Fowling differences

[Jarikeen]

Firstly, thankyou to all those who took the time and effort to answer my last question. To risk wearing out my welcome, I have another question. Does a rifled bore tend to fowl more easily than a smoothbore, therefore affecting accuracy after several shots. Also I take it that one advantage of a smoothbore is that you could also use SSG or smallshot for different shooting needs.
Regards Peter

 

[musketman]

The smoothbore will fowl more if you use a coarser grain of powder, like Fg or FFg compared to FFFg, which burns cleaner...

There is also larger bores to consider, the pressure is lower and this causes the powder to burn differently than in a smaller bore, so I guess a smoothbore would be more apt to fowling than a rifle of lesser caliber...

Cleaning the barrel every few shots (or between every shot) will eliminate this so it will be like shooting from a fresh barrel every time...

 

[WV_Hillbilly]

Firstly, thankyou to all those who took the time and effort to answer my last question. To risk wearing out my welcome, I have another question. Does a rifled bore tend to fowl more easily than a smoothbore, therefore affecting accuracy after several shots. Also I take it that one advantage of a smoothbore is that you could also use SSG or smallshot for different shooting needs.
Regards Peter

I had answered this last night, but lost power and my PC went down with it. I'll try to see if I can remember what I wanted to tell you...

Rifling shouldn't be worse for fouling than a smoothbore-- unless you are using a coarser powder granulation (than is recommended--like 1Fg in a .50cal gun), or have a very poor choice of components for the load--which can cause poor ignition and more fouling left behind. Also remember that using a heavier charge than is necessary for the task is going to cause more fouling to be left in the barrel.

Shot use in a rifled barrel gives extremely poor results, but a patched round ball of good fit and properly loaded "can" be as almost as good in accuracy as a rifled ball at distances up to 100yds sometimes. The key to doing that is having a very high quality gun (usually) and plenty of choices of materials to use, to find the right combination of components. It is also possible to load a really poor shot load in a smoothbore. Consistency in loading procedures and good components make the most difference in ANY kind of gun.

Shoot Safely!
WV_Hillbilly

 

[taylorh]

If you use T/C natural lube with patch you will never have any trouble with fouling, ever.