Rear sight, I may have killed the magic

[Ken Cormier]

I also have a Tulle I boughtvin 1986 for a realy goo d price. As the guy could not get it to shoot I later fould out. Lol Then I metv a couple of smoothbore shooters named Steve Baxter and Lizard and they talked me into bending my barrel to shoot point of aim at 35 yards never looked back great shooter love it.

 

[Ken Cormier]

I also have a Tulle I bought in 1986 for a realy good price. As the guy could not get it to shoot I later fould out. Lol Then I met a couple of smoothbore shooters named Steve Baxter and Lizard and they talked me into bending my barrel to shoot point of aim at 35 yards never looked back great shooter love it.

 

[sean30ber]

Here is the Tulle I just finished with a front base as a rear sight. Works well, Unobtrusive and doesnt get in the way for shooting on the fly. Sits very low and had to file the front sight down a bit.

 

[faste350]

i made a rear sight for my nwg many years ago. it mounts with the tang screw. it is about 7/16" wide and about 3" long. very simple design, made from i think 14 gauge steel. bend the front up about 1/8" and that will give you the area to make the "v". at the butt end, it is tapered to a pint, which is bent down a little, to let it bite into the wood. the radius is bent a little tighter, so when it is tighted down it has pressure on it. very easy to make and with mine it goes on the same way every time, no need to sight in. has worked great for me for almost 25 years.

 

[Shine]

I like it. :thumbsup:

 

[Leatherbark]

Don't be hasty. Unless you are going to be shooting in NMLRA sanctioned smoothbore matches, or are wanting to be historically correct, there is no reason not to have a rear sight. If you are going to be using it for hunting and shooting in matches where rear sights are allowed, go ahead and put it on your smoothie. I just used the tang screw trick because I wanted to shoot in matches at Friendship where rear sights were not allowed on smoothbores.

+1 and if you do use a sighted smoothbore in the sighted smoothbore matches they have there you will be shooting against a gamer that will have a smallbore smoothrifle that will shoot a ragged hole at 25 yards. His rifle will have a heavy barrel and precise sights and loaded to very high velocity to keep the ball supersonic all the way out to a hundred yards. Hard to compete with one of those guys when you have a nice thin walled 20 gauge musket with a rear sight. So I elect also to shoot in non sighted smoothbore events.

Bob

 

[larryp]

Looks 100% better now since the sight has been blackened with powder fouling. Darkening it kind of took the edge off.

I really like the looks of that!

 

[54ball]

Thanks :hatsoff:

 

[54ball]

Working it out.
I went to the range today and tried something new. Going by the round ball ballistics chart recently posted on the forum, I estimated my first zero at 10 yards. I had a very interesting result.

Being so close I could see I was hitting about 8 inches high and a foot to the right. I thought those 530 balls were really tearing up the target, I mean it looked like I was shooting a 8 bore.

Inspection of the target revealed three 530 holes close together at point of aim. What I thought was massive holes were my Spanish Moss wads 8 inches high, a foot to the right. They all hit there, but the balls hit at point of aim. No wind today either. :hmm:

At 50 yards I was high but filed on the sight notch and the last group was in the pie plate size circle.
I still have a lot of shooting to do but it was a productive day.

 

[gland]

54ball
You have a 28, I’m contemplating one. :hmm: Will never shoot any thing bigger than a wild hog or deer. But would like to take a few dove, Quail exct. Don’t shoot rabbit or squirrel with shot. My question: is the 28 the correct ga. for me. Deer dove quail, maybe a duck or two. I’ve thought on it a lot, and 50cal seems small for shot. 20 seems large for prb. What do you think of your 28, and what barrel length would you recommend? :idunno: Plan to build a smoothe first of low cost parts, to learn on before building my .45cal Gillespie of higher quality stuff. Thanks for any input. Don't want to build wall hangers, usein guns are what I'm after.
sweed

 

[Shine]

28 guage is. 55 caliber. And I love it. Shoots tight patterns.

 

[54ball]

I love my 28 bore but it has it's limitations. I consider it a ball gun first, shot gun second. I think it's a good ball gun for deer and hog and a decent gun for upland game like close range squirrel, turkey, rabbit and with practice, close range quail, maybe some close in dove.

IMHO it's just too small for waterfowl unless you are in the swamps and the woodies are lighting amongst you ...close. Remember steel shot. :td:

If your primary target is waterfowl I recommend a graceful 12bore fowling piece.

If it's deer, hog and the occasional bird hunt a 28 smooth rifle or Trade Gun is good.

Now the 20 bore is good compromise.

The most common gauge of the Indian Trade guns was 24 bore or ,58 caliber. So the reason for that may be that the 24 bore was found to be the best general purpose bore size.

 

[gland]

54Ball
Thanks for the input! :thumbsup:
What I’m lookin for is a good dual purpose gun. Will call it OXIE MORUN. :rotf: I know that it wont be a good rifle, and it wont be a good smooth bore. I have decided to build the smoothie first for reasons above, but want to wind up with something useful, that I can pass on with pride. And maybe get some of the oopses out of my building system!! :idunno: Will look into the 24 bore. That sounds intriguing, although I’m still concerned with size.
Proper Planing Prevents Poor Performance :blah:

sweed :hatsoff:

 

[kingsax26]

Swede...I would ahve full confidence in the .58 smooth (approx 24bore) I am having one built after seeing how my buddies did. We do alot of BP small game hunting. Ive seen it take sqiureel rabbit grause and even a coyote. Not to mention its stellar performance on deer...and even a bear. I like it for its power, on most large game...and its still reasonably economical to shoot....

 

[Grandpa Ron]

I use my 28 ga. for ball and I have seen some really tight 50 yards groups shot at the Friendship Nationals. No rear sights or set triggers but some fairly heavy barrels and really tight patch and ball combos.

Though they are historically correct, I do not use a rear sight as the folks I shoot with do not have them. At some events I will change to wad and naked ball if that is what the others are shooting.

I have not worked up a shot load for my 28 ga.I hope to remedy that this spring.

If a rear sight fits your situation I see no reason not to use one.

 

[Shine]

I have found with the last 3 smoothbores ive owned shot better with wads than patches. Makes sense that is the historical correct way to load one. Also the last shot of the the day loads as easy as the first with greased wads.

 

[54ball]

Well, with the 28bore I killed it's first recovered deer. It was a nice longhorn 3 pt with a cowhorn on one side.

I stalked up on him after I seen him working though a small grove of immature hardwoods. He looked like he may come my way and present a shot so I crouched down on a little hump next to the trail. Sure enough he started coming my way down the trail and I leveled the gun, ready for him to come around a little curve in front of me. He came around the curve and stopped ears up starring at me, I'm not sure if he made me or not. The distance, 20 yards or so. I fired, a double lung shot, he went about 30 yards or so.

Folks, hunting with a smoothbore like this, well it's not like shooting through a scope and nothing like shooting paper. I do believe a good majority of modern hunters, can't handle it. What a rush. Being able to control your own self is a skill in it's self.

Part of my motivation for adding the rear sight was the first deer I killed with the 28 several years ago. It was a high racked 9 point that was found a year later.

To set up the shot I built a small nest and laid prone. The buck showed up with a buddy and presented a gravy train shot at about 30 yards.

I made a fundamental mistake. I had never shot that gun prone, shooting prone without a rear sight changed my hold so I shot better than a foot to the left. So I most likely hit guts. There was no blood and I searched for him for two days. The next year, bones including the skull were found several hundred yards from where I took the shot. He was a nice one.

Had I been in upright position, had a rifle, or had a rear sight I would have recovered that deer.

So practice every imaginable position with a smoothbore.

 

[Wes/Tex]

Excellent point Senor 54...though to be perfectly honest, when Texas guys see "longhorn 3 point" our mind goes to a total different place! Mooo! :wink: :haha:

 

[Alden]

Good deal! And reflection...

 

[Joe Ruley]

Thank you for sharing the first hand experience and sound advice for shooting the smoothbore. :hatsoff: