T/C .56 Smoothbore Barrel

[Blackpowdersmoke]

Hey..Have any of you fellas had any experience with the T/C .56 Renegade smoothbore barrels with shot loads??? I have one that I purchased for next to nothing that is like factory new but know very little about it other than it was supposedly designed to capture a percentage of the firearms sales in Massachusetts when they allowed smoothbore firearms only. Any of you fellas that have any info. about using this barrel with shot (and/or) ball, your help would be greatly appreciated...Bps

 

[roundball]

Hey..Have any of you fellas had any experience with the T/C .56 Renegade smoothbore barrels with shot loads??? I have one that I purchased for next to nothing that is like factory new but know very little about it other than it was supposedly designed to capture a percentage of the firearms sales in Massachusetts when they allowed smoothbore firearms only. Any of you fellas that have any info. about using this barrel with shot (and/or) ball, your help would be greatly appreciated...Bps

I used one before switching to Flintlocks...speaking only for myself, they are a good quality, strong 1" barrel that allows a lot of flexibility in different load configurations.
70grns Goex 3F seemed to be a good all around powder charge for hunting loads, and I used 1-2 Oxyoke .58cal prelubed wool wads over the powder.
Then depending on shot size selected based on the purpose, for example, clay targets 8's or 9s, turkeys 6s or 7.5s, squirrels & crows #5 or 6s, etc, I varied the shot charge anywhere from 7/8oz to 1+1/8oz.
And then I used one over shot card...you can order a bag of them from Circle Fly.

 

[shootemup]

...they are a good quality, strong 1" barrel that allows a lot of flexibility in different load configurations...70grns Goex 3F seemed to be a good all around powder charge for hunting loads, and I used 1-2 Oxyoke .58cal prelubed wool wads over the powder...one over shot card...you can order a bag of them from Circle Fly.

I'll second that. I tend to use #5 shot in my smoothbores unless I'm hunting upland birds, but only because I have a lot of it.

I have found, with the ones my son and I have, that we get our best patterns if we use around 1/3 more shot (volume equivalent) than powder.

Congratulations on the barrel, you done good. :thumbsup:

 

[majg1234]

Got one and it does well with 70gr FFg and 3/4 to 1 1/8 ounce shot,made my own felt wads from some left over wool felt from a laminate flooring project one of them over the powder and one over the shot did the trick,also got a mold (tc & custom) for the .550 round ball,used the same recipe for the load felt wads and all no patching...get about a 3" group @ 60yrds,It's going this weekend for muzzleloader opener her in Tn along with a couple of my flinters

 

[BrownBear]

There's a great write-up about using that barrel in The Complete Blackpowder Handbook, 5th Edition by Sam Fadala. He had some remarkably accurate load combos and procedures for round ball. Memory is failing, but IIRC there was also info on shot loads in another article.

 

[Blackpowdersmoke]

Thanks for all the info. fellas. Would that .56 barrel be comparable in performance to a 28ga.? I also have a 20ga. drop-in barrel for my Wifes Cabelas .54 Hawken and I have OP and OS wads for that. I'll have to wrangle up some wads for the .56 and get the two of them out for some shootin'. Thanks again, Bps

 

[roundball]

Would that .56 barrel be comparable in performance to a .28ga?

For all practical purposes, yes...it's pretty close.
If you'll go to the Circle Fly website...they have a complete chart there for gauges/bore dimeters...their line of business is to make wads and over shot cards for smoothbores