New Englander shotgun barrel

[Gus]

I am so pschyed. My New Enlander shotgun barrel came today, which I ordered 4 months ago. Can't wait to go shoot it. I order the wads a month ago. Can't ya tell I'm excited?

It came with screw in chokes, default to full, but I ordered modified. In some ways I wish it was like the orginal cyl. bore, but the options will be nice. I'll give a report on its performance as soon as I can. The only thing that I don't care for that the wedge key is a little tight. I'll have to take a look at that. BTW, it set me back $157, TC's muzzleloading instructor price.

gus

 

[DJONES5703]

You will love it. I got one last year and got me a turkey this spring with it. I use the mod choke tube it loads easy.

 

[gjkershul]

Where did you order it from?

 

[Gus]

I ordered it direct from TC, their custom shop, Foxridge Outfitters. I think their in the same facility.

gus

 

[Stumpkiller]

Good deal!

Though, as I recall, my whole New Englander kit with blued barrel was $179 . . . in 1988, that was.

I sure like mine. It has the straight cylinder bore but I just had CoyoteJoe put a Tula (aka "jug") choke in it and he measured 57% - I asked for Skeet #2 (or 55%). Should be some fine bunny and grouse pestering this coming season!!!!

 

[Gus]

I put two shots thru it the other night, but since I didn't have any clay targets to chuck, I only shot at a can. Killed it. It shot sweet, but kicked a bit. Must be the light weight barrel. What upset me though was how the wedge key fell out and the stock fell off to the ground, coming back from the firing line. I need to look at it close and see what's up, and perhaps call TC.

 

[shootemup]

Congratulations Gus!

I really like my New Englander, my shotgun barrel has screw-in chokes like yours but I don't let that bother me. This is a traditionally-styled sidelock gun, not an accurate replica of anything. Dang fine little gun though, so I just enjoy it for what it is.

If your wedge key is so loose that it falls out on its own (and you're sure you have the right wedge key), you might give it a very slight bend. I've done this before and found it to tighten it up a bit.

Keep us posted, you need to get that thing into the field. :grin:

Spot

 

[Stumpkiller]

You might also lay the barrel on towels and use a center punch and ball-peen hammer to "smack" a dimple into the staple on the barrel. I've done this with T/C's in the past and it always works to tighten up the key/wedge.

As Spot says, it's not really a copy of anything - though if it had fine checkering and engraving you might pull it off as an English Sporter. I threw some tacks on mine as a "simulated" late NW Trade Gun. (Yeah, right :shake: Sure helps the grip with wool mittens, though). I confess mine in the .50 cal barrel is my favorite deer rifle - I carry that during regular season & my custom flinter in muzzleloading. It's just a great little well-balanced rifle and a dandy shotgun too. Can't figure why they didn't sell better.

PS - mine used to throw a 0.690" patched round ball pretty well to 50 yards or so (I had the original cylinder bore with no choke or tubes). I bought her as a kit to see if I could live with a smoothbore Bess as a deer gun. For real fun, put nine .315" balls in and you get a lot of action downrange! As I mentioned earlier, I recently had CoyoteJoe jug choke her to a Skeet #2 (55%) as I don't throw punkin' balls much no more.

 

[Gus]

I'll give the dimple in the slot a try. I love this gun. For a while I wasn't sure if I'd keep it. TC was new to me, its a 54 cal, I paid $125 for it at a pawn shop, etc. But after shooting it a hundred or so times, and my 4-H kids doing the same. I'm never gettin rid of it. Now I'm going to personalize it with some tacks and inlays. Will report back on the wedge key.

 

[Rebel]

So Stumpkiller, have you fired your New Englander since CJ jug choked it? If so how do you like that choke?

 

[Stumpkiller]

With my original cylinder bore I fired at a Remington .com free download turkey head target. At 25 yards the first shot has 17 hits with #6. Second had 35 hits (it always did shoot tighter with a fouled barrel). With the jug choke at the same distance & load the first shot put 37 pellets on the page and the second 48. All with 1-1/8 oz #6. A marked improvement.

I also fired at a 1/2 scale grouse at 30 yards with #6 shot. (Aiming at the head & all the holes on the box are from just one shot).

It looks like I have added 10 yards or better, which is exactly what I had hoped for. Remember - the grouse in the target is only 1/2 the size of a real grouse. Skeet #2 vs. open cylinder. I still have to play around with some load development. Seems the pattern "pulls" left and has some bald spots to the right. One shot, however, does not tell the story. I need more big pieces of cardboard!

I want to try her with #4 shot, also. All I need is time!

 

[paulvallandigham]

I think you will like #5 shot better than #4. Try lubing the barrel with a greased cleaning patch as you push that OS card down on the shot. That will grease the bore, allowing the shot to slide over the barrel, rather than rubbing lead off, and creating flats that drop the shot quickly out of your patterns. The lube will still soften the fouling for easy cleaning, and that should also reduce the difference between the first shot from a clean barrel and the second shot from the " fouled " barrel.

 

[Stumpkiller]

I roll my 1/2" cushion wads in a mix of equal parts beeswax, mutton tallow and Crisco (stuck on an awl and rolled quickly on edge rather than dunked in the melted lube so they don't suck up too much weight from the lube). I don't like lube touching the powder when I can avoid it and so keep my 1/8" over-powder wad dry. I use #6 for bunny & grouse and #4 for pheasant & turkey. Squirrels I hunt with a rifle. #5 would be a good compromise, but I hate to buy 25 lbs at todays prices; and I need all the cloud of lead that #6 provides for the grouse.

The price tag on a bag of #6 I just opened: $13.96

The bag I bought to keep "in stock" to replace it was $48.95!

