Smooth Rifle Benefits?

[Smokey Plainsman]

What are the benefits, besides cost, of a smooth rifle?

Do they load easier than a rifled gun?

I guess you can use shot in them? Would a .45 smoothy be too small to get a useful load of shot in?

 

[Britsmoothy]

What are the benefits, besides cost, of a smooth rifle?

Do they load easier than a rifled gun?

I guess you can use shot in them? Would a .45 smoothy be too small to get a useful load of shot in?

Check my .45 smoothrifle small game hunt photos. You will see pigeon, pheasants, squirrels, rabbits and a fox.

 

[Sidney Smith]

IMO the only real advantage is you can load shot, round ball, and buck and ball loads in a smoothie. You're limited in range to about half that of a rifle, so really for larger game unless you get them in close better off using a rifle.. Now if strictly used with shot or buck shot, then I think that is where a smoothie excels.

 

[rich pierce]

Gives an excuse if you miss with a round ball.

JK, I know some folks really have it down. I have a hard enough time with a rifle.

 

[tenngun]

I think it’s just the odd man out. Folks buy rifles, folks buy muskets and fowling prices/ fusils today. Back in the day it seems a lot of ‘rifle mounted fusils’ were made. Now there comming back in popularity as an historic style to play with. And it’s fun to own the odd ball.
It’s naturally fit with a rear sight so easy to aim. It will shoot ball and shot. Like any compromises it won’t shoot as well as a rifle or handle as easy as a fowler. But it will do big/ medium game and small with one gun. Hard to shoot a dove on the wing or a hundred yard elk but will take deer at fifty and Turkey at twenty five.

 

[Brokennock]

Advantages? Well, depends on what you are comparing it to and what you are using it for. Compared to the same gun, architecture, sights, etc. with a rifle bore, the main advantage is versatility. Here in Connecticut I can legally hunt any legal game with a 20 gauge depending on if I use shot or roundball. With a m.l. rifle I would need 2, something between .32 and .36 for small game, and another .45 or larger for deer. And, I'd still need a 20 gauge or larger smoothbore for turkeys, pheasant, partridge, and other fowl.
Also, I do find my smoothbore easier to clean than a rifled barrel, but I think it's a moot point.
If comparing to a fowling piece or other type smoothbore, the main advantage is the sights. The gun does not need to fit you as well as a good fowling piece. And the learning curve with roundball is flatter. However, I mostly use my smoothrifle with shot for game that has me still shooting like a rifle, squirrels, turkeys, the occasional rabbit, if I were wing shooting with it more, a properly fit fowling piece or shotgun would have an advantage.

 

[Carbon 6]

Would a .45 smoothy be too small to get a useful load of shot in?

No, think of a .410 shotgun, I've killed a lot of critters with a .410

 

[Britsmoothy]

No, think of a .410 shotgun, I've killed a lot of critters with a .410

To be honest I load between 5/8&3/4 ounce of shot in my 45 which beats most European shot loading in 410 ammo.

 

[Britsmoothy]

I think it’s just the odd man out. Folks buy rifles, folks buy muskets and fowling prices/ fusils today. Back in the day it seems a lot of ‘rifle mounted fusils’ were made. Now there comming back in popularity as an historic style to play with. And it’s fun to own the odd ball.
It’s naturally fit with a rear sight so easy to aim. It will shoot ball and shot. Like any compromises it won’t shoot as well as a rifle or handle as easy as a fowler. But it will do big/ medium game and small with one gun. Hard to shoot a dove on the wing or a hundred yard elk but will take deer at fifty and Turkey at twenty five.

To be honest, my 45 Kentucky style smoothrifle swings very well for wing shooting. Comes up lovely to the shoulder and swings through like a long barreled super imposed.

 

[BrownBear]

To be honest, my 45 Kentucky style smoothrifle swings very well for wing shooting. Comes up lovely to the shoulder and swings through like a long barreled super imposed.

My frame of reference is a smooth GM 20 gauge (.620") barrel with rifle sights. On the RB side it's sure lots easier for me to put the balls where I want them out to around 75 yards, compared to a fowler with only a front sight. Meanwhile it digests a lot more shot loads than RB. I find the oversize rear sight a problem for wing shooting, blocking out way too much of my view. Dandy for sitting game with shot though. Easy fix. If I'm wing shooting I just take off the rear sight. Always carry the tools to do just that on days when a hare shoot turns into a ptarmigan shoot. Truly don't need the rear sight for hare shooting with shot, but it's so little a problem I tend to leave the sight on until and unless I start jumping ptarmigan. Truth be known, since I seldom shoot it with RB, the sight would serve better use in a drawer back home.

 

[Britsmoothy]

My frame of reference is a smooth GM 20 gauge (.620") barrel with rifle sights. On the RB side it's sure lots easier for me to put the balls where I want them out to around 75 yards, compared to a fowler with only a front sight. Meanwhile it digests a lot more shot loads than RB. I find the oversize rear sight a problem for wing shooting, blocking out way too much of my view. Dandy for sitting game with shot though. Easy fix. If I'm wing shooting I just take off the rear sight. Always carry the tools to do just that on days when a hare shoot turns into a ptarmigan shoot. Truly don't need the rear sight for hare shooting with shot, but it's so little a problem I tend to leave the sight on until and unless I start jumping ptarmigan. Truth be known, since I seldom shoot it with RB, the sight would serve better use in a drawer back home.

