TC .56 smoothbore

[smokepolehall]

Does anyone own one ? or had one they used PRB in for deer hunting ?

[tn_junk]

Been trying to find a smooth bore to buy (at a reasonable price) for several years. A friend has a .58 Smoothbore, with which
he kills everything from quail to wild hogs.
Good luck.

alan

[smokepolehall]

I have a friend who had this .56 in his closet. Has been neglected for awhile & i am going to use bronze brush to see if i can clean up the bore and use it. He gave it to me, i don't hunt small game so i figured to use .540-.550 round balls and a lubed patch for deer out to 50 yds.

[Sir Charles deMoutonBlack]

.56 smoothbore?  That is suspiciously similar to 20 gauge.

[Semisane]

Nope, a 20 gauge would be .62 caliber.  A .56 caliber would be a 28 gauge.

[kevthebassman]

I've got a system for you to try.  I used it to bring back a couple of rifles from bad neglect, and they shoot tolerably well.  With a smoothbore it should work even better.

Get yourself a correct sized cleaning jag, Track of the Wolf should have them.  While you're ordering, order the next size smaller jag, you'll need it.  Now, when I got my barrels, they had caked on powder and rust and crud, so I plugged the touch hole and soaked them overnight with Kroil... PB Blaster will work too, really any penetrating oil.  (not WD-40)

When that was done, I took steel wool, fashioned it into a crude patch, put it on the next size smaller jag, and worked the bore with it.  You could probably use the green scotch brite pads too.  This part takes elbow grease and time.  When my arm needed a break, I'd flush the bore again with a little bit of Kroil, and check it with a flash light, and maybe run a patch or two down to see how clean it's getting.  I just let the gun tell me if it's done... if it looks like you're not making any progress, call it good and go make smoke!

[smokepolehall]

i will try your method, my friend has shipped the ML to me. i hope it comes by sat. so i can see what model it is and get to cleaning it up

[kevthebassman]

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to PM me, I'm always glad to help out.

[forest2]

well i got one of those barrels just a few month's ago,sadley I ain't shot it yet, but if this helps I have the old TC book for it.
the book say's; Optimum loads-
.550 ball with .015 TC lubed patch and 80 grns FFG..MAX 100grns powder.
 Bird Shot;
 7/8 oz of 7 1/2 lead shot over two wads and 80 grns FFG with and over shot wad, Please be carefull--Shot developes more chamber pressure than ball!
 Old school shotgun is "less powder more lead""shoots' further, kill's dead"". this is a therum by weight not volume--please be carefull!

[smokepolehall]

thanks for replies folks, waiting on it to arrive and i will clean it up. then will get some lead round balls to try it out with

[coyotejoe]

I also got one recently, took it to the last rendezvous of the season and won the smoothbore trail walk, actually beat my own rifle score! I was shooting 60 grains of 2f and a .535" ball in .020" patch. I know T/C recommends a .550" ball but that is VERY hard to load even with a .010" patch and such a thin patch will  be shredded when fired. Smoothbores can't use the same patch & ball combo one would use in a rifle because there are no grooves for the patch to sink into. A common rifle load is a ball .010" under bore diameter with a patch of .015-.020" thickness but you would have to hammer that combination down a smoothbore, so better to go with a ball at least .020" under bore diameter if you intend to use a patch. Plenty of people shoot bare ball, no patch, just a wad on top to hold the ball down, with or without a wad under the ball. Besides, .530 & .535 balls are commonly available, .550 not so.
  I feel that the 26" renegade barrel is really too short to provide good patterns with birdshot but 28 gauge wads will fit and you can get them online from "Circle Fly". I'd start with 60-70 grains of 2f powder and an equal volume of #6 or 7 1/2 shot. If you get "doughnut" patterns, open in the center, reducing the powder and or increasing the shot load may help. If you want real shotgun patterