Patch or Wad

[Grandpa Ron]

I would think you are in a bit of uncharted waters shooting a PRB out of a choked barrel. Most smoothbores are cylinder bored.

If I recall properly an improved cylinder choke is a .008” to .010” reduction in bore diameter.
So if you use a light fitting patch while loading the improved cylinder, you have a .008” looser fitting patch in the rest of the barrel.

I would try a cushion wad under the PBR to see if you get a better bore seal. If possible use a bench rest for consistency.

When you try different loads it is best to switch the loadings between each shot. For instance you might try PRB, then PRB on wadding, then bare ball on wadding with top wad. One shot of each then repeat the sequence so you even out the fouling and fatigue factures.

Remember, three shot make a group, five shots make a better group, and eight shots tell you what is really happening. And yes, that is a lot of powder and balls.

 

[Deadeye]

From many yrs. of shooting and also competing with smoothies and owning 7 of them, my experience has been that using a spit patch of the right thickness to fit your ball to the barrel
will give you the best accuracy that YOU will ever get from a smoothie. Deadeye

 

[redwing]

Hi there Deadeye. I have much better luck using a split Circle Fly OP wad. I use half over the powder and half over the ball.

 

[tenngun]

I do think there is a question of hunting in the old day vs competition shooting today. At 25 yards I see little difference in wads vs patch. At 50 patch works better...but a wad and bare ball will give you deer killing accuracy. In the old days most smoothy shooters would have only used his gun to hunt with. If he felt his fusil wasn't true enough he would have got a rifle.
Like wise a rifleman forced to use a smoothy through some mishap to his rifle gun might have patched his ball but would have dumped his smoothy at first opertunity.
Today we want our smooties to shoot like rifles, but if you try the old style you may be pleased.

 

[Grandpa Ron]

Tenngun you are right on. Though there has always been keen competition and some remarkable shots, for much of our history the gun was a utilitarian instrument of everyday life.

Accuracy was measure by game brought home rather than the highest score. There are many stories of hunters waiting to ambush a flock of ducks, only to pull the wad, dumped the shot and dropped in a ball to down a deer and vice versa.

We seek greater accuracy today because our definition of “accuracy” requires tighter groups and longer range, rather than a constant supply of meat.

Personally I enjoy the incessant diddling, tweaking the load for the tightest group or most uniform pattern. Whether PBR or wad loads the fun is in the shooting.

 

[KHickam]

Good discussion - I went out and shot a 10 shot string with my smooth bore - 6 of 10 would be killing shots and 4 would be complete misses - this same gun using PRB is usually 8 killing shots and 2 that would be probable after a while of tracking

 

[tenngun]

Although I believe smooth rifle shooters and rifle men who owned a fusil or fowler used a patch, we know for sure fusil and fowler shooters were using wads and kept on useing them long after they learned about patchs.
The Metse are famous for carring fusils on the plains and an english visitor commented they could shoot at 60 yards as good as a rifle. From about 1600 till almost 1900round ball waded smoothies remained in use...must have been a reason.

 

[spudnut]

I seem to shoot better with wads :idunno: