Shooting smoothbores

[Jim]

Hello all.
I know in shooting smooth bores, the ball can go bumbling and tumbling down the bore to sail off who knows where.

Would patching the ball, as done with period long rifles, improve the accuracy? For all I know, this may be commonly known and done (if true).

Just looking for a cure to a little ignorance and think the question is a bit too broad for a forum search.
Thanks to all respondents.

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[gsimmons]

Yes, it does help. The cartridges of the era were meant to be used as a patch of sorts. Tear the tail of the cartridge pore the powder in, then reverse and put the ball in and tear the excess paper off. The diameter of the ball on American ammunition was .65 then later .64 for this reason.

[Jim]

Thanks. I had wondered if they did that. Seems only logical. Even though they weren't concerned with aiming per-se, they still wanted the shots massed in the closest possible percentage.

[Chris Sweeney]

I shoot an original 1851 Cadet smoothbore in N-SSA competition. We are not allowed to use paper wads or cloth patches, just round balls and lube.

There are lots of methods towards decent accuracy with these restrictions. Some competitors coat their bullets with beeswax and/or Alox. Some rasp their projectiles with a farrier's file in order to "fuzz" them up and make them conform to the bore size. Some have custom molds made.

My musket has a bore like a drain pipe. It is .569 at it's narrowest point. I use a coated .562 ball over 42 grains of 3F powder. Off the bench @ 25 yards, it will shoot a ragged but one holed group. At 50 yards off hand it will shoot within a 6 x6 inch square until the heat mirage coming off the barrel makes it impossible to see the target. All this from a gun with no rear sight - and I'm not particularly competitive anymore.

The point I'm trying to make is that the whole "wobbling down the barrel and going who knows where" issue is, if not quite an urban myth, then at least easily avoidable (at least out to 75 yards or so

[toot]

I shoot what is called bare balling- pour in the powder, put a wad of hornets nest on top of the powder, then the ball, bare no patching and a wad of hornets nest on top to keep the ball from rolling out, and shoot. this is a historically correct way of shooting any smooth bores and DBL or single barrel shot guns, just substitute shot for a ball, or use buck shot and ball load. believe me this works,. paper WASP/ HORNETS nest the large ones you find hanging in the woods. has a water proofing quality that the bees add to the paper when they make it when they chew it up and spit it on the nest, other wise it would fall apart at the first rain, also it will not burn after you shoot it in the field. a great feature when hunting in the fall with all of the leaves on the ground.

[bombdoc]

The trick to smooth bore accuracy is velocity - you need to be using towards the heaviest charge your musket will take. Muskets are much less efficient than rifles and consequently need larger charges.. typical Brown Bess service loads were in the 100gn + range.

Also the bullets need to be as soft as you can make them.. 100% pure lead - no wheelweights or solder!

[Richard Hare]

I used to get tidy groups from an EIC Type F with 120+ grs of 2 F and a .750", ball, loaded with a thick (3/4" felt wad under and atop the ball, and a large dollop of udder cream or whatever between ball and top wad.
This is Bill Curtis' method and stood him well shooting for GB. ( MLAGB) in international matches.
We tried this load off a bench. (!) yep, it was stout and faces hurt afterwards. We did manage 3 1/2 -4" groups at 50 yards, but wasn't pleasant.

However! A pal in the UK has more recently shot scores in the mid 90's with a charge of no more than 85 grains! This has won him several Golds in both GB and international shoots. His load uses a patch on the ball. The Concours (French) target is the one used internationally.