Smooth bore accuracy?

[azmntman]

wait till they put the girl back on and then buy a northstar. Thats what I'm doing :idunno:

and I dont own one yet either, cept a 12ga which I consider a shotgun, which is one, but I want a smooth rifle :surrender:

 

[Stumpkiller]

God help me: I don't even own a smoothbore, yet I'm over here reading threads on the smoothbore forum. ML is a sickness, isn't it? I can walk away from this smokey white devil anytime I want to...

Ohhhh. You'd better remedy that.

If I had to choose between my beloved flintlock rifle and my beloved flintlock smoothbore I'm afraid the rifle would lose.

Hopefully it never comes to that! :thumbsup:

 

[Britsmoothy]

God help me: I don't even own a smoothbore, yet I'm over here reading threads on the smoothbore forum. ML is a sickness, isn't it? I can walk away from this smokey white devil anytime I want to...

Mwahahaha, your hooked! :thumbsup:

B.

 

[mancill]

What do you mean by wait for them to put the girl back on?

 

[tonykarter]

My Cabela's Hawken is a gateway muzzleloader. There should be a warning printed on the box. This is about to get expensive. Grandma got me hooked on squirrel and squirrel gravy over biscuits for breakfast more than fifty years ago. To that end I see a smoothbore in my future. Sorry to hijack your thread, segway finished, carry on.

 

[azmntman]

They used to have a really pretty young lady n traditional garb holding a rifle on the website. Then one day in an alcoholic stupor(?) or some other irresponsible occurrence they took her off :idunno:

A kind member sent me a pic of her but it taint the same . The website "draw" has diminished 99%

 

[mancill]

Gotcha kinda like Martin archery.

 

[coloradoclyde]

They used to have a really pretty young lady n traditional garb holding a rifle on the website. Then one day in an alcoholic stupor(?) or some other irresponsible occurrence they took her off :idunno:

A kind member sent me a pic of her but it taint the same . The website "draw" has diminished 99%

Play nice now!..... :nono:

 

[Stantheman86]

I've heard of people using heavy charges like 120 gr of 2f in stuff like. 69 1842's and shooting decent groups at 75ish yards.

 

[Rockvillerich]

I've heard of people using heavy charges like 120 gr of 2f in stuff like. 69 1842's and shooting decent groups at 75ish yards.

I've seen decent results with moderate charges too. Try different ball sizes, patch material, and charges until you come up with something that works for your particular firearm. I have a smooth .54 that shoots great with a near bore sized ball and thin patching when its clean, but after five or six shots becomes extremely inconsistent if not swabbed. One .69 cal. loves a .64 ball in greasy paper, and shoots fine all day without cleaning, while my only .75 doesn't shoot all that well no matter what I feed it. Then there's a .62 that seems happy with most any load. Just like rifles, they're all different. That said, I don't expect any smooth bore to be accurate much beyond 50 yards.

 

[Roughneck]

I have had good luck with 50 & 60 grain charges of 2f. All 4 of the Smooth bores I had shot great with that load for punching paper. Even at 100 yards once I figured out the hold I was able to hit the target consistently. My wife shot her smooth bore at 100 yards and got this group off hand. This was the first time she had shot it at 100 and it was 60 grains of 2F Swiss.

 

[Rockvillerich]

I have had good luck with 50 & 60 grain charges of 2f. All 4 of the Smooth bores I had shot great with that load for punching paper. Even at 100 yards once I figured out the hold I was able to hit the target consistently. My wife shot her smooth bore at 100 yards and got this group off hand. This was the first time she had shot it at 100 and it was 60 grains of 2F Swiss.

That's very impressive!

 

[Gene L]

I researched accuracy of a BB musket, which you can do and find out some interesting facts. It said that in Europe, the practice was to stretch a 20 ft or yard (can't remember which) cloth, six feet high for infantry, 8' high for cavalry to represent a line of enemy troops for battalion practice and I guess count the holes. I believe the range was 175 yards, considered the max effective range of the gun. Which is the killing or damaging range for the balls.

It also said that modern tests of the BB, secured by mechanical means to take the shooter out of it, was about 5" at 50 yards.

 

[smoothshooter]

I researched accuracy of a BB musket, which you can do and find out some interesting facts. It said that in Europe, the practice was to stretch a 20 ft or yard (can't remember which) cloth, six feet high for infantry, 8' high for cavalry to represent a line of enemy troops for battalion practice and I guess count the holes. I believe the range was 175 yards, considered the max effective range of the gun. Which is the killing or damaging range for the balls.

It also said that modern tests of the BB, secured by mechanical means to take the shooter out of it, was about 5" at 50 yards.

Bet the LETHAL range of a .69 to .72 ball was a LOT farther than 175 yards with the service loads they used back then.

 

[tenngun]

Bet the LETHAL range of a .69 to .72 ball was a LOT farther than 175 yards with the service loads they used back then.

Lyman ballistics book shows them hitting pretty hard at 300 yards. And some jagars were pretty close to that size and chamois hunting at the two to three hundred yard range was common.

 

[Britsmoothy]

Bet the LETHAL range of a .69 to .72 ball was a LOT farther than 175 yards with the service loads they used back then.

I certainly would not to try and catch one in my teeth......at any distance!

 

[Gene L]

The article said that at that distance, the ball shed velocity so it was considered the maximum effective range.

 

[Britsmoothy]

The article said that at that distance, the ball shed velocity so it was considered the maximum effective range.

Written no doubt by an expert.....funny thing is, you never see these experts proving their expert opinions by volunteering themselves to a test!

 

[tenngun]

Well 100 grains of 2f in a 42” barrel Bess with a .715 patched ball gets 1000 FPS, at 100 yards it slows to 800 FPS,671 at 200 yards and 565 FPS at 300. At 300 it has 423 ftlbs of energy, about the same energy as a .54 fired at 1400 FPS has at 100 yards, or the same energy as an 1800 FPS .50 has at a hundred yards.
Now what’s the chances of a Bess hitting a human or a deer at 300 yards. My gut tells me the same chance a snowball has in the Devil’s domain..... but I would not stand on a hill three hundred yards from a shooter banging away at me with a Bess. Except it has a 1.25 second time in flight, so a target has time to duck.
They did shoot charges bigger then 100 grains in the old days. How did British military powder of up to two hundred grains or more compare to modern g-o? I don’t know. 150 grains of GO produces 1200 FPS. However this is a PRB, how does that compare to a lighter ball in a paper cartridge. Does wadded paper rammed hard once with a rammer on loading get a lot of blow by and loose velocity? If so how much?
I bet the velocities in Besses in the old days were at least in the transonic low supersonic ranges. When the ballistic pendulum was first experimented with they got up to 1700 FPS in a Bess.

 

[Rat]

I believe, but could be wrong, that the standard military charge for the Bess was around 140 to 150 grains, generally speaking. I find the 140 grain charge produces best accuracy in my Brown Bess. (your results may vary!!) Once the barrel is well fouled, I would guess that the velocity would not be that far behind with the paper cartridge, than that of a patched round ball.

The Brown Bess is a powerful weapon, and I always feel warm, fuzzy, and safe hiking hunting or exploring in Grizz country with Bessie in my hands.

Yes, don't stand on the 300 yard hill. Just when you didn't want a hit at 300 yards, would be the first time you got a hit...Mr. Murphy would make sure of that.