why get a smoothbore?

[anticus]

Smoothie was the go-to gun for most folks on the frontier. Truth be told the NMLRA should be the the NMLSA !

 

[maillemaker]

I've got several flintlock and percussion rifles.
and a double barreled percussion shotgun.

for some reason I'm just aching to get a smoothbore or fowler. and I'm not sure why.(not that a reason is required)but......

what are you guy's reasons for going with smoothbores and what do you think of them.
any suggestions on who to get one from?

I hunt and target shoot as well as rondezvous competitions with my other guns.

I shoot an Armisport M1842 .69 smoothbore (and an H&P conversion I made from one). I think smoothbores are my favorite gun to shoot in N-SSA competition. For one thing, you can really see those .69 bullet holes at 25 yards!

 

[flintlock75]

I've got several flintlock and percussion rifles.
and a double barreled percussion shotgun.

for some reason I'm just aching to get a smoothbore or fowler. and I'm not sure why.(not that a reason is required)but......

what are you guy's reasons for going with smoothbores and what do you think of them.
any suggestions on who to get one from?

I hunt and target shoot as well as rondezvous competitions with my other guns.

I like my smoothies, one practical reason is that it can hunt anything, small game with shot and big with a round ball. My short Bess has done it all, rabbits to moose, if I could only have one ml it would be a smoothbore.

 

[brazosland]

The OP’s post and question reminded me instantly of this pic…

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

With a rifle, you find you’re combo and stick with it.

For smooth, it’s shot combo, and ball combo, so many different wads, patches, patterns.

It’s just so much fun.

 

[Nor'Easter]

The OP’s post and question reminded me instantly of this pic…

View attachment 247133

My dog looks at me like that sometimes. Thanks, now I know what she's thinking!

 

[Nor'Easter]

I've said this before to this same question.

All my 'rifles' are snarky. They each have a powder / lube / patch / ball combo they like, and the group size doubles to triples (or more) as you deviate from their preferred recipe.

My smoothbores are the exact opposite. Stuff it down the bore in any reasonable order, do your part, and they put the ordnance on target. They also seem to require "less friggin" when the weather is foul. Like pulling a load etc. in the dead of winter while rabbit hunting.

Clean-up "seems" to be easier also, but that's just my opinion.

 

[Britsmoothy]

My dog looks at me like that sometimes. Thanks, now I know what she's thinking!

My dog looks at me like that sometimes and lets out a big sigh!!
Then goes back to sleep!

 

[Brokennock]

And as mentioned earlier, the challenge of getting close, and then 10 yards closer. It's easy to be a good shot. Not so easy to be a good hunter.

That quote needs to be applied in a few other subjects/topics/threads.

 

[shaman]

I got a Brown Bess last year and I honestly didn't know what I was getting into. I'd been shooting black powder since the mid-80s. The 'Bess opened up a whole new world. There are just so many variables, and so much of what I took for granted shooting a percussion rifle goes out the window shooting 'Bess.

I plan to eventually manage a trifecta of a squirrel, a deer, and a gobbler with the 'Bess.

 

[PathfinderNC]

Here's a great reason for a smoothbore:

 

[Brokennock]

Smoothie was the go-to gun for most folks on the frontier.

The "rifles rule" guys hate that little "fact."
But the truth is, this fact is time/location dependant. The time period helps determine the location of the "frontier." Somewhat. Early in the Colonial period when the frontier was still east of the Appalachians, this stays true in general, but as we move later the rifle does come more into play in southern part of the frontier as it moves west over the Appalachians. Post AWI and the frontier moving west of the Mississippi, the rifle does take over for many it would seem, but not 100%.
We love the versatility now, especially in states that don't have an overlap of calibers allowed for both small game and deer and don't allow any muzzleloading rifle use for turkey. But, they didn't have those restrictions in the frontier days.

I still prefer the smoothbore. It is historically correct for my part of the country for my time period of interest, 1755 to roughly 1780 from PA north to the Canadian border. And more versatile for the game I hunt and the laws/restrictions I have to work with. But, if I lived in a state that allowed me to hunt squirrels, deer, and turkeys with a muzzleloading rifle of the same caliber, say a .45, and a rifle would be correct for my time period, there,,, a rifle it would be.....


Maybe.

 

[Nor'Easter]

That right there! ^^^^^^

 

[Nor'Easter]

I have spent the last 5 plus years looking for any evidence of rifled long arms use and what those arms might look like in the territory that we now call "Maine". From 1604 +/- to the end of the ACW I have found nothing. My time frame of interest is 1600 - 1750 +/-. Any evidence of rifled long arms use has remained elusive. Noteworthy is the fact that the French who explored and traded on the Saint John River drainage were essentially from 2-3 French coastal towns that were known pirate / privateer strong holds. They had raided ships and ports from the Mediterranean to the Lowlands north of France. It may be wrong thinking, but I have surmised that if anyone had access to rifled arms - and believed the benefits outweighed the disadvantages - it would have been those individuals. European thinking would be that a Jaeger rifle and the Northern Maine woods were a match made in heaven - big moose, big deer, big bear = big bore rifle. The reality on the ground is - that just as now, and even more so - they had to carry it a lot and shoot it very little. So a 6.5 - 7lb Fusile de Chasse or a 10lb+/- military musket or Jaeger rifle.