I done took the plunge.

[buttonbuck]

TO piggyback on what Paul said up until 60+ years ago americans in urban places and semi rural areas spent up to 50% of their income on food. My father in law remembers his Italian grandfather living in oak park Illinois (this was considered the edge of the suburbs everything west of oak park was country)shooting blackbirds with air rifles and netting pigeons breasting them out to make "catchatore" Any Meat was precious. My father in law says this was much better than anything else they call italian food today. SO a good fowler was a gift. I would love to know what ever happened to my great grandfathers double barrel that he hunted rabbits with they were share croppers during the 20s until they took factory jobs.

 

[nkbj]

If anyone sees a lefthand 12 barrel for a New Englander please let me know.

 

[excess650]

Have you called Fox Ridge (TC custom shop?)to see what they might have? I would expect the LH 12ga to be pretty uncommon.

 

[lefty41]

Goodcheer, I posted a PT for you. Hope you got it.

 

[ebiggs1]

My New Englander has no choke. It is cylinder bore. I wonder if choke tubes could be retrofitted to this barrel? It only has a bead front sight so I believe I will not shoot round balls in it.

 

[dbutch]

put a rear sight on the barrel tang- remove it when shooting shot.-yes your barrel can be threaded for a choke tube- or you could have it jug choked..your other option wold be to order a choked barrel for shot and turn the cylinder barrel into a smooth rifle. You've got choices

 

[Darkgael]

E -

It only has a bead front sight so I believe I will not shoot round balls in it.

Using the bead alone is not a big problem, just a matter of practice. I shoot PRBs from a 20 gauge fowler and can keep them on target at 50 yards if I pay attention to alignment.
Not a MLer... but I regularly use an old Savage O/U to shoot 12 ga. slugs. Standing, I can shoot the bottom barrel right to POA every time at 50 yards (top barrel shoots about six inches higher). Just a matter of learning to align the eye, the bead and how much barrel I see (none) when I set to fire.
You don't have to alter the barrel.
Pete

 

[paulvallandigham]

Windage is the big issue for most shooters when trying to shoot RB out of a smoothbore with only a front sight bead. You can put an index mark in the center of the barrel, or tang, to help you align the bead consistently with your eye. Some old timers use the slot in the tang bolt, set to run with the length of the barrel, as a " Sight". Others file an actual groove in the barrel or tang, or both, to be a real sight.

I have a rear sight on my fowler, by choice, which could be easily removed if a shoot required No rear sight be used. Mine is dovetailed in the barrel, and I can tap it out if I desire. Its also cut very low to the barrel, so that the notch is just about even with the top flat of the barrel.

The wings of the rear sight are also filed down, so they do not catch my hand, or clothing, but act merely as a guide to help center my eye in the rear sight notch, as I am raising the gun to my face and shoulder.

Elevation problems are dealt with as already suggested, buy how much of your barrel is visible to the eye. You learn to hold less, or more sight up( and more barrel visible) depending on range. It takes correct practice, but people have been doing this for hundreds of years. Just watch a Smoothbore, RB match at Friendship some time.

 

[Mike Brooks]

Windage is the big issue for most shooters when trying to shoot RB out of a smoothbore with only a front sight bead. You can put an index mark in the center of the barrel, or tang, to help you align the bead consistently with your eye. Some old timers use the slot in the tang bolt, set to run with the length of the barrel, as a " Sight". Others file an actual groove in the barrel or tang, or both, to be a real sight.

I have found my eye naturally centers the front site on the breech of the barrel. I have never been able to see any notch of any kind as close as the barrel tang, nothing but a blur at that distance. To be beneficial my rear sight has to be around 14" from the breech for me to see it.

 

[excess650]

"My New Englander has no choke. It is cylinder bore. I wonder if choke tubes could be retrofitted to this barrel? It only has a bead front sight so I believe I will not shoot round balls in it."

I think your cyl bore barrel to be preferable to my choke tube barrel for shooting PRBs. Like yours, mine has only a bead front sight. I shot mine today with the most open choke tube that I have(from another shotgun, but it fits!)with .695" PRBs and 80gr ffg. The first 3 shots went into 2" at 25 yards, and the patch/ball was way too loose. The group was 6" low, so I tried 100gr and put the next shot in the middle of the previous 3. Recoil was mild, and I'm tryin' to figure out how to put a removeable rear sight on to change the elevation....

 

[bigbore442001]

It finally came in the mail. I have been fondling it quite a bit during the evening.

 

[Britsmoothy]

Good for you Bigbore :thumbsup:

Brits.

 

[goon]

Now this is cool! I have often thought that a "modern" fowler would be a very useful and fun gun to have around.

 

[bigbore442001]

I am sorry that the image came out so ooogly. I don't know what happened. Maybe it is the resizing on photobucket.

I am anxious to play with the thing. New Years Day may be a good day to try it out. Our deer season will end on thursday so I will have time to play around a bit.

 

[MSW]

ayup, to paraphrase the little green fellow...

once rocks banged have you, forever will they dominate your range time.

congrats on your new gun- you're gonna have a great time! :wink:

 

[Stumpkiller]

My New Englander has no choke. It is cylinder bore. I wonder if choke tubes could be retrofitted to this barrel? It only has a bead front sight so I believe I will not shoot round balls in it.

You can probably have tubes fitted by a gunsmith for about the cost of the original gun. I had CoyoteJoe jug choke mine (it was the original cylinder bore) to a #2 skeet or so (55% pattern) and it still lobs a round ball out past 50 yards well enough for deer hunting.

The wonderful thing about muzzleloaders is that if you can get it in the muzzle the gun will have no trouble shooting it back out. Use loads equivalent to shot loads: 2-3/4 drams = 75 grains. 3 drams = 82 grains.

A barrel don't know one ounce of shot from a one ounce ball. Pressures will be the same.