I do not notice the rear sight when wing shooting, I just focus on the bird.
Mind you, the rear sight is very small!

 

[Loyalist Dave]

What are the benefits, besides cost, of a smooth rifle?
Do they load easier than a rifled gun?
I guess you can use shot in them? Would a .45 smoothy be too small to get a useful load of shot in?

Well first, if you have one built, you're probably not going to see a cost advantage by much if at all. You get that advantage these days when you find a rifle (usually a factory job) that the previous owner roached the barrel due to improper cleaning, and the cost is barely for the remaining parts. THEN you send it out and have it bored smooth.

Since they do not require a tight fitting patch to engage the rifling, they do load round-ball easier. You can't use conicals, which I'm sure you know, but I just mentioned it here for anybody new to the hobby who isn't quite up to "full speed" on smooth rifles.

Of course as mentioned above you can use shot in them. Their thicker barrel walls in many cases allows the shooter a bit more powder and shot. As Britsmoothy mentioned, he's shooting a 3/4 ounce of shot...that's a light 20 gauge load, or a heavy 28 gauge load and is well above the .410 shotshell here in The States.

As for buckshot..., I don't think you get an advantage here, especially if you're in a smoothie below .50. Might as well just use a patched ball, or if it's legal (as many states require during ML deer season a single projectile) loading a double-ball load. The double-ball might be problematic, there are additional concerns..., both being seated and remaining seated against each other...., the loss of velocity vs. the advantage of the extra ball (or adding more powder)...etc.

You're talking in most cases a 50-60 yard gun with a single projectile. For me in the terrain where I hunt that's not a problem at all. And you do get small game capability.

LD

 

[nhmoose]

At 50 yards I see no difference in practical use. X-rings are big on game. At 25 yards with shot they excel the rifled guns.

Shots in the woods of New England Do not need riffling. In past times and many areas today smooth bores are the law.

 

[Carbon 6]

Smooth bores are easier to clean than rifled.

 

[Einsiedler]

I believe with my eyesight becoming the way it is, I see my future hunting excursions becoming more of a smooth rifle event with buckshot/birdshot. I attempt to keep all my shots less than 50 yards, and my game small. And the added bonus, my fusils/smooth rifles are a bit lighter to tote! I enjoy that!!!

 

[Britsmoothy]

On a slight tangent I wish diabolo shaped projectiles were available for smoothbores.
They work in airgun smoothbores and some shotgun slugs.

 

[Carbon 6]

On a slight tangent I wish diabolo shaped projectiles were available for smoothbores.
They work in airgun smoothbores and some shotgun slugs.

Hmm, that would be interesting, but muzzle loading that type of projectile might be tricky.

 

[Britsmoothy]

Hmm, that would be interesting, but muzzle loading that type of projectile might be tricky.

I don't see how ?
A diabolo pellet bore size following after a bore lubing wad and a card on top. The front band and rear would need to be thin at bore contact points.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

They work in airgun smoothbores and some shotgun slugs.

I'm not sure that doesn't depend on what one means by the word, "work"....

I've seen a few tests done following the recommended loadings from Lyman that makes the mold for that slug. It's a 525 grain slug, when a .690 ball (allowing for a .015 patch) is 495 grains...so we're talking adding the equivalent of less lead than a .22 LR rimfire to the projectile. The test shot them through a rifled choke while needing a plastic wad, and the results at 50 yards did not necessarily show me enough performance to warrant even trying such a slug in a smooth bore. Based on what I saw compared to a Brenneke style slug in a plain smoothbore barrel at 50 yards...I would not spend the money reloading these slugs.


I'd like to see them tried in a plain-Jane smooth barrel vs. a patched ball, a .690 in a paper cartridge, and vs. a .710 bare ball using a wad between the powder and ball.

LD

 

[arcticap]

What are the benefits, besides cost, of a smooth rifle?

Do they load easier than a rifled gun?

I guess you can use shot in them? Would a .45 smoothy be too small to get a useful load of shot in?

Using the TC .56 smoothie as an example, they're not easier to load if a person wants to obtain the best rifle like accuracy at 50 yards.
A very tight combination of ball & patch needs to be used and fouling can also become more of an issue,

Smoothies can be loaded with more shot than their equivalent or nearest sister gauge compared to a modern shotgun.
And they often need to be since they do not have a choke.

Duelist1954 made 2 part videos about loading and patterning a 20 gauge fusil and found that 2 ozs. of shot and 100 grains of powder produced the best patterns at different distances.
That's not what most folks would expect since they often say to use less powder for better patterns.
But the reality was shown to be quite different since he needed to drastically increase the shot load to produce an effective pattern compared to a square load.

A bore equivalent to .54 or 28 gauge is about the very least that I would consider using as a smooth rifle to be able to hunt both turkey and deer with.