and I was truly hooked. I haven’t deer hunted with a rifle since about 2000. If I had a time machine I sure would have orderd one of curly’s kits way back when.

 

[okawbow]

I use my smoothbore for turkey and have also taken a couple deer with it. However, I could never be without my longrifle. Many of the deer I’ve killed over the years have been beyond the effective range of my smoothbore. I love accurate rifles. I would hunt turkeys with my rifle if it were legal here.

 

[oldwood]

Ok guys....All this talk of smoothbores has got me fired up to git to the range and see how well my new 16 ga. indian trade musket will do @ 50 yards. I was trained young to shoot in modern trap competition , found muzzleloading in 1972. Sold my trap gun to buy a Brown Bess kit to build. Put er together and hit the woods to squirrel hunt. Found a fat grey squirrel to experiment on. He was up a tree 'bout 15 feet . Let him have a load of #5 shot , and he tried to git to his hole , so the only weapon in hand was the 42 " iron ramrod. Couple wacks w/ that brought him to ground. After the incident , I looked around to see if anyone witnessed me bagging the grey in such an unorthodox , and sort of embarrassing method. Never had to do that again , but was hooked for life on m/l's. oldwood

 

[bradly_tx]

I prefer my .32 cal. Way more economical and for me fun to shoot. I’m retired and I shoot at something every day.

 

[smoothflinter]

My flintlock rifle filled a need. Then a smoothbore was the next challenge. My smoothbore has a somewhat standard length of 41-1/2" barrel. That was years ago. As I am renewing my interest for muzzleloaders, my plan is to build a club butt fowler, with a longer barrel of at least 46". Maybe an ash stock. Perhaps no buttplate. But I am developing it in my mind and studying other builds and pictures of antiques. Why? It's just too unique and has an allure.

 

[Maven]

I have two SB's, a 20ga. Green River Forge FL copy of a Barnett trade gun and a .56cal. T/C Renegade cap lock SB with an adjustable rear sight. Why do I shoot them? Because they are a challenge with respect to accuracy with RB's and patches or RB's and bare ball loads. Of the two, the Renegade will reliably reach out to 50 yd. while the trade gun is certainly its equal at 25-, but not at 50 yd.

 

[tenngun]

My flintlock rifle filled a need. Then a smoothbore was the next challenge. My smoothbore has a somewhat standard length of 41-1/2" barrel. That was years ago. As I am renewing my interest for muzzleloaders, my plan is to build a club butt fowler, with a longer barrel of at least 46". Maybe an ash stock. Perhaps no buttplate. But I am developing it in my mind and studying other builds and pictures of antiques. Why? It's just too unique and has an allure.

So many guns so little time
I remember the first time I saw a boy with a club butt I had seen photos of them but this was the first time I saw one in real life. What looked clumsy in photos was elegant when seen. And it came to the shoulder like it knew where I was looking.
A time or two I’ve had fleeting pictures in my mind of me building one.
My wife has found pictures of them in my internet history, and has given me ‘the Eye’ and the ‘oh Honey....’

 

[jon math]

I have rifles that I adore but I have shotguns that I adore just as much, I guess it is time to consider a smooth rifle and maybe have the best of both.

 

[Feltwad]

It all depends what a smoothbore is needed for , for me here in the UK it is a sxs original game percussion gun using shot for game birds and ground game and pest control. It has to be a percussion because it may fire over a hundred shots in one outing on pest control this is common ,for a all-round gun it has to be a 12bore{gauge} loaded with 2.3/4 drms of medium powder to 1.1/8 oz of number 6 shot, some may ask why not a flintlock well I find them a lot slower to load and more prone to break downs priming and changing flints on a busy day alright if it is a 3 hour day walking the boundary or a short day hide shooting
Feltwad

 

[FlinterNick]

Its all about knowing your gun; i dont have a specific choice but i enjoy shooting my rifles.

 

[Carbon 6]

A smoothbore will do a better job at pretending to be a rifle than a rifle will do at pretending to be a smoothbore.

 

[tenngun]

A smoothbore will do a better job at pretending to be a rifle than a rifle will do at pretending to be a smoothbore.

A lot of guns were made as rifle mounted fusils, what we call a smooth rifle today. For a while these guns were thought to be bored smooth from worn previous rifles guns, now we know many were made smooth to begin with.
I think there were several reasons for this. And I think glasses or lack there of was a reason. I have one badly nearsighted eye 20/200 . I could well aim at a deer chest at fifty yards with that eye, but not two hundred. So a smooth rifle would serve me well. And a rifle wouldn’t do that eye any better.
And with that eye and shooting shot I could take small game as well.