Shooting birdshot in rifle

[flinthead]

I was wondering if anyone has tried shooting birdshot in their rifle and if so what tips would they have.

Specificaly I have a couple of 54 Lymans and thought maybe they could do double duty on upland game. Lead shot is still allowed here for upland birds.

 

[Blizzard of '93]

I tried #6 shot in my .50, it opened up fast but would do OK in an emergency I suppose.
I placed a felt overpowder and the shot wrapped in a heavy shop 'paper towel' and then some wadded paper atop.

 

[Zonie]

IMO, unless the rifling groove depth is very shallow it will cause the shot column to begin spinning like a roundball.

Even with a slow twist like 1:60 at 1200 ft/sec the rotational speed (assuming no slipping) would be about 14,400 RPM.
Even if the shot column doesn't end up rotating that rapidly it will be spinning very fast.

At that rotational speed it is easy to imagine the shot being thrown outward from the line of sight rapidly causing a large hole in the shot pattern.


Those who have tried it have seen this very thing happen to their shot pattern making it unsuitable for hunting birds.

Another negative is that the loose shot that touches the rifling will get torn up as it passes down the barrel leaving behind large amounts of lead. Cleaning a muzzleloaders barrel to remove lead is a real PITA.

 

[dgold]

I wish I was at the northern house now as my data for this is up there. I have shot, in the past, shot from an Enfield Muskatoon (P.H.) It involved a 28 ga. shotcup(plastic) and a 58 cal. fiber wad and an over shot wad and some 777. It shot O.K. and before I got myself a sxs 12 ga. shot a few ruff grouse with it. Worked O.K. but not like the 12 ga. Sorry I don't have the specifics of the load data as I won't be back in the north for another 3 weeks or so.

 

[Joel/Calgary]

I have very-short-range success with shot in a Pedersoli .50 with a 37" barrel, 1:48" twist, fairly shallow (.005") rifling. 3/4oz of #7.5s in 2-wrap paper cartridges with 45gr of FFFg gave reasonably even (not donut) patterns but opening VERY fast - maybe 5-12 yards usable range depending on game/pest size. It _might_ get 15 yards or a bit better for flock-shooting birds in a survival situation, but I wouldn't count on nailing any given one. I just loaded with the standard tear-pour-insert-ram procedure. The rifling cut the paper so there was no problem with reliable opening like there can be sometimes in smoothbores with paper shot protectors or cartridges, and there was no noticeable leading.

regards,
Joel

 

yes i knew of a guy who made shot cups out of 3x5 cards (used for filing addresses &c -- purchase at office depot).
He said they performed reasonably at short range.
good luck :v

 

[Billnpatti]

You can do it, it won't hurt anything but you will have a lousy pattern. A rifled bore will cause the shot to spin like a bullet. This causes the pattern to go everywhere. Instead of having a pattern that will be suitable for hunting, you will just be spraying shot out of your muzzle and getting a wide random pattern. You need a smooth bore to shoot shot well.

 

[renovato]

Shooting shot from anything with rifling is a short range affair at best. That's why shotguns are smoothbores in the first place. In recent times, many things have been tried to keep the shot load from spinning, but nothing I know of really works well. The rifling also deforms the shot at the edge of the load and those deformed shot cause a lot of flyers. Essentially, a load of shot in a rifled gun is a glorified snake gun.

 

[Powerkicker]

I have rolled cotton tails with regularity with shotshells from a 6" 44 magnum revolver barrel. Ranges were short from the jump-shooting...I'd say no more than 10 yards. If a small rifled .44 bore loaded with CCI shotshells can roll a bunny, I'd guess my .50 could too... I have to try it now :hmm:

 

[Robert Egler]

Shooting a 1/48 twist 50 cal I got decent (well, usable) patterns out to about 15 yards using a sort of cartridge. 3/4 oz 7 1/2 shot wrapped 3 times with newspaper, tied with string on both ends. Lubed with bore butter. The often predicted donut hole in the middle of the pattern never appeared, but the pattern is pretty uneven.

 

[flinthead]

Thanks for all the replies.. I understand about rifling affecting shot as I have shot bird shot out of pistols and .22's. I thought that at close range, 50 feet or so, it would probably work.

When I get a chance to try it I will post the results.