How accurate are your smoothbores?

[Tony Logan]

You would have out shot most of us with rifles that day :hatsoff: .

 

[Mountain Rifleman]

I think I out shot my own rifle that day LOL.

 

[hanshi]

At the risk of resurrecting a slightly old thread, I thought I'd post this as a sort of explanation and demonstration of the level of "accuracy" I get with bare ball loads. It is 8 shots (two in one hole) at 50 yards combining shots with 60, 75 and 80 grains of 3F. The group is 5.25" max spread. Poi didn't seem to be affected much with increasing powder charges. Accuracy, although not "fine", is still adequate for deer at at least that range.

 

[Britsmoothy]

Thats good stuff Sir :hatsoff:

 

[Mountain Rifleman]

Great Shooting at 50Yds. Bare Ball too.

 

[Joel/Calgary]

If a ball is fired without spin, it is essentially a knuckle ball and will eventually break in a random direction, just like a baseball.

I've been seeing that statement for years, and it seems to be accepted by a lot of people in the hobby. Is there any physical evidence, any actual measurement, test of any kind to back up this claim?

Spence

I regret that I cannot find the references at the present. I think Robins and some of the other early ballisticians may have investigated this, but I cannot find them. The anecdotal sources I've seen have been mostly posts on various boards discussing smoothbore accuracy with the general format of "With my (firelock specifics) and a load of (details) I'm good out to at least (range) with groups of (reasonable size), but somewhere beyond that the accuracy deteriorates, with groups at (significantly longer range) of (notably disproportionately larger)". The distance to which good accuracy is reported varies, in part with shooter skill, but my recollection is that it generally tends to increase with muzzle velocity (or stated powder charge). These are generally consistent with the observations of the trumpet shape of the spread of birdshot. Some of the latter in non-shotcup loads is attributed to deformation from setback and/or shot scrub, with aerodynamically-induced spinning from the surface or shape irregularities, but even the non-deforming modern shot apparently display this tendancy, albeit at a slower rate.

Regards,
Joel

 

[Major Tim]

I've heard about using chewed balls to increase accuracy. Does anyone have any experience doing this or read about chewing balls.

 

[bpd303]

Never tried it but here is a thread on the subject. http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/...31331/hl/"chewed+balls"/fromsearch/1/#1331331

 

[Major Tim]

Thanks...did a search and didn't find much

 

[Britsmoothy]

Thanks...did a search and didn't find much

Maybe worse for your health than chewing bacca

 

[Ken Cormier]

How accurate is a smooth bore IMHO depends on a couple of things. Do you have a reliable gun. Straight barrel. Fast lock. If you do and YOU can shoot off hand. The accuracy will depend on how much work YOU are willing to put in the gun. Figure out your maximum load. Then go shoot hundreds of rounds until you known how to shoot it. No gun will shoot it self. Shoot your gun until you can load and shoot with your eyes closed (not recommended) Nothing beats pratice pratice and a little more practice just the heck of it. Just my rant.