How Low Can You Go?

[musketman]

What is the smallest caliber smoothbore made?

Would you take an old .32 caliber rifle and have the riflings drilled out to make a .34 caliber smoothbore?

I have an old .45 caliber barrel (33 inches), maybe I'll have it smoothed out...

 

[Stumpkiller]

I had a smoothbore Daisy that was .177 (BB). :haha:

I've seen smoothbore .22 cal M/L pistols.

 

I suppose you could make up one as small as you wanted. Even .177 round lead shot is out there, but I don't see any usefull purpose for a smoothie that small.
Part of the reason for a smoothie in the 1st place is the versitility of using shot and ball.
How much shot could you stuff into a .34 smoothie and still be effective?
I once saw a rifled .22 front loader but it had to be almost cleaned of all fouling before it could be loaded again.
Trust me on this one. Unless you have a friend with a machine shop it's gonna cost you about as much to make a smoothie from a rifle as the other way round.

Fig Newtons anyone?

 

I been wanting to make a double flint in .410 gage, no chokes and 36 inch barrels so I can shoot in the smooth bore shoots as well as being great for grouse hunting in the fall :thumbsup:

Finding the barrels is the hard part even an old set of breach loading Damascus would be great "or even better " but no such luck as of yet.

I did run down a guy who could make a new set for me but wanted 125 a piece for the barrels which really isn

 

[Keith]

Fig Newtons anyone?

Yes, Please. More Coffee?
I gotta agree with Maxi. As an academic question you can go as small as you want. Practically, why? The smallest I recall is a.410 on[url] gunbroker.com[/url] recently, might even still be there.

 

[robinghewitt]

Slightly off topice but King George 5th had a minature double gun made by Mr Purdey which he used to shoot moths indoors. Can't remember much about it other than it was tiny, you needed a wire to pull the triggers, and he was soon disenchanted by the price of the catridges.

 

LOL yep thats small....." suger or cream ?"
the .410 is still on gun broker but its only got 25 inch barrels and some kind ow weired adaption to the stock and the guy keeps the price at over 200.00 , its not worth that much , thats why he still has it lol

 

[Keith]

Black coffee.
I love fig newtons, mmm.
Shooting moths? :haha: Jeez, I had trouble chasing a bat in the house down with a window screen as a racket for crying out loud! I thought George the third was the crazy one. And, you wonder why we rebelled?

 

[Stumpkiller]

He Hee! Brings to mind the halycon days of my youth; hunting cabbage butterflies with a BB gun.

Ah, to be king and be able to shoot indoors.

It's good to be da king.

 

[musketman]

You guys are mocking me, eh?

Oh well, I just wanted a small smoothbore for hunting squirrels and such...

Remember, rifling is evil...

TOOL!

 

I think a .45 smoothie would be OK--if the .410 cartrdige guns work on squirrels and rabbits, why not a .45? My neighbor opted for a .50 "smooth rifle" for versatility (shot for small game, ball for deer)with reasonable powder loads....My experiences with .22 shot loads are that they are not worth much beyond a very few feet and I would think that would apply to .32s also....I have shot snakes at close range with .38 shotshells with mixed results and now would rather use a .410...... :imo:

 

[bob1961]

:shake: shucks i thought this was a limbo contest :crackup:.......................bob

 

[B.Habermehl]

The origional gun I based my .36 squirrel rifle on was a .40 cal smooth bore. I would expect it to shoot OK if you were to get real close to the squirrel. :results:

 

[robinghewitt]

Are we talking really light for effortless aim and easy swinging. ie: a shotgun.

Or American BP which seems to favour a lot more iron?

Can you make a shotgun barrel without recourse to modern steel? I'm not sure soft iron can support a wafer thin muzzle like damascene can. You'd be forever having to knock dents out of it ::

 

[Musketeer]

Musketman, I hears ye, ma friend! I think the idea o' havin' a small cal. smoothie is a good one! Don't let the rest o' these jokers git ye down. They jist ain't "visionaries" :shocking: like us! However, I have changed my mind a bit since I started the "TOOL!" thread: I've decided that riflin' ain't necessarily EVIL, it's just TWISTED! :crackup: :crackup: :crackup: :shocking:

Stumpy! That's a great screenshot! Ahhh, "History of the World, Part I"! One of the great comedies of our time! :thumbsup:

By the by, Musketman. I really do like the idea of a smallbore smoothie. A .32 bored out to .34 or so would be great! :RO: :thumbsup:

 

I had a .44 cal smoothbore once, made from Shelby seamless tubing, 7/8" octagonal. It had a terrific finish in the bore, and shot very well inded. I carefully ground a recessed choke in it for about 3" in length, 1" back from the muzzle, about .004" to .005" deep. This gave almost 60% patterns which is a very strong Imp cylinder to modified, yet still shot well with patched ball. I used it for snowshoe rabbits with round ball out to about 45/50yd. and it was similar to shooting them with a rifle, except pst 40 yards I no longer made head shots.
: I never used shot except for clay birds ar rendezvous. With 7/8 ounce of #8's and 50gr. 2F, I broke 10 straight at spring rendezvous from the 16 yard line. None of the birds did more than break into 3 or 4 pieces, some only in half, but break they did, and win the trap shoot, I did. I cheated somewhat and used .410 plastic wads with .45 oxyoke fibre wad under with .45 card over wad. For balls, I used a .433" cast ball and .012 patch. the bore size was around .445".

 

[robinghewitt]

If you want some measurements, I have a 40 bore flint shotgun, 35" barrel, 49

 

[musketman]

If you want some measurements, I have a 40 bore flint shotgun, 35" barrel, 49

 

[robinghewitt]

It's a bit shiny to image well and you don't get the scale, butt plate to trigger is 13

 

[musketman]

Thats a smart looking muzzleloader you have there, is it a full stock?