Convert .32 percussion to smooth bore shotgun

[BigBossMan]

I have an extra percussion cap .32 rifle and I am considering converting it to a smooth bore shotgun.  What is your opinion or advice you can give me?  Do you know a good gunsmith that has a track record for doing something like this?  What ga am I likely to end up with after they smooth out the bore?

Thanks folks and thanks for such a great web site.

BBM

[petemi]

It seems like there's always a demand for .32s.  Why don't you keep it and just buy a smoothbore barrel for it or sell it and buy a shotgun?

[Graybeard]

If all you do is remove the rifling but otherwise leave the bore about same diameter I think it will not hold enough shot to be of much real world use. The .410 bore is much larger and is a 67 gauge as I recall. I'd guess you'd have an 80 gauge or higher number.

One way to figure it is to take the weight of the lead round balls you fire in it and divide that number into the number of grains in a pound 7000 and you'd be close but still off since your RBs are a tad under bore diameter.

I'd agree sell or trade it for a shotgun if that's what you really want.

[flintlock]

A .32 caliber is a .142 gauge (142 balls to the pound), that's pretty small...Might be good to shoot mice with...

[william_75]

PM sent

[BigBossMan]

Thanks again for thoughtful and honest opinions.  I might have to re-think my idea.

[captchee]

 a .410 is 41 cal .620 is 20 gage .
 When you get up into the  calibers of  67 and up that’s when your into the 16,14,12,10 and 8 gage  or larger bores
flintlock is right on the money , what you would have is a very close quarters  gun , kinda in the ball park of a 22 shooting  bee hive rounds .. Probably would make a good snake gun

[coyotejoe]

You don't mention what sort of gun we are talking about but if it is one of the little CVAs with barrels only 3/4" across the flats, that could be rebored no larger than .410 and a black powder .410 is not much of a shotgun, especially with a barrel length of less than 30" and no choke.
Reboring a barrel is not inexpensive so I would think that a costly way to get a not very useful shotgun. I'd suggest you talk it over with a barrel maker like Ed Rayl who could do the work, do it very well and tell you what to expect both as to cost and as to performance. If you give up the idea after looking into it you will at least have learned something for the cost of a phone call. I have a 32 gauge, .53 caliber, with just a bit of choke which handles 3/4 ounce of shot and patterns very nicely, a good small game gun out to 25 or maybe 30 yards.