Should have invested in shot instead of stocks!

 

[paulvallandigham]

Every way I have tried to use those 1/2 inch cushion wads has resulted in holes in the pattern, up until now.

When Jim Rackham suggested using only OS cards a year or so back, and then posted some pictures of his patterns, I had to try it. It works.

Then I had to figure out how I wanted to lube the barrel. Jim puts a ball of waxy lube between his 3rd and 4th OS card he substitutes for the OP wad. I didn't want to be handling any of the lube in the field, or the range, for that matter. So, my brother had just come back from a chunk gun shoot where he watched some of the better shooters( better scores than his) lubing their rifles after seating the PRB. After kicking the idea around, we decided to try the same thing in our Smoothbore fowlers. It works.

The OS cards gave both of us better, more uniform patterns, and the lube in front added pellets to the pattern at 25 yards.

Considering the ranges grouse, and quail, chukkar, and some pheasants are shot at, and open cylinder bore shotguns which I have, 25 yards- and a bit more, is about all I expect to get. The better patterns let me stretch that range " a bit ", and using enough shot- either heavier #5, OR more pellets in the pattern with #6 -- gets the job done, when I do my part. With your jug choked barrel, you are also able to hit at longer ranges, and even adding 5 or 10 yards to these ranges is a real benefit.

I know with #5 that a single pellet hitting the bird in a vital area will drop the bird, so single pellet energy becomes important. With #6 shot, I am usually assured of a couple of pellets hitting the bird, and combined, or total pellet energy kills the bird. I chose the use of #5 shot back when I was getting holes in my patterns with those cushion wads.

I have previously noted how you lube your cushion wads, and intend to try that technique on the pattern boards to see if it helps my gun. I have several hundred cushion wads left! Thanks for the comments. Paul

 

[Rebel]

Thanks for the update Stumpkiller. I may have to have CJ put a mod choke in mine sometime.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Here's my newly assembled "Grouse Tin". It holds the fixins for nine shots - provided I drag along the shot snake and flask (not shown is the powder measure I use).

I figure three #6 in the body cavity/head of a grouse bring it down. They're not like pheasants and usually if you connect enough to puff off feathers they are dead. None of the "in between" disabled pheasant chases. Bunnies seem to give up life easily, too. I have anchored them with two or three #6.

In the thickets I hunt 35 yards is a long grouse shot and 25 is much more likely. They jink around trees and seem smart enough to keep a trunk between you and them if one is available. I think just that little bit more choke will greatly improve the New Englander for my hunting. 20 to 25 yards is about right for the bunnies, too. In both cases they may scoot at 5 ot 10 yards, but by the time I react and get the hammer cocked it's 20 to 25. Reflexes like a three-toed sloth - that's me.

Bald Mt. Man comes over to share my powerline right-of-way bunny preserve and he has the "dux-deluxe" New Englander with the choke tubes. That MUST be why he's been dusting me up 'till now. :wink:

 

[Rebel]

I just got off the phone from the T/C custom shop and they do still offer those Dux Lux barrels with the screw in chokes for $175.

 

[Stumpkiller]

I was just thinking on Paul's method of lubing the overshot card. When I slide in the greased was it lubes the bore (squeezing one of my lubed wads oozes out the oils). Then I chase it down with shot and the over-shot card. Now that card is squeeging down the lube - so the result is probably about the same. There will be a ring of lube under that card. Interesting.

If I didn't already have the "traditional" fixed choke I'd go for the tubes. ;-)

You'll also note I nick the edges of my overshot cards. That's because I have seated a load and heard a little "pop" when I pulled out the rammer and found the card sideways up in the bore about 6" ahead of the shot (or had the shot dribble out on the snow as I walked along!) Nicking the card prevents a compressed air space behind the card. The overshot has the nipple for a vent, and the over powder mushes up against that (making a gas-tight seal), but the shot has a lot of airspace that the final card can put pressure to but it's too thin to hold it once the rammer is pulled away.

 

[paulvallandigham]

I found the same results using #6 shot on pheasants, and Chukkar partridge( about the size of a woodland grouse) - that is-- 3 pellets hitting at normal ranges is all that is needed to bring it down. It was years later that I got the Lyman Shotshell Reloading book and studied the charts they have there showing Pellet energy at Muzzle, 20, 40, and 60 yards. Only then did I really understand why 3 hits were required using #6, but only 1 hit with #5 shot. ( or #4)

My first gun pheasant hunt, a bird got up in front of me in standing corn. I shot with a load of #6 shot. A split second after I shot, the guy next to me shot using a load of #5, and then the guy next to him shot again with a load of #4 shot. The bird was dying with my hits. It was visibly moved with the hit of the #5 shot, mostly because it was reacting to being hit by my shot. But, when those #4 shot hit the bird, it knocked the bird sideways out of the air, as if it were hit with a tennis racket. I think we gave the bird to the 3rd shooter, since he had made swiss cheese out of the bird, by violating the zone of fire for us two hunters.

The guy to my left admitted that he also should not have shot the bird, as it rose right in front of me, and headed right away from me. He said he was afraid my single shot shotgun was not going to bring the bird down, and he didn't want the bird lost! Hah! We still had fun.

But, I have never forgotten the different effect of those #5 and #4 hits on that bird, after I hit it with my 6s. #4 shot, at .13", is a pretty big piece of lead to be shooting a small bird with, by my way of thinking. #5, at .12" is big enough. If you own a 10 gauge shotgun, that can hold 2 oz. of shot, easily, then using #4 shot for longer ranges(45-50 yds.) makes a lot of sense, especially at black powder velocities.