Range Report - New GM 62cal Smoothie

[Sharp Shooter]

Friday I got my 62cal GM smoothbore in the mail tht I had bought. First thing I did was put the barrel on my Renegade and load up to go shoot it!

I first tried using 90gr KIK FFG, one over the powder card, shot cup, and some #5 shot. The cup held about 7/8oz of shot. At fifteen yards or so I was not too impressed with the pattern.

I figured I needed to get more shot in there so next I loaded 90gr FFG KIK, one over the shot card, a fiber wad, and 90gr (1-1/4oz) of #5 shot. I liked the pattern much better with this load since there were a lot more BB's out there. I think that will conclude my turkey load. I might try 100gr FFG KIK and 100gr #5 shot next time I go the range though.

I think I am going to forget about using the shot cups for turkey since they dont hold very much lead. I will save those for rabbits or whatever. If I find some that will hold 1-1/4oz of shot or so I might try them.

I am glad I got this barrel for my Renegade. Hopefully this week I will get some roundballs casted for it to try out.

 

[lonedave]

Sounds like you found a load that patterns for you pretty quickly. That's great. If you try the 100 gr shot load next time, you might try a little less powder too, say a 70-80 gr load. My gut feel is that you may find it patterns better than a 100 gr load and still has the power to penetrate a gobblers head and neck just fine. In any case, get after them turkeys and let us know how you do.

 

[paulvallandigham]

The reason your pattern is improved with more shot, is because it slowed down the velocity of the load!

You are using WAY TOO MUCH powder in that 20 gauge. Back it down to 60 grains, and work it up by 5 grain increments. #5 shot is large enough to retain plenty of energy down range. But, you do want a tight pattern at the muzzle. When you use that kind of powder charge, you are blowing the shot - fine for shooting skeet targets, but not so good for hitting small clay targets at longer distances. The head and neck of a turkey is more like a Trap target, than a Skeet target, IMHO.
The lighter loads will put those #5 pellets through a steel can at 25 yards, and should do so out to 30 yards.

 

[CoyoteJoe]

The shot cup does not have to hold the full load, it is the bottom of the shot column which most needs protection. The pellets at the bottom of the shot column are between the "irresistible force" of the powder gas and the "immovable object" of the pellets ahead. Pick up some spent wads at the range and note how the imprints of the pellets are very deep at the bottom of the cup and hardly indented at all near the top. So you'll still get some benefit of the shotcup even if it only covers the bottom half of the shot column.

 

[Finnwolf]

Don't want to put a damper on things but I hope you checked that GM .62 smooth for the helicoil repair in the nipple well (much written about on this forum). I bought one from Pecatonica last fall that had a helicoil in it. They took the barrel back for credit and I picked up a 12ga New Englander for not much more instead.
Don't know how dangerous that repair is but I'm glad I'm not shooting it and I'm happier toting the much lighter 12 ga in the woods - 'specially yesterday when it hit 85 here

 

[nw_hunter]

I ordered a 62 smoothie from GM back when they were on sale and also received one with the heli-coil. I started to send it back and did some research on others shooting them. Never talked to anyone that had a problem with them so I decided to keep it. I use 60 and 70 gr loads of 3f for rb and shot, No problems with the coil :v

 

[Sharp Shooter]

So what on earth is thes "Heli Coil" thing and how do I know if I have it?

 

[Finnwolf]

Reserach "helicoil" under percussion rifles forum...
http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/.../post/649969/hl/helicoil/fromsearch/1/#649969

 

[Deadeye]

I turned my .60 GM barrel down to 1/2 Oct 1/2 round,
nice & light and have never had a problem with the helicoil and never heard of anyone who did.
Is there any documented cases of a helicoil blowing out?
Deadeye

 

[Finnwolf]

Interesting - did you turn it down yourself on a lathe or have a shop do it? How much weight did nou knock off?

 

[roundball]

"...Is there any documented cases of a helicoil blowing out?

I can't answer that question...however, when GM's "helicoil repair" of a defective drilling & tapping manufacturing operation surfaced, understandably there were numerous and obvious safety questions that came up across many shooters.

One school of thought was "if after being in business as long as they have...drilling & tapping gosh knows how many nipple and vent seats...they still allowed a major manufacturing defect to occur...then there's no basis to blindly assume their first time ever use of a 'helicoil repair' would be 100% correct".

Then, the final nail in the coffin for most folks was when we learned Tip Curtis in Tenn, and Cain's Outdoor in West VA...both large GM barrel resellers...returned all GM barrels they had in stock that had helicoils in them...refusing to sell them to customers.

Speaking only for me, I didn't need any barrel bad enough to take ANY risk with a repair in a high priority area...had GM replace the breechplug on a new .40cal Flint barrel I bought that showed up with a helicoil in it...they did it at no charge.