Smoothbore shot loads

[Blackpowderwarrior]

Brothers ,

Please school me on the smoothbore.

I have purchased my first smoothie. A .58 cal smoothbore that started its life out as a lyman 54 rifle. Barrel has been reamed by the famous Bobby Hoyt into a .58 smoothie.

I still have my lyman deerstalker in .54 but this will be a new addition to the family as i intend to use this as a shotgun primarily.

The only thing is I've never shot nor had a smoothe bore.

Any tips or tricks for a smoothbore rookie?

Whats your favorite shot load?

 

[Jackrabbit1957]

First tip is square your load, equal by volume, shot and powder. Two wads are used, over the powder...protects the shot from the burn...wad over the shot...saves embarrassment for you if you point the muzzle down hill.

 

[dave951]

Remember to use wads, they are different for shotguns. Track has a wide range of sizes.

 

[Blackpowderwarrior]

Remember to use wads, they are different for shotguns. Track has a wide range of sizes.

Already on it!

 

[J-Bar]

The classic “square load”, with equal volumes of powder and shot, is certainly a good starting point. Shoot at paper to check your patterns though, and tweak your powder and shot charges accordingly. The old rule of thumb to improve a pattern is “more shot, less powder. I saw many cowboy action shooters, admittedly using blackpowder shotshells rather than muzzleloaders, who used huge powder volumes to make an impressive boom and smoke cloud, only to ruin their patterns and wonder why the dang target didn’t fall over!

 

[PapaG]

I load at least two .070 or 1 .135 card over the powder and a 3/8 or 1/2" fiber next. Then shot. A thin milk carton disc over the shot.
There is a guy on the muzzle loading forum who has what he calls the Skychief load and it sounds nuts but I'm going to try it. Powder, card wad, shot, oil soaked fiber wad over shot. Pics showed some fine patterns. Doesn't sound logical, but.....

 

[Blackpowderwarrior]

I load at least two .070 or 1 .135 card over the powder and a 3/8 or 1/2" fiber next. Then shot. A thin milk carton disc over the shot.
The is a guy on the muzzle losing forum who has what he calls the Skychief load and it sounds nuts but I'm going to try it. Powder, card wad, shot, oil soaked fiber wad over shot. Pics showed some fine patterns. Doesn't sound logical, but.....

Im a regular there myself!

 

[Lyle]

Im a regular there myself!

Very interesting.

 

[hawg]

Im a regular there myself!

I was there years ago but I didn't fit in with the clique so I left.

 

[Blackpowderwarrior]

I was there years ago but I didn't fit in with the clique so I left.

Be like water hawg...
When waters in a cup it becomes the cup. When waters in the ocean it becomes the ocean. When waters in the air it becomes the air. When waters on a yankee it drips off as quick as it can because even water has its boundaries and limitations ;-)

Lol... I will admit tinkering with these old guns ive met many a yank ive talked with about blackpowder... and although we had to poke a little fun at each others accents and give each other a hard time im proud to call a great many yanks my good friends.

 

[noelf2]

I do well enough without having to mash a soppy oily wad on top. Skychief method may have tighter patterns, but that heavy wad must take energy to expell. Using less powder has the same effect for tightening patterns.

 

[paul harm]

In the 1970s I use to shoot trap in the evening after shooting pistols all day [ back then my camp site was right on the corner of the pistol/trap range ]. Anyways, everyone I knew used about 80grs of 2F, a .135 OP card, a 1/2" cushion wad, 1 1/8oz of shot, and a .030 OS card. You'd have a coffee can filled with water and keep the cushion wads in it. When loading, the cushion wad was squeezed to expel any extra water, but was still wet enough to clean the bore each shot. You could shoot just about as much as you wanted. I don't go down there anymore, but when loading BP shotgun shells for SxS shoots [ for fun ], I normally use 70grs of 3F, the necessary cards with 1oz of shot to bring the load up for a good crimp. That would be a good load for MLers and you wouldn't have to worry about stack height. When hunting with my MLers I'd just put a cushion wad in my mouth and wet it with spit while pouring in the powder and putting in the OP card. Works pretty well.

 

[paul harm]

A side note - I don't know how those guys get good patterns with the greasy over shot wad. I once tried a .062 OS card in all brass shells [ so glue wasn't needed to keep the thin OS card in place ] and all I got was holes in the pattern. Same with too many cushion wads. I'll just stick with what's been used since the 1800s. JMHO

 

[Blackpowderwarrior]

A side note - I don't know how those guys get good patterns with the greasy over shot wad. I once tried a .062 OS card in all brass shells [ so glue wasn't needed to keep the thin OS card in place ] and all I got was holes in the pattern. Same with too many cushion wads. I'll just stick with what's been used since the 1800s. JMHO

Paul,

Thank you for your comment im still waiting on my #5 shot to get here .
I also had to order a new nipple as the one on it was a musket cap nipple. I have percussion caps but no musket caps.

 

[Blackpowderwarrior]

*Update*

First time out with smoothie 69 grains goex 3f

60 grains # 5 shot

22 yards

 

[Blackpowderwarrior]

Meant to upload this picture

 

[Alexitt]

I'm new to the smoothbore world as well but I did a ton of research while I was waiting for mine to get built... I got a Kashtuk Fowler .62/20g and have managed to play around a bit with some different loads... For the main load I have a ton of heavy tooling leather that I punched out wads and soaked them in a mix of mink oil / beeswax then drained for an over powder wad, Tried the square load with 80g of 3f and 80g of shot... It was a decent pattern but I got much better results with 80g of 3f and 100g of shot, for an overshot I was using either felt or thin leather wads and didn't seem to have issues with holes in the patterns from the wads...

Another thing I read about but haven't yet tried for tighter shot patterns was something called a "Muffin Mix" load where you load your powder and overpowder wad then a 2nd wad inserted a couple inches into the barrel then pour in your shot load and an equal amount of muffin mix then tap the barrel to mix until pellets show through the mix then add your overshot card and gently ram it home... Supposedly the heat of firing causes the muffin mix to hold everything together longer resulting in a tighter patter at longer ranges... I'm going to have to try it one of these times for a turkey load...

 

[paul harm]

JMHO, but the muffin mix is just acting like a buffer. Sounds like you'd be baiting which is illegal in my state.