Prob'ly could use a rear sight.

[wahkahchimaol.com]

Ike Please let us know how your hunt goes! I'm stuck in California during the fall hunt so I have to live vicariously through you all.

 

[Stophel]

umm, you know, bending the barrel is gonna screw up your shot pattern. It will end up sending shot a foot high.

Patched balls seem to ALWAYS print WAY lower than shot out of a smoothbore gun. You gotta decide which one you want to use most, balls or shot. (if it's balls, I'd suggest a rifle...) You might try an unpatched ball (or buck and ball) with wads to hold it in (the period correct loading, I might add :haha: ) See what it does.

Otherwise, you might come up with some removable sight that you can have on for shooting balls, and take off for shooting shot.

 

[paulvallandigham]

A rear sight is simply a centering guide for most guns. You need a wide notch, and you don't need tall "Ears". Depending on how high the notch has to be to zero a load at 50 yds., you can file or grind, or cut off those "ears" pretty short. The wider the notch, and the shorter the "ears", the less obstruction they pose for shooting flying targets.

As has already been suggested, a rear sight can be the groove in a high tang bolt, or a filed flat or notch in the front of the tang, or a dot of paint, or line of paint, on the center of the barrel. For elevation, you can "Stack dots" on the barrel, and the back of the front sight.

Doing any of these things returns a smoothbore to the widest possible uses in the field, with that "Rear sight" in place.

 

[Birdwatcher]

Patched balls seem to ALWAYS print WAY lower than shot out of a smoothbore gun. You gotta decide which one you want to use most, balls or shot. (if it's balls, I'd suggest a rifle...) You might try an unpatched ball (or buck and ball) with wads to hold it in (the period correct loading, I might add ) See what it does.

Seems to be true of this barrel too, here's 1 1/2 oz of 7 1/2 shot over 80 grains of FFg...

Up in New York this past summer we were banging away pretty much free style with my nephews just plinking 100 grains of FFg, a dry fiber wad, a .600 ball topped by another dry fiber wad, shooting at a 30" x 30" target about 100 yards away and all of us were either scoring hits, or else kicking up dirt just in front or on the bank just above. So the bare ball idea may have merit.

On thing that apalls me now thinking back is that we fired 20 shots in quick succession, me doing all the loading, no cleaning, and I never even THOUGHT about the possibility of a residual spark in all that fowling :shocked2:

Birdwatcher

 

[rock scratcher]

Swampy how do you bend a barrel or tru one??

thank you

ken

 

[Birdwatcher]

Progress.... good news on the aiming front: While I ain't proud of the group I cannot fault the elevation. Six shots, .600 ball with a pre-lubed 0.010" patch over 100 grains of FFFg, again standing offhand at 25 yards.

Here's the squared off end of the untapered octagon before the untapered round section.

I just looked down that top flat and put the wide base of the front sight right on top. Using the intersection of the blade and base as the aiming point.

Hey, its a start ....

The other nine shots today were bare ball over dry wads, and 100 grains FFg, higher but still low.

100 grains FFFg does go off with a satisfying "crack!", so its fairly quick. Hope I can get it and me to group. I don't mind the thought of punching .60 caliber holes clear through smaller creatures, but I do want something that will punch a hole in one of them monster hogs if such should show up.

Birdwatcher

 

[early cuyler]

Pleas forgive me if I missed it, but it looks like you are close to solving your issue with no modification to your gun, but only to the load and diameter of your ball right ?

 

[George]

I just looked down that top flat and put the wide base of the front sight right on top. Using the intersection of the blade and base as the aiming point.

Birdwatcher, I went through a very similar procedure when I got my smoothbore. I went about it as I had always done with my rifles when they shot low, filed off some front sight. A lot of filing before it dawned on me that would never work. I set about changing my usual sight picture and came up with just what you describe, with one slight difference. I had filed my front blade so that it was only about 1/8" tall above the base, so that I set the base of the front sight on the end of the top flat, then use the top of the front blade as the aiming point.

My barrel has a 12-inch section of untapered octagon, a 1" wedding band, then the first 10" of the round is tapered, and is straight from that point to the muzzle. That means I can use a bit higher front sight than your untapered barrel, I'd say.

Good work, keep at it and you'll get where you want to be. Don't go bending your barrel.

Did you say who made your barrel?

Spence