I have a question for the Smoothbore crowd

[flintlock lover.]

Hey everyone, as of late I have been looking to buy my first muzzleloader. I wanted it to be a flintlock rifle but I am having trouble finding one. At the same time I want a fowler for Turkey and other bird/small game. So i figured hell why not go with a smoothbore and cover all my bases. My question is, how "accurate" can a smoothbore be when hunting Deer. I know without rifling you wont be 100% on the money but how far can you stretch a smoothbore. I was talking to some fellas in Chestertown who are American reenactors for the War of 1812 and say they've taken their Springfield 1795 Muskets to the range and can strike a target every shot at no more than 50 yards at most with the standard cartridge load. Is this because it is a Military arm and not one for taking game ? Or is it due to the military load ? Ive seen a lot of posts on here about smoothbore hunting and a lot against it citing rifles as a more obvious choice. Does anyone have a smoothbore they reccomend and what size bore and load ? I've been watching videos all damn week of people hunting with smoothbores and they either do a whole lot of missing or a whole lot of nothing and they blame the smoothbore in these videos. I kind of want one gun for everything as my budget is now very tight sadly (maybe about $1,200 for a nice flintlock at most). I would kind of like to get a nice smoothbore and get it right the first time. Like I said if anyone has some decent ideas or reccomendations for style of gun, barrel length and bore size it would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the very long post.

Benched @ 91 yards
Sea service Bess
A smooth bore will never be a rifle but I don't think this deer would have known the difference.

 

[Rob M.]

Northwest Trade Gun ! 20 ga. 36"-42" barrel !

 

[Brokennock]

Northwest Trade Gun ! 20 ga. 36"-42" barrel !

How does your advertisement here that you build guns answer the question posed by the o.p.?

My question is, how "accurate" can a smoothbore be when hunting Deer

 

[Rob M.]

How does your advertisement here that you build guns answer the question posed by the o.p.?

By the first , second , third and fourth sentence of the first post D.A. You sound a little bu++ hurt . How very sad for you ...

 

[Brokennock]

By the first , second , third and fourth sentence of the first post D.A. You sound a little bu++ hurt . How very sad for you ...

Not butt hurt at all. Just wondering about that post. Period. I said nothing about any other posts.
But if you want to go there I'm sure one could find other posts of yours in various topics about trade guns and smoothbores that start to become like advertisements.

 

[Rob M.]

I sincerely apologize for answering a question or ever stating a personal opinion or preference in firearms esp. when it was asked for in the original post .I truely love smoothbore trade guns and think others would too but I now have had my eyes opened to my horrible behavior . I did not realize I was doing anything that would offend Brokennock or ruin your happy Internet experience . Far be it for me to post such a controversial and anger generating post . It will never happen again . I hope some day I can make amends for my horrible behavior . My profound apologies Sir Brokennock !

Not butt hurt at all. Just wondering about that post. Period. I said nothing about any other posts.
But if you want to go there I'm sure one could find other posts of yours in various topics about trade guns and smoothbores that start to become like advertisements.

 

[Brokennock]

Geez, it started off as a question.
Get over yourself.

 

[cannonball1]

I am new to the sport of smoothbores and have a 31" single barrel English shotgun. With that gun shooting a 62 caliber/20 ga ball is there any advantage in hunting deer with the longer barrel (40" +). Second question. Do these bullets with the riflings cast into the bullet to give it spin give more accuracy than a round ball.