shot through a rifled barrel

[Old Creek]

out of desperation i have taken a 410 shot shell apart, dicarded the powder, charged the bore with about 40 grains of 3f cut out of thin card bore a card and put it over powder, patched the shot cup and rammed home, then shot, 2 more cards and a paper wad over that. my questions are has anyone had luck on squirrels with a simular load and as an after thought after loading i developed some very slight concern about the minute ammount of modern powder that surely clung to the oiled shot and shot cup.
your thoughts would be appreciated.

PS, the desperation is over not yet having the rifle sighted in and hunting season zooming by because of work and it depresses me a little more every weekend that i have yet to fire a shot at a limb rat with it.

Thanks

creek

 

[54ball]

Rifles are not shotguns. The twist blows the pattern. The effectiveness of shot through a rifle will be measured in feet rather than yards.

 

[Wes/Tex]

I'm going with 54ball here. You didn't mention the gun you were using but I'm assuming a .45 and the amount of shot dispersion will be consistent with your twist rate. If you pattern your gun and find enough shot in a pattern at a particular range, you may get away with it. I'd recommend at least 5 patterns at whatever range you're thinking of to verify the pattern is truly consistent. If you wipe the shotcup off with a paper towel, or some such, there shouldn't be enough modern smokeless powder on it to matter. It's worth a try but I don't see you having a great amount of success. Sorry.

 

[Old Creek]

i was expecting that and thank you for the input. since the loaad is in the bore already i will load up the feist and take her out to unload her, maybe i can scare a squirrel to death. it'll be the first time ive had her in the woods so regardless of the out come i'll get some satisfaction just to be in the woods with her my horn and bag.

thanks again.

creek

 

[larry wv]

I expect it will throw a better pattern with out the shot cup. Larry

 

[azmntman]

Long ago when I was playing with my first bp gun I loaded a shot load in my .45 kentucky (likley a 1-66 twist) and shot it at about 30 yds. Excellent pattern for me as it was a true circle......with a perfect hole about 12" wide in the center! :rotf: Appears the rifling twisted the load and made a doughnut pattern! As I can be off that much in a hurried shot i would hit my target. But I never loaded it again with shot as I feared the lead damaging the rifling. FWIW

 

...as an after thought after loading i developed some very slight concern about the minute ammount of modern powder that surely clung to the oiled shot and shot cup.
your thoughts would be appreciated.

Thoughts?

Kids shouldn't be allowed to play with guns. :wink:

 

[ohio ramrod]

I think you would have better luck using a light powder charge and a patched round ball on the squirrel. :idunno:

 

[Old Creek]

...as an after thought after loading i developed some very slight concern about the minute ammount of modern powder that surely clung to the oiled shot and shot cup.
your thoughts would be appreciated.

Thoughts?

Kids shouldn't be allowed to play with guns. :wink:

there's one in every crowd aint there :td:

creek

 

[Old Creek]

i agree 100% Ram Rod but with work and scouts with my grandsons i have yet to sight it in and it is killing me to get it in the woods. i got close and had it shootin a tight pattern and then got interested in Dutches system and started over, the first batch of lube opened the pattern up drasticly so the saga continues.

creek

 

[jbwilliams3]

Sir,

My humble suggestion: Go back and do what you were doing. If it was getting you a tight group, why change? I know a lot of people swear by the Dutch Shultz system, which is a product of later 19th century match shooting. It’s all well and good. There’s nothing wrong with it, it’s just not my cup of tea. In a hunting situation, I want to be good enough to shoot a deer or a squirrel in an offhand position with a decent margin of error (a margin of error which will be smaller, do doubt, if you’re taking head shots on squirrels). You will have much worse luck using shot than it sounds like you were getting before you started over. I don’t measure my patches or weigh my rb’s after casting- I use spit patches or mink oil for hunting and the animals and targets have never objected to my not using the Dutch Shultz method. Have fun!

 

[jamesthomas]

You didn't say what kind of barrel you have, but I would find a smooth bore of the same width say either 15/16ths or 1" or you could find a trashed barrel and have someone bore it out to a smoothbore. I haven't heard of anyone making a rifled bore shoot shot very well.

 

...as an after thought after loading i developed some very slight concern about the minute ammount of modern powder that surely clung to the oiled shot and shot cup.
your thoughts would be appreciated.

Thoughts?

Kids shouldn't be allowed to play with guns. :wink:

there's one in every crowd aint there :td:

Exactly my point. :rotf:

 

[Joel/Calgary]

I tried ~3/4oz of shot in a paper shot cartridge out of my .50 1:48" shallow-groove Pedersoli flinter, over a somewhat smaller volume of powder (can't remember exactly). The rifling sliced the paper longitudinally when it fired, so the cartridges opened reliably, and I got even patterns, not doughnuts. BUT the patterns opened very fast - I wouldn't count on reliably taking a squirrel much past 10-12yds.

Regards,
Joel

 

[Alden]

Holy hole in the doughnut Batman!

 

[Wes/Tex]

Just hoot near them, not AT them! :thumbsup: :rotf:

 

[Robert Egler]

A few years ago I did extensive testing with shooting shot out of a rifled barrel. With a paper shot cup it is possible with the right load to get a decent (squirrel) pattern out to about 10 to at most 15 yards. (No donut hole) Experimenting with your powder/shot/paper cup design mix is necessary to find what will work best with your rifle.

Overall, I found that swapping the barrel out for a smoothbore worked a lot better! :wink:

 

[flintlockmdj]

But I never loaded it again with shot as I feared the lead damaging the rifling. FWIW[/quote]

First off I will admit that I have never considered shooting shot in a rifled barrel, but I can't for the life of me figure how soft lead shot could damage the rifling in a hard steal rifle barrel. I can understand it leading the barrel but not damaging the rifling. Someone please set me straight.

 

[Wes/Tex]

Your assumption is right. The worst that could happen is extra leading in the bore which would require a bit more scrubbing to get out. Can't imagine any permanent damage.

 

[Old Creek]

thanks to all for the good input, after unloading the shot load its back on the range.

creek