I'm not convinced that the switch to 26 ga. would be enough difference in performance to justify the time and expense. My feeling is that checking into the improvements made by jug choking the bore of your 28 bore or experimenting with paper or cloth shot cups as have been discussed here before would be a much less costly and more effective for tightening up the shot pattern. One of the first methods I ran across was making paper cartridges for ball and shot by Dick Weller back around 1970. He worked out a simple method for paper cartridges for ball & shot that worked great, at least for him and his original guns. His battery consisted of LLP & SLP Besses, a .62 caliber Baker rifle and an original William Clark fowler... (Must be nice to just shoot originals every day!). His secret, if secret it was, amounted to taking his time and getting the best out of what he had. He actually sifted his powder through a drop box with 3 or 4 layers of progressively finer screen to catch FFFG, FFg, & Fg on different levels and dropped the powder from some feet above on windy days to blow off the dust. He rolled paper cartridges for all his guns and used the string method to tie them off, above and below the ball in those rounds. He then dipped the ball end in a lube mix and let it dry, added the powder & folded the bottom of the paper cartridge in military fashion. He cast two different diameter balls, .760" and .750" for his original Besses since they had the true "musket bore" size of .775" in use by the British military.
His loading went quick and precise. Bite off folded cartridge base and pour powder in pan, then all the rest in the bore. Insert the .760" ball end of the cartridge (for the first shot) into the bore till the second string wrap at the base of the ball was even with the muzzle and then cut or tear it off at that point. All he loaded was the ball in it's lubed paper patch, if you will. The second shot was a .750" ball cartridge but loaded open end first after the powder was poured in the bore. This second shot had the ball sitting on the paper cartridge wrapper as a wad when loaded. It was quick and the smaller lubed ball loaded easier in the dirty bore. I never heard how many of the smaller ball loads would work before the bore was too fouled to load easily...i doubt it was more than a couple, but he wasn't holding off the 37e Infantry Leger, just big varmints...he actually took a bull moose.
The shot load was similar and differed only in that it had a over powder wad glued into the center of the cartridge and rolled up in the middle of the paper tube. His trick was to use the next size smaller wad for these cartridges...a 12 ga. wad in the 10 ga. Bess's bore, etc. The top end was filled with shot, tied off with string and had the same lube mix as the ball loads but brushed on with a small paint brush along the outside from the internal wad to the top of the cartridge, not including the top with it's twist of paper and string, you'll see why in a second. The bottom was filled with powder and folded shut like military cartridges were in the day. To load a paper shot cartridge, Dick bit off the fold, primed with a bit and poured the powder into the bore. He then inserted the paper cartridge open bottom end in first, stopping when the top tied twist was even with the muzzle. By holding the twist, he was able to cut the top of the paper cartridge off with a patch knife and push an over shot card onto the load before ramming the whole load down. He took ducks and geese with the fowler and Bess as well as moose and bear with the LLP Bess. He did the same with the .610" ball in the Baker's .625" bore. His method was really quick and simple, the only part that was time consuming was locating and buying the different sizes of screen material for his powder separation box. Just for reference, I will point out that he used 5 drams of FFg for his Besses, a pretty big load of over 136 grains which was actually chronographed at 1100fps by Bob Zwirz for the pictured article done for the "Black Powder Gun Digest" in 1972. This same system should work in any bore size if a little care is taken to work out the powder & shot amounts and wad sizes. I toss this out as another idea for improving pattern effectiveness. Other shot cup methods mentioned for smooth bores here are probably just as effective but I doubt few are as quick and easy. Dick carried his loads in a military style cartridge box that held tools and extra flints. Hunting with minimal gear. I found his method simple and well thought out. Never tried it on moose, not may of those big snorters around central Texas! :thumbsup:
