Jugged choke and round balls

[Loyalist Dave]

There would be several reasons to do it.

• The bullets available are smaller than optimum.
• Wads might not have been available.
• Better gas seal than wadded up blanket material or natural fibrous materials.
• The likelihood that some people’s guns would have shot them just fine.

"The bullets are smaller than optimum"
OF course this presupposes that they would've known this..., that an optimum bullet size was somehow "needed", AND if the bullets were smaller than optimum, ..., for the patch to "work" they would have to be only slightly smaller than optimum...

"Wads might not have been available"???
You mean they ran out of leaves or wasp nest or moss to dry?

"Better gas seal than wadded up blanket material or natural fibrous materials."
AH yes of course, they understood that from birth, I forgot....

"The likelihood that some people’s guns would have shot them just fine"
AH a supposition, based on zero.... well based on conjecture... they'd spend the extra dollars on cloth, to destroy with each shot...., when it wouldn't have made enough of a difference to justify the expense..., with those too small bullets and all....

LD

 

[rusticbob]

I just cast a whole bunch of .672 lead round balls, so now I can try some of these suggestions. I have been shooting 80 gr of FFG with these balls, does that sound like enough for a 14ga smoothy? And I am almost out of FFG so I will probably go to FFFG Schutzen powder, that’s all I could find.

g

 

[Mwal]

My .62 smoothie likes powder thin over shot or brown paper, then mink oil lubed tow .610 ball then another tow wad. I have tried .580, .595 .60 with various patches. The tow bare ball shoots best in this gun.

 

[Grenadier1758]

@rusticbob, since FFFg Schuetzen powder is a bit more energetic than FFg powder, I would decrease my load to 70 to 75 grains (volume of course) of the FFg powder. That should be enough powder for most applications.

 

[rusticbob]

Sounds like a good place to start.

 

[Brokennock]

I'd agree with @Grenadier1758
Drop back a little and work up again if you need to. I've got some really accurate loads for my smoothrifle right around 65 grains 3f. Then another accurate load at 80 grains.

 

[Eric Krewson]

For me 1F get the job done better than 2 or 3 F in smoothies, I shoot 90-100 gr in my 12g.

My fowler is jug choked, I found different sized balls makes a tremendous difference in accuracy. For this target at 25 yards I tried 90gr of 1F, a .695 ball with .26 blue jean patching and got poor results. I switched to a .700 ball that I cast from a Tanner mold with same patching and powder load and found what my gun liked.

 

[rusticbob]

For me 1F get the job done better than 2 or 3 F in smoothies, I shoot 90-100 gr in my 12g.

My fowler is jug choked, I found different sized balls makes a tremendous difference in accuracy. For this target at 25 yards I tried 90gr of 1F, a .695 ball with .26 blue jean patching and got poor results. I switched to a .700 ball that I cast from a Tanner mold with same patching and powder load and found what my gun liked.

View attachment 140192

Great shooting, what caliber is your smoothly?

 

[Eric Krewson]

.72

 

[1773]

Let me preface this with I am not an expert, and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. I have a 62 caliber smooth rifle that I am trying to develop a good load with, so far I have had my best results with a nitro card over the shot, a wad of raw wool, an unpatched ball, and another wad of wool. I tried the wool because I had read about the tow wads but I didn't have any tow, I did have raw wool so I tried it. It is showing promise and the fouling is not very bad either, probably because of the lanolin in the wool.

 

[wattlebuster]

I have 2 12 ga smoothbores an another in the works to be here maybe this fall. Both that I already have are jug choked full by Danny Caywood. One is a 32 inch barrel that is very handy turkey hunting an thats about all I use it for an the other is a 44 inch that gets used for everything else. I use Fg in both with shot and ball an get my best results with it. I personally will not have a smoothbore unless it is jug choked simply because they seem to put out very pretty nice round patterns no matter the size shot an even seem to improve the ball groups I get or this has been my experience so far. As my eyes have aged my rifle groups have opened up an I find myself grabbing the old smoothbore more an more. Here is the 32 inch Joe Shell turkey guns ball group. It is off of a bench and sandbags


Here is the Don Bruton 44 inch. This is offhand at 25 35 an 50 yds which is 99% of my deer hunting ranges

 

[rusticbob]

Excellent shooting! I will continue to experiment till I can come close to your shooting. Looks like I need more powder!

 

[rusticbob]

Shot today some .672 round balls. Took some suggestions and did much better. Used 80gr FFG, thick leather wad over powder, wool felt wad for cushion, bare ball and thin card wad on top.
All shots on paper at 25yds from bench, I will try offhand next time and shoot at 50yds also. It’s a good start, now I can fine tune.
These .672 balls kick a bit from this light gun. I may drop the charge to .70gr. I think the soft leather wad instead of the hard card over the powder seem to work much better with the bare ball.

 

[French Colonial]

I do not have a jug choke but I do have a French fusil that I shoot round balls with a 10 thousands patch and it has won matches.

Every gun has its own story and what it likes.

 

[rusticbob]

I do not have a jug choke but I do have a French fusil that I shoot round balls with a 10 thousands patch and it has won matches.

Every gun has its own story and what it likes.

I agree, if I did not have the jug choke I would probably shoot patched round balls. I believe the patch gets upset in the jugged portion, and becomes inconsistent. Just my theory

 

[Eric Krewson]

I shoot a thick patched ball out of my jug choked barrel, the spent patches on the ground could be shot again, no damage. I have tried various combinations of bare ball loads, none of them grouped, they were all over the paper.

The jug defiantly doesn't cause a patch problem in my fowler, I use a .26 denim patch. Like was said before every fowler is different, I have a .62 that isn't jugged, it hates bare balls but loves a .595 ball and a thick patch.

 

[rusticbob]

All good information, thank you all for the suggestions.

 

[tenngun]

Let me preface this with I am not an expert, and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. I have a 62 caliber smooth rifle that I am trying to develop a good load with, so far I have had my best results with a nitro card over the shot, a wad of raw wool, an unpatched ball, and another wad of wool. I tried the wool because I had read about the tow wads but I didn't have any tow, I did have raw wool so I tried it. It is showing promise and the fouling is not very bad either, probably because of the lanolin in the wool.

Tow is hard to find right now. Howsomever wal mart and craft stores sell hemp thread,string and light rope. While watching the latest mindless TV you can cut such light string in to one foot lengths and quickly tease the fibers apart. Before the latest show is over you can have a couple of ounces of hemp tow.
I use it on my tow worm and for fire and wading. I can’t tell it from real tow

 

[Eric Krewson]

EBay always has a lot of tow, here is an example;

https://www.ebay.com/itm/234545214507?hash=item369bfbf42b:g:P8kAAOSwpE1iiOSD

 

[rusticbob]

Finally, I managed to get my smoothbore flintlock shooting acceptable accuracy at 25 yards, now I have a starting place for a 50 yard target. Unusual powder, wad, ball, lubed wad loading worked.
70gr FFFG Schutzen powder, thick leather over powder wad, bare .672 ball, then a lubed thick fiber wad on top! Would not have thought a lubed wad OVER the ball would make a difference, but it did in this particular ”jug”choked 14ga smoothie. I know will work on attaching a rear sight somehow, nothing elaborate, only a reference point.
You fellows were correct in suggesting that I experiment with different loads and combinations. That’s why I keep coming here, a wealth of good information, and only an occasional hard ***!