Time to do a little bragging........

[Slowpoke]

This past weekend was the Maryland Territorials. I won second place in the Smoothbore competition and three other medals for individual targets. I'm most proud of shooting a 40 1x on the 100 yard target. It's a long ways down range with a gun that doesn't have any rifling.

Slowpoke

 

[Stumpkiller]

Good on you! Congratulations!

:thumbsup:

 

You have bragging rights!
Congrats!!!! :RO: :thumbsup:

 

:RO:Absolutely- Congratulations- :master: :master: 40 1X with no rifling - tell us, what are the gun's specs??

 

[robinghewitt]

That's splendid. I hope Lauren was impressed, I certainly am ::

 

[Slowpoke]

Robin,
You know I always like to impress the ladies.... I came home and told the "good" wife and she immediately asked me if I got the gutters cleaned yet. Lauren just smiled and threw some peas at me.


Daryl,
I have a Chamber's Virgina Smooth Rifle: 46 inch Getz barrel, Round face flint lock. It weighs aound 6 pounds and is a real pain to hold steady. You have to really press it into your shoulder.

What was a real pleasure was my 100 yard load. I usually shoot 65 grains of 2F at 25 & 50 yards. I decided to raise the powder charge to 80g at 100 yards. My first 7 shots were complete misses. So I up'd it again to 100g of powder and my next 5 shots were hits. 100g of powder in a gun that weighs 6 pounds is an orthopedic's dream. Plus with a swamped barrel, all those shots taken, and 95 degree heat, the mirage effect made the target disappear a couple times

 

[musketman]

Depending on the size of the metal, it would almost make an interesting stock inlay...

Fantastic job...

 

[54JNoll]

Nice looking gun and even nicer shooting.

Way to go

 

[robinghewitt]

Wow, any more drop on that stock and it would be a petronel ::

Have you got the gutters cleaned yet?

 

OK- thanks- I'm now guessing it's a 20 bore or smaller. Thanks for the info - interesting about the powder charges. Generally, with a low velocity gun, the higher the velocity. the lower the gun shoots. This happened with my .69 rifle and with all of the .45 and .50 cal ctgs. guns I have owned and now own. Stock shape plays a big part in that though and with the amount of drop in your gun, the opposite could, in fact, be the case.
: If this is purely an accuracy deal and not merely trajectory, then you are very lucky to have a gun that shoots more accurately, the more powder you put in. This is rare for a smoothie. With such a light gun, bearing up tot he recoil to shoot it is one ting, but to shoot a group is another- Congratulations again- quie a feat.
: So far, I have only shot up to 100gr. 2F in my Bess, but at that level, high enough for hunting with that big ball, the apparent accuracy is around a foot at 100yds. offhand. This being the actual case, I could hunt moose with it right now (season?)but I am hoping the accuracy not only holds but gets better with another 20 to 30gr. powder. It is nice to have an exit hole as the moose seem to lay down quicker with double holes.

 

[Slowpoke]

Squire Robin,
Gutters are clean..... It doesn't have that much drop in it.... I think it was the way the rifle was laying on the ground.

or then again... maybe it does. :shocking:

Daryl,
I have no idea where I was hitting with the 85 grains of powder. I thought I might be shooting a little low since none were on the target. I put 100gr in there and it was basically landing in the same area I was holding. I still like to shoot 65gr out of it, it doesn't kit as much.

 

Nice looking gun for certain. Beautiful profile.

 

Slowpoke: for us individuales that don't know much about smoothies how 'bout a little help.
Cast or swagged roundballs?
Any lube used?
Swab twixt shots?
Patch used?
Card wad over powder/ball etc?
How big is the target at 100?
And I'm guessing this is all offhand shooting?
What caliber is she again?
I have just entered the s/b arena with a drop in .62 G.M barrel in a T/C stock, just to try and get aquainted.
So far it is a pretty good shotgun only. R/b results are dismal.

 

[Slowpoke]

I cast my own roundball and get about 16 to the pound out of a 20 gauge. I don't weigh them because I'm lazy. I was shooting out of by hunting bag because I didn't want to take my stuff over to the 100 yard range, so I just used spit. I normally use murphy's oil, alcohol, and peroxide as a lube mixed 1-2-1. Most smoothbore like a thin patch for some reason but since I shoot a .600 ball I use .015 ticken, the stuff you can get from Walmart. I just put the powder fown the barrel and patched round ball on top of it, no cards or wads. BUT !!!! that isn't to say it doesn't work. I've had good sucess with it but I'm lazy and don;t want to do the extra work in a timed event. I've had good result running a ball between a rasp to "Kurd" the ball to bore size, then use a powder, wad, ball, over card combination. The target at 100 is about a yard by yard wide, ten ring is about 2 1/2 inches. It's a 20 guage.
Shooting a round ball out of my gun is tough. The gun is light and the "hammer Shock" coming out that big Virginia lock it very noticable. You also have to really hold it tight into your shoulder. You can't shoot it like your rifle, you have to shoot it like a shotgun. Like I said earlier, smoothbore like a thin patch sometime, give it a try. Also, stay away from cleaning between shots. You can shoot a shoothbore all day without cleaning and mine shoots better dirty. Also, try a water basiced lube. That way you halfway clean the barrel everytime you load.

S'Poke

 

16 to the pound is .662 cal.(16 guage) A .600" ball is around 22 to the pound.
; I fully agree with your loading practises using spit for target work.
: Some guys use other stuff for lube, but water based is the common denominator for clean shooting. One old German fellow who used to shoot with us, soaked his patches in brandy & kept them in a small plastic bottle - wet but not swimming. While the alcohol was pretty much gone due to evaporation, the flavour was still there & of course, his breath was sweet.- HA!
; Properly loaded and lubed, the fouling never builds past one shot's worth as it is cleaned each time it's loaded & never allowed to build past that. The smoother the bore, the less 'hold' the fouling has and the easier it is to load.

 

[Slowpoke]

"The smoother the bore, the less 'hold' the fouling has and the easier it is to load."

This is VERY true and one thing that many gunsmiths fail to realize. Many people don't take the time to polish (I mean really polish) the face of the breachpug. It's a small detail but one that pays off when cleaning. I also polished the inside of the bore of my smoothbore with sandpaper on a cleaning jag. I don't know how much good it did, but it made me sleep better at night.

S'Poke