Reboring a barrel. 28 gauge or 24 gauge?

[Roundball2319]

I'm getting ready to get a 54 cal 26 inch barrel rebored to a smooth bore. I will be using it for hunting small game, turkey, and maybe deer with round ball. What are the Pro's and cons of 28 gauge and 24 gauge?

 

[Roundball2319]

Some back ground on my hunting. Before I found muzzleloaders I hunted squirrels, grouse, and rabbits with a .22 and doves and turkeys with a shotgun. Deer with a .270.
Now I hunt deer with either a .50 or .54 caliber renegade. But I am hooked on a .56 cal TC barrel that I took a turkey with this spring with. The barrel is pitted but still shooting. When I got it I also got the pitted .54 barrel with the plans of getting it bored to .58 cal.

 

[martin9]

For what you're hunting the only pro I can think of is boring it to a 24 gauge would make for a lighter gun than a 28. Other than that I like them both for everything mentioned.

 

[Treestalker]

I have a similar (.50 cal) octagon barrel that Mr. Bobby Hoyt bored out to 58 cal/24 guage smoothbore and also turned the front 18 inches round. His work is impeccable, he's been doing this stuff since the '70's at least. I also have an old Springfield repro military musket barrel that he rebored from .58 rifled to .60 cal/22 guage smooth. I have not built guns out of either yet, but look forward to excellent results with shot and ball. I would recommend the 24 guage as it was a standard back in fur trade days, and you can probably find components readily available. Good luck with your project, please keep us informed! , Geo.

 

[necchi]

You can have Bobby take a 1" renegade out to .615/20 gauge.
Congrat's on your Turkey harvest with the 56, you did well. I had one and found it dismal in range testing, I sold it.
I later found a sewer pipe 1" .54 for cheap then had Mr. Hoyt turn it into a 20ga. smooth, and never looked back.
With the larger bore easily available with what you have along with simple "over the counter" components available I'd do it again in a heart beat.
The only advantage of a smaller smooth bore is the romance.

 

[Roundball2319]

You can have Bobby take a 1" renegade out to .615/20 gauge.
Congrat's on your Turkey harvest with the 56, you did well. I had one and found it dismal in range testing, I sold it.
I later found a sewer pipe 1" .54 for cheap then had Mr. Hoyt turn it into a 20ga. smooth, and never looked back.
With the larger bore easily available with what you have along with simple "over the counter" components available I'd do it again in a heart beat.
The only advantage of a smaller smooth bore is the romance.

What kind of loads are you shooting in the 20 gauge? Have you used it for deer?\

 

[Roundball2319]

One of the reasons I was debating .58 caliber is I have a .562 round ball mold already. I bought it for trying to shoot bare ball out of the TC .56 caliber barrel that I lapped the bigger pits out of.

 

[tenngun]

Since you have the mold go with the 24
I have 20 and 28. There is really little to choose from one over the other

 

[necchi]

What kind of loads are you shooting in the 20 gauge? Have you used it for deer?

It's been ahwile since I've shot it and don't remember the loads off the top of my head, when I did find a good shot/powder combination I "set" measures that are just for that barrel. I did use Bob's pages to help find the load.
http://home.insightbb.com/~bspen/index.htmlHere in Minn, we can use rifled ML's for most game state wide (except Duck/Goose)( I use the 870 for birds) so I've never used it in the field, just rendezvous novelty shooting

 

[Roundball2319]

Thanks for the info. That settles it then. If there is not much difference then I will go with 24 gauge like I had originally planned.

 

[Ed Pilkington]

How’d it go Roundball?