Do you know what barrel was used?
My TVM Early Virginia smoothrifle has what I believe is a Rice 20 gauge barrel.
Best two roundball loads for me have been 65 or 80 grains 3f, thin card, lubed felt wad (my own lube, not "branded" storebought), .610 ball, two thin cards. Either charge shoots this combo well. The 65 grain charge also shoots well with a .010 patched .595 ball, and decently with a paper cartridge leaving the paper around the ball. Seeing as you have 2f, I would try 70 or 75 grains. My standard is less than 4 inch groups at 50 yards off the bench. A load doesn't get tested if it doesn't shoot under 3, closer to 2 inches off the bench at 25 yards.
Shot loads..... unless you plan to experiment with the Skychief load, ditch the nitro cards and thick fiber "cushion" wads.
My squirrel and pheasant load is about 60 grains 3f, two thin cards, lubed wadding (either felt or faux-tow depending on my mood), 1oz (just use a 70 grain powder measure) #5 shot, two thin cards. I probably wouldn't even adjust for the 3f/2f difference until I shot some pattern paper.
There are dozens or more topic threads and posts on 20 gauge smoothbore loads, go read them,,, but only the 1st page, they all digress into arguing about bs. Read all of
@Britsmoothy posts in the hunting section, pay special attention to his wad and lube usage. He may do things that are somewhat nonstandard,,, but he gets results and posts those results,, and seems to get out killing critters far more than most of us. I believe it is
@Sparkitoff that has also been getting a lot of smoothbore shot shooting in the past season or two with good effect.
Pay attention to people's other posts, do they have any topics of their own sharing things they've learned and the experiences they learned them through, do they give an example of the standard they are holding or just saying, "this shoots good for me"? "Good" is relative and subjective.
