fusil

[trapper704]

I'm in the process of building a fusil, I bought a north star sitting fox barrel bought new in 1987 and never done anythig with, also the lock. I bought the rest of what I needed , all in iron, and a blank piece of not high grade curly maple, from track of the wolf,with a set of plans. I'm with in a few weeks of being able to fire it, it has been a long,harder than planed experience!!!! but pride is welling,its starting to look like a gun. It's a 62 cal smooth bore, if any one could give me a few tips on loads for ball and shot to start with, it would be appreciated. THANKS my other guns are a lyman great plains 54, and a TC 45, so I don't have much experience with flint or smooth bore.

 

[Many Klatch]

I guess first thing we need to know is what the inside of the barrel actually mikes out to be. If it is a true .62 barrel you will need a .610 ball. More likely it is slightly smaller and it will take a .60 ball. My fusil loves a .60 ball, 65 grains of 3F and a .010 spit patch.

Some fusils need to have the barrel bent a bit so that they will shoot roundball where the sights point. The breech is very thick and the muzzle is very thin, so the sighting plane is running downhill. Don't worry about bending the barrel until you have shot it a number of times.

You can prime with 4F if you want, but I have found that the 3F is fast enough and that way I don't have to mess with an extra horn while loading.

Many Klatch

 

[Grenadier1758]

I'm in that group of shooters that think you need to load for good performance and you don't have to over load your gun to do that. I would certainly measure your barrel to come up with a starting point for your ball. Curly Gostomsky was pretty consistent with his barrels, but its always best to measure. I would want to start with a ball that is one patch thickness smaller than your bore. Remember that your gun doesn't have grooves for the patch to compress into. I also am of the opinion that ease of loading is best for a smoothbore. I use a 0.600" diameter ball with 0.017" thick patching for my 20 gauge smooth bore sitting on top of 65 grains of an even mix of 3fg and 2fg powder. It happenend when I wanted a full horn for a shoot but I didn't have enough of one grade to fill the horn. That mix also seems to work well as the primer in the large Siler lock.

I use the same measure for my shot charge. Large powder loads seem to open the pattern. I use one 1/8" thick over powder wad then I add up to 90 grains volume of shot from 8s for clay birds to 6s for hunting. One thin over shot card holds the load in place. Standard 20 gauge shotgun wads and cards will work.

I have had success with paper cartridges similar to a musket load. I have the powder charge in the cartridge. First tear off the flap (and save)off the cartridge to pour the powder down the barrrel. Crumple up the cartridge paper to use as the over powder wad. Add the shot and uste the save cartridge flap as the over shot card. Not always as consistent as the use of the precise components, but it works.

I like to use the black English flints in my locks. Get fints that are about the width of your frizzen. Use relatively thick but supple leather to hold the flint in the jaws of the lock.

Enjoy your "new" gun.

 

[Mike Brooks]

The only gun I had with one of Curly's barrels in it was a 41" 20 bore. I built that gun back in 83 and shot it untill 88. I never could get that gun to shoot with a patch, no matter what I did. It did like bare balls though! :youcrazy: I shot 60gr of 2ff and a .600 RB with the sprue filed off. It shot real well out to 75 yards or so. I won many a smooth bore match with that gun and killed probably 75% of all the deer I ever killed with that gun.
It was a good shot shooter too. 75 gr 2ff, hard card, 1/2 cushion wad, 1 1/4oz shot and an over shot card. First flintlock I ever killed a pheasant with. :thumbsup: