Loading advice for 38" Getz barrel, .75-cal.

[TN.Frank]

LOL, New Shooters, heck, I've been shooting front stuffers since '78 so I'm hardly "New" to it. I'm just trying to figure out what ball size would work in a 75 cal musket. As a general rule in a rifle I go .01 undersize and use a .010" patch to fit. In a smooth bore, with no rifling it's a totally different animal. No groves to squeeze the patch into so I can see how you'd want to go even a bit more undersize to get it all to fit. It's easier to get a thicker or thinner patch then it is to buy a different ball mold so it'll probably be best to go with the .715" ball and work on getting a patch that'll fit.
I'm a K.I.S.S. kind of guy too, the less manure that I have to carry around in my shooting bag the better. I'll probably just use a .715" ball and a thick pillow ticking patch, that way I can use up the stuff I got at Wally World a couple years ago that ended up being too tight for my 50 cal. I also think I'll give Olive Oil a try in lue of Crisco even though I've been using Crisco since I started the game of muzzle loading all those years ago. All I'm looking for is a good load to thump ol' Bambie and do a bit of plinkin' with. Not a target shooter so "Minitue of Nats Butt" don't really matter to me, long as I can hit a paper plate at 60-70 yrds. it'll be plenty good enough to bring down a deer. I'm also going to be working up a shot load too. Probably the same 80grs of 3fg with an equal volume of #5(since that's what I have on hand and I've still got a lot of it.), just need to figure out what wadding to use. I've heard that old newspaper will work but don't shoot it in dry areas or you'll start a brush fire. We have some think cardboard at work that comes off of pallets, I could probably get a wad cutter and cut over powder and over shot wads from it and use newspaper as a cushion.

 

[Swampman]

Paper wasp nest makes good wadding. It doesn't burn. If your pillow ticking is too thin, just double it. Old blue jeans cut into patching might wotk well too. That Getz barrel is probably .750 inside dia.

 

[TN.Frank]

I've been using my old pure cotton jean matrial to make charr cloth for my flint n' steel set. The pillow tickin' is pretty thick so I think it'll work ok. If not I'll use some of the thinner linen stuff that I'm using in my 40 and 50 cal rifles.

 

[J.D.]

You might want to increase your shot charge if you want good patterns. Equal volumes of shot, wads and powder work ok for cap guns, but flint guns are a different animal.

A good place to start is 1 and 1/2 times more shot than powder, by volume. If you shoot 80 gr FFFG, your starting shot charge would be 120 gr, by volume of shot. And more shot would probably pattern better, especially if you plan to shoot 3FG.

Another tip, many flintguns don't like filler wads. Mine will only shoot one .135 card wad, over powder, shot charge, and a 1/8 inch slice of felt wad, over shot. The slice of felt wad holds the shot firmly in place when traipsing up and down hills, and breaks up on firing to insure consistent patterns.

I get good full choke patterns at 30 yards with 75gr. FFG, one .135 card wad, 120 gr, by volume of #5 shot, topped off with the slice of felt wad.

Since each gun is different, you will have to experiment to find what your gun likes.

I don't mean to contradict what someone said about patch thicknes determining ball daimeter, but IMHO, it's the other way around. Ball diameter is what determines patch thickness.

And most folks that I know who shoot smoothbores recommend a ball diameter about .030 smaller than bore diameter. IMHO, .030 is a place to start, but an even smaller ball with the proper patch thickness will shoot as well, and load easier.

Also, IMHO, backed by experience, a slightly smaller ball loaded with a thicker patch gives better accuracy with ease of loading. The thick patch gives more crush to allow easy loading.

I have shot many combinations from my old bess, and the best patch/ball combination that I have found for accuracy and ease of loading is one that is a few thousanths of an inch over bore diameter, using a moderately thick patch. And I can shoot all day without swabing.

So, if your bore is .750, a .715 ball is probably a good choice, with a .015-.020 thick patch.
J.D.

 

[TN.Frank]

I've been doing some reading and I guess they've found balls used in old, original Brown Bess Muskets that measured .690" so a .715" ball would have been large for the time. Of course they were using paper ctgs. and buck n' ball loads which would account for such an undersize ball. I think .715" would be a good starting point then I can adjust the patch from there. I generally swab with a spit patch between shots, I'll do the same with the smooth bore too, that'll help loading the "tighter" .715" ball a bit easier. Thanks for all the help everyone. :hatsoff:

 

[musketman]

I have posted this many times before, I use both .715 and .735 roundballs in my Bess... (not at the same time though) :haha:

The .015 pillow-ticked patched .715 ball is used for the first two or three shots like normal...

Then I go to the larger, double bee's wax dipped .735 roundball dropped right on the powder, with an overshot card above the ball from there on-end...

The fowling in the barrel acts as a crude patch for the .735 ball and is easier to load afield that the patched ball without lugging all the cleaning equipment about until needed...

This gives me many shots without the need to swab the barrel betwixt them...

This is the system I use and it does work for me, I compensate for the patch-less ball by upping the powder charge an extra 10 grains because of the blow-by gasses, this keeps the velocity somewhat the same as the patched roundball...

Once I shoot a few patch-less shots (8 or more) I simply scrape the fouling off the sides a bit and resume patch-less shooting...

The down side is that at the end of the shooting session, the barrel is really dirty, then comes the fun part, cleaning... :grin:

 

[J.D.]

The reason that the Brits used .690 balls was that the technology of the day wasn't good enough to consistently produce .750 diameter bores.

Acceptable bore diameters varied from .700-.800, and since the military couldn't efficiently provide the correct ball diameters for every musket encountered, they just produced balls to fit the smallest expected bore diameter. And since a .690 ball would load in a fouled .70 bore, that's what was provided. That is also the reason military muskets of the day were considered so inaccurate. Try hitting a target with a bare .690 ball, fired from an .80 cal firelock.
J.D.