Small caliber smoothbores?

[Walkabout]

I find the small bore smoothies aesthetically pleasing and I suppose there's something to be said for economy of shot and powder. I'm more of a paper puncher these days, but if I were a serious hunter, I'd opt for a larger bore.

 

[Britsmoothy]

When I bought this 45 of mine I was taking a gamble I know. However I was very pleasantly surprised at a; it's power, I mean velocity, it is certainly there with shot, and b; for a long rifle style, it's point ability on winged targets!

 

[nwtradegun]

get it and have bobby hoyt bore it smooth
R.A. Hoyt
2379 Mt. Hope Rd.
Fairfield, Pa, 17320
717-642-6696

 

[GBG]

Do these exist as factory guns? Or would this only be something I can do as a custom thing -- order the rifle I want in .32 and then have it bored out smooth?

Several years ago, I acquired a GM .40"X1"X42" SB barrel and all the parts to build a smooth rifle. These barrels aren't made by GM now, but if you could find one it might meet your needs.

Also, Rice Barrels price list page has the following quote:
"Standard calibers: 32, 36, 40, 45, 50, 54, 58, and 62
All calibers available in smooth-bore."

If any of these barrels could be fitted to an existing rifle, it might be another option to building a custom gun.

 

[hanshi]

Hey, Nate, that little .45 sb, being such a disappointment in the game fields, obviously needs replacing with a .62 at least.

 

[russellshaffer]

So just load with a round ball and carry some shot with you. If you get checked show the shot and say the only way you can unload the gun is by shooting it. No problem.

 

[Rudyard]

Different countries have different shot sizes , A British 6 is the same size as an American 7 , an American 6 is the same size as a British 5 etc .
These shot sizes can vary from country to country , why they cant get together and make the number / size the same all over the World I do not know .
I shoot 0.95" or 2.41mm 7½'s for trap , this is also the US 7½ , but it is the English 6½ and the Australian 7 , unless I buy Australian ammo and the 7½ becomes a US 8 an English 7 and a European 8 .

Well there you are simple! Rudyard

 

[smoothshooter]

Through a quirk in our game regs, I can hunt turkey with any smoothbore muzzleloader I want & load it however I want. So that has me thinking about a small caliber smoothbore -- something in the .30-.40 range. Do these exist as factory guns? Or would this only be something I can do as a custom thing -- order the rifle I want in .32 and then have it bored out smooth?

I suspect one of the main uses in the old days for .44 and under smoothbores was loading multi-ball loads ( with only the bottom one being patched ) for defense and hunting larger animals. The multiple projectiles increasing the chances of a hit out to 50 yards or so. Would also help someone with poor eyesight get hits too.
The shooter could always have the barrel rifled later if he felt the need.
I think a .36 to .40 caliber smoothbore gun with sights could be pretty useful around the old homestead/farm/camp for routine situations, and pretty economical with powder and lead.
By routine I mean shooting skunks, possums, snakes, foxes, coyotes, rabbits, groundhogs, rats, wolves, pigeons, fish, turtles, etc.
I have experimented with double-balled loads in my .54 smoothbore out to about 40 yards.
They usually hit about 6 to 10 inches apart. One above the other.
Would be interested in other people’s results with multi-ball loads.

I grew up on a farm and know these things first-hand. Except for the wolves-there weren’t any of those around.

 

[GBG]

The shooter could always have the barrel rifled later if he felt the need.

That was my plan. See what a .40 SB could do, then if accuracy and utility combined weren't satisfactory for lawn, garden and barn pest or varmint control, have it rifled.

I'd think the SB would be as useful as a modern .410 unmentionable shotgun, and considerably more powerful. At close range a 95 grain RB going 2300 fps would take the biggest predators prowling around here.

This thread has sparked my interest in the project again.

 

[DuncNZ]

I prefer at least 20 gauge . Remember when there is lead in the air there is hope .

 

[Britsmoothy]

Sometimes I load five count .36 balls in my .45 SB to circumnavigate the legal black hole here in the UK. It's a long boring story but this bizarrely is legal whereas a single ball may not be legal....go figure.

Anyway it works.

 

[Kansas Jake]

You gotta do what you gotta do, Britsmoothy.

 

[Brian Anderson]

some years back l built a smoothbore around a piece of quarry drill shaft. 1/4" bore using single buckshot. Effective on rabbits and squirrels and in smoothbore competitions.
l'll see if l can dig up a picture

 

[Rudyard]

Some' jumper 'bits are 1/4 " some where about 3/8 " I made one of each the one in Dampier West Australia had the tungsten tip & I got the Plumber to braise the vent smaller but I got a vent pick stuck so I loaded it up well & stuck it in a fire & waited.. BOOM blew the vent clear all right but scatterered flameing bits all into the dry spinifix & down into the red rocks took me a while to put it all out . I left the gun under a rock by antient Aboriginal carveing near the old Mack & Blow camps where (MacMillan & Brodell rail way builders) .Might be still there since 1967.I worked building the first houses I think its a good size town now & the near by Karratha Station is a small city . The other I' got up' in Zulu land on a railway job same plan only used an old E I Coy Bakers series flint lock Ide bought for ten bob (100 Afghanis ) in Cabool in 69 .Cape Dutch style of course both had number 8 wire ram rods . I posted that one sans lock to NZ .Both fed on unraveled fuse powder .& slugs of lead .I used to blow the ends of Concrete culvert pipes with Cortex 30 mile a second explosive cord never ventured to try That for a propelant .
Regards Rambling Rudyard

 

[smoothshooter]

That was my plan. See what a .40 SB could do, then if accuracy and utility combined weren't satisfactory for lawn, garden and barn pest or varmint control, have it rifled.

I'd think the SB would be as useful as a modern .410 unmentionable shotgun, and considerably more powerful. At close range a 95 grain RB going 2300 fps would take the biggest predators prowling around here.

This thread has sparked my interest in the project again.

I would think that a .36 with shot loads would be a pretty short-ranged affair, but I have no experience with something like that.

 

[smoothshooter]

some years back l built a smoothbore around a piece of quarry drill shaft. 1/4" bore using single buckshot. Effective on rabbits and squirrels and in smoothbore competitions.
l'll see if l can dig up a picture

What was the effective range?
Smoothbore shooters tend to start getting pretty vague when asked about actual ranges that their gun is really accurate to (with no fliers).

 

[smoothshooter]

Sometimes I load five count .36 balls in my .45 SB to circumnavigate the legal black hole here in the UK. It's a long boring story but this bizarrely is legal whereas a single ball may not be legal....go figure.
View attachment 174102
Anyway it works.View attachment 174103

How tight is the grouping of the 5-ball loads at, say, 35 to 40 yards?

 

[GBG]

I would think that a .36 with shot loads would be a pretty short-ranged affair, but I have no experience with something like that.

I've killed barn rats with a well-worn semi auto 22 and old all brass rat shot loads. At 3 to 5 yards some required 2 or 3 quick shots to kill.

My only other experience is with modern .410 shotshells. That's why I chose .40 as the minimum caliber for lawn, garden and barn. I need to de-grease that .40 barrel and restart the project.

 

[Britsmoothy]

How tight is the grouping of the 5-ball loads at, say, 35 to 40 yards?

I all honesty I can not remember.

It's not fantastic and in all honesty your better off with one or two full size ball but I can not comment on that from here in the UK. To many spies

 

[Nuthatch]

What was the effective range?
Smoothbore shooters tend to start getting pretty vague when asked about actual ranges that their gun is really accurate to (with no fliers).

Part of the ambiguity is that it often depends how somebody loads it up. Supersonic, it can be great. Subsonic, it can be great. But transonic, it can get all squirrely. When the ball goes transonic, to me, is where rifling really shows its value.

Can't say I've done any scientific tests, eliminating all the variables except the rifling. But I shoot my .50 smoothbore just as well as my best rifle out to about 50 yards. After that, groups widen. Running the figures through a calculator, 50 yards is about where it goes transonic. I've certainly shot further than that a few times but I can't say that there isn't a whole lotta me in each shot as the distances get further out. Open sights leave a lot of room for interpretation when a small target is set out to 100 yards. At least it does with my eyes.

There's a YouTuber who shot a 20 ga fowler out to about 180 yards with a fair bit of consistency. Walked it in to the gong in about 3 shots. His loads were subsonic. I'm pretty sure that I'd do just as well shooting out that far as dumping powder charges on the ground & throwing the ball downrange.