I am getting ready to decide on a another muzzleloader and I can not decide on whether I want a smooth bore or a rifle I have a rifle ky so I thought about getting a smooth bore. I really like the fusil due chasse and I just can't decide i. I pretty much want it for hunting.
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smooth bore vs rifled
- Thread starter jrbaker90
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I think your decision should be based on what it is you want to hunt and where you'll be hunting. If you will be hunting mule deer in the vast expanses of West Texas then you will more than likely want a rifle. Quail are much easier to hit using a smoothbore and in some states it's illegal to use a rifle to hunt certain game birds. The Fusil De Chasse is a fine smoothbore, and I've fired some that are wonderfully accurate inside of 50 yards but past that I owe it to the deer I'm hunting to use something more accurate or get good enough to get that close.jrbaker90 said:
Ranger1759
40 Cal.
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only thing I'll add is shoot one first....or at least shoulder one...reason I say that is some rifle shooters have trouble going from a straight stock to the sever drop on some French guns....
I for one have that problem and went with an English fowler with a straight stock, feels more like my rifle and my cheek is in relatively the same place on said stock..
ranger
I for one have that problem and went with an English fowler with a straight stock, feels more like my rifle and my cheek is in relatively the same place on said stock..
ranger
No one can decide for you what you want.
Pick yer pizzen and enjoy. :wink:
Pick yer pizzen and enjoy. :wink:
galamb
58 Cal.
If you are super undecided AND have a good use for both a smooth and rifle, why not build/acquire a swivel breech or a side by side and do one barrel each way.
Yes, they can weigh a ton, but for those days you just can't make up your mind, you are covered :rotf:
Yes, they can weigh a ton, but for those days you just can't make up your mind, you are covered :rotf:
I don't shoot rifles as much as my smoothies now. The Ozarks are great for smooth bore range. The supply companies for guns today are offering rifled barrels. Track of the wolf offers several 'kit' guns in the French trade guns, colonial and English trade guns, and offer wedding band 1/2 round barrles in .50 and .54 rifled and 28,24,20 gage smooth. So for the price of an extra barrel you can have both...I think you will like the smooth better, Them rifle gun is just a pass'n fad
What about making one with two interchangeable barrels? Smooth and rifled.
Lonegun1894
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No one can answer this without knowing what type of terrain and game you hunt, and the game laws there. So of course, the right answer is BOTH!
Col. Batguano
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There is no such thing as the word "OR" when it comes to guns. Only the word "AND". You just can't have too many of them laying around.
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Jethro224 said:
I agree completely... but then again, I wouldn't have the Renegade, which now has a .50 cal barrel (the original) and a 20 gauge smoothie, and a .54 rifled barrel ...
you can never be too rich, too thin, or have too many flintlocks!
make good smoke!
hanshi
Cannon
It all comes down to what you want to hunt. Virtually nothing else has as much to do with the choice you face. Deer? A rifle. Squirrel? A rifle. Both, plus turkey, birds? Smoothbore with a 20ga being an obvious choice.
jrbaker Ill have to throw in with the rifle fans also .A long slim lite flinter is my choice but I do like smooth bores also .If our state would allow rifles for turkey huntin thats what I would use.But if you can own both go for it .
When I first started usin smooth bores the switch wasn't much trouble at all,course the swith from cap to flint was easy too ,would hate to go back. Curt
When I first started usin smooth bores the switch wasn't much trouble at all,course the swith from cap to flint was easy too ,would hate to go back. Curt
Others have already said it...have to decide on your intended purpose.jrbaker90 said:
For all my types of hunting here in the North Carolina woods, after accumulating .40/.45/.50/.58 cal rifles and 28 & 20ga smoothbores...the smoothbores have basically taken over and get used probably 50 to 1 over the rifles.
Depends on your intended use. But the trade guns of the time were not particularly effective and used a lot more powder and lead than the rifles did. This is documented back to at least the 1750s.
The traders pushed SB trade guns on the natives because they sold a lot more powder and lead when smoothbores were used.
Many natives liked them. Like today some people like smoothbores some like rifles.
But few of the people who expound on the usefulness of the SB do not use them as they were used back in the day. They want to have jug chokes for example and modern shot it far more uniform and harder than shot of the 18th c. Modern wads change things a lot too. So shooting squirrels, for example, with an open choked 20 gauge with tow wadding and marginally round shot as would have been used back in the day borders on unethical. So they modernize their barrels and wads and shot and then think that how the gun performs is representative of how they performed back in the day.
NOW, there are places where shooting squirrels with a rifle can be problematical even a very short ranged rifle like a small bore 32-36, ML with a RB so there are modern reasons for using a SB and then improving it. But its not strictly historically correct the way many use them.
Most bird hunting in American was done with large bore shotguns shooting rafts of waterfowl or punt guns for the same purpose. Wing shooting with a trade gun would be a PITA (as it is with any FL) due to variation in lock time. This was the driving force in speeding lock/uniforming lock time in FLs though lock improvements, vent and breech designs and was the reason the percussion system was invented. The Nock FL breech for example has proven to be the most uniform in speed in modern testing.
So if you intend to hunt flying birds you might find it problematical due to the lead being different for every shot. I am not a wing shooter but look to the variations on lock time in tests detailed on Larry Pletcher's blackpowdermag.com site.
So decide what YOU want and go for it. If you want a SB you are not going to be happy with a rifle in any event. But you need to have info for any decision making.
Dan
The traders pushed SB trade guns on the natives because they sold a lot more powder and lead when smoothbores were used.
Many natives liked them. Like today some people like smoothbores some like rifles.
But few of the people who expound on the usefulness of the SB do not use them as they were used back in the day. They want to have jug chokes for example and modern shot it far more uniform and harder than shot of the 18th c. Modern wads change things a lot too. So shooting squirrels, for example, with an open choked 20 gauge with tow wadding and marginally round shot as would have been used back in the day borders on unethical. So they modernize their barrels and wads and shot and then think that how the gun performs is representative of how they performed back in the day.
NOW, there are places where shooting squirrels with a rifle can be problematical even a very short ranged rifle like a small bore 32-36, ML with a RB so there are modern reasons for using a SB and then improving it. But its not strictly historically correct the way many use them.
Most bird hunting in American was done with large bore shotguns shooting rafts of waterfowl or punt guns for the same purpose. Wing shooting with a trade gun would be a PITA (as it is with any FL) due to variation in lock time. This was the driving force in speeding lock/uniforming lock time in FLs though lock improvements, vent and breech designs and was the reason the percussion system was invented. The Nock FL breech for example has proven to be the most uniform in speed in modern testing.
So if you intend to hunt flying birds you might find it problematical due to the lead being different for every shot. I am not a wing shooter but look to the variations on lock time in tests detailed on Larry Pletcher's blackpowdermag.com site.
So decide what YOU want and go for it. If you want a SB you are not going to be happy with a rifle in any event. But you need to have info for any decision making.
Dan
Last edited by a moderator:
Brokennock
Cannon
What you plan to hunt, where you plan to hunt it, and local game laws will dictate a lot of your decision, especially if you want to do everything with one gun. A 20 gauge smoothie will do you for just about anything large or small in N. America depending on how you load it and how close you can get. To some of us bragging rights aren't for long shots, it's for getting so close you almost can't move to make the shot. That said, if you can use a rifle for everything you want to hunt in your area and can do so legally with the same caliber (can't legally do deer and small game with the same caliber here in The People's Republic of Connecticut for example) then a rifle is probably the way to go. Less learning curve. If a smoothie allows all game you wish to hunt by switching between shot and rounball and most of your shooting with shot will be "rifle style" like squirrel and turkey, I'd suggest a "Carolina" or type G trade gun with rear site.
Lastly, and sorry to be so verbose, some people will try to wreck others fun and will assume PC/HC matters to the n'th degree to everyone, every time they rear their head. Nothing positive is ever said by them, whenever they post you can expect rain on your parade. Ignore them. I can tell you that as long as you're not using plastic shot cups and in line ignition, any traditional style smoothie will be far more PC/HC than switching between a smooth and a rifled barrel on an 870 or Mossberg 500.
Lastly, and sorry to be so verbose, some people will try to wreck others fun and will assume PC/HC matters to the n'th degree to everyone, every time they rear their head. Nothing positive is ever said by them, whenever they post you can expect rain on your parade. Ignore them. I can tell you that as long as you're not using plastic shot cups and in line ignition, any traditional style smoothie will be far more PC/HC than switching between a smooth and a rifled barrel on an 870 or Mossberg 500.
I want to be able to hunt anything from deer to squirrels in tn I can hunt small game with a 50 cal. I am hoping to get into a rendezvous club and I want to be competitive so I kind of want a smooth bore and a rifle I'm thinking of getting both or get one and get a rifled barrel for it. Is there any documents that says their was a fusil de chasse rifled I know it wasn't to be begin but could they been one or two rifle sometime in history?
