Fur-Fish-Game magazine sells an assortment of inexpensive books and one book,I believe, was called 50 Years a Hunter Trapper. The author was a meat hunter for the Yankees during the Civil War and kept them supplied. One photograpgh showed him with a double barrel shotgun. I suppose you could use a PRB and get two shots for bush hunting deer. Has anyone ever done this or heard of anyone who has. I think buckshot in a muzzleloading shotgun would be inadequate because of the gas seal, etc. :hmm:
-
Friends, our 2nd Amendment rights are always under attack and the NRA has been a constant for decades in helping fight that fight.
We have partnered with the NRA to offer you a discount on membership and Muzzleloading Forum gets a small percentage too of each membership, so you are supporting both the NRA and us.
Use this link to sign up please; https://membership.nra.org/recruiters/join/XR045103
Double Barrel Deer
- Thread starter crockett
- Start date
Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:
I shoot round balls out of my Navy Arms double barrel .12 ga. It has both barrels cylinder bore. I use a .690 rd. ball over 90 grs of powder. At 25 yds it will shoot a 4 shot group (2shots from each barrel) into one large ragged hole. Have never had a chance to try it any further than 25 yds, but i figure it should be good for deer to 50 yds or so if after trying it at that distance it is still shooting an acceptable group.
Nope. With proper wadding a muzzleloading shotgun is everything a modern shotgun is. I wouldn't volunteer to stand 35 yards away from a full/full choked double shotgun stuffed with buckshot as the test media. I've played around at 25 yards with my 12 gauge (illegal for hunting in NY) loaded with nine 0.350 balls and it is like a called-in close support air strike. It gives me the impression that it would do the job. :shocking:
Guest
Patched RB in a double works just fine, as long as it loads OK, choked or not. If it goes in, it comes out.
; I turned an old damascus double into a side by side double smooth rifle for hunting deer and bear. Although it was a 2 1/2" ctg. gun, the loads (Black Powder)and wad column are identical to if it was a ML. IT-too, like Rebels ML, shot very well indeed. I'd shortened the barrels to 24". just like the many of the African 12 bore BP doubles. The standard loads for the early, 1880 to 1900 BP loads for RB were 150gr. for the light load and 7 drams for the heavy load. In a BP shotgun, I'd suggest only up to 120gr. with a single patched RB. Buckshot works pooerly on bears, so I don't consider it for anything other than home defense.
; A .715 ball(only if it passes the choke) with overshot card and fiber underneath might shoot well, but a .690 with patch will generallygive a tighter shooting load, generally. You can adjust the powder charge & wads to get the barrels to shoot together, or well enough for hunting, normally.
; As well, Lee makes a .690RB mould, and their cheap to buy.
: The guys I hunt with, use my WW.684RB's with modern-type loads in their pump duck guns for moose if one shows up while duck hunting. They clocth patch them inside ordinary shotshells and claim 4" groups at 50yds. Message me for the load if interested.
; I turned an old damascus double into a side by side double smooth rifle for hunting deer and bear. Although it was a 2 1/2" ctg. gun, the loads (Black Powder)and wad column are identical to if it was a ML. IT-too, like Rebels ML, shot very well indeed. I'd shortened the barrels to 24". just like the many of the African 12 bore BP doubles. The standard loads for the early, 1880 to 1900 BP loads for RB were 150gr. for the light load and 7 drams for the heavy load. In a BP shotgun, I'd suggest only up to 120gr. with a single patched RB. Buckshot works pooerly on bears, so I don't consider it for anything other than home defense.
; A .715 ball(only if it passes the choke) with overshot card and fiber underneath might shoot well, but a .690 with patch will generallygive a tighter shooting load, generally. You can adjust the powder charge & wads to get the barrels to shoot together, or well enough for hunting, normally.
; As well, Lee makes a .690RB mould, and their cheap to buy.
: The guys I hunt with, use my WW.684RB's with modern-type loads in their pump duck guns for moose if one shows up while duck hunting. They clocth patch them inside ordinary shotshells and claim 4" groups at 50yds. Message me for the load if interested.
You can't use it during the muzzleloader season here, but you can during the general rifle season.
How can you tell it's not a double-barreled rifle?
kentucky bucky
45 Cal.
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2004
- Messages
- 586
- Reaction score
- 1
I have read (since I obtained one), that 14 gauge shotguns were popular duing the Civil War because they are a .69 caliber, and could shoot the same roundballs as the .69 caliber muskets as well as buckshot and birdshot. It made perfect sense to me! I wonder if that is what he is holding? No way to tell I'm sure.
Guest
14 bore was a military calibre on all three continents, Europe, England and North Amirica, so the 14 bore was well intrenched in history, well into the ctg. gun era, when it died out to the 12 and 16's as standard. Being 1/2 way inbetween, it held little advantage over neither, but would have made a perfect all-round gun, as it did.
: .69" is THE actual bore size which, in pure lead, should be a ball weighing 500gr. even. My .685 balls, from the Italian mould (looked like a Lyman w/cast iron blocks)weighed[url] 484gr.in[/url] pure lead and 466gr. in WW.
: Be aware, that the standard choking for a 12 bore full choke is 40 points, taking a .730 bore(average) down to .690 in the choke. Any 12 bore, full choked, if shot with a patched round ball, should use a smaller than .690 ball. If the patched ball can be loaded through the choke, it can be shot.
: .69" is THE actual bore size which, in pure lead, should be a ball weighing 500gr. even. My .685 balls, from the Italian mould (looked like a Lyman w/cast iron blocks)weighed[url] 484gr.in[/url] pure lead and 466gr. in WW.
: Be aware, that the standard choking for a 12 bore full choke is 40 points, taking a .730 bore(average) down to .690 in the choke. Any 12 bore, full choked, if shot with a patched round ball, should use a smaller than .690 ball. If the patched ball can be loaded through the choke, it can be shot.
Last edited by a moderator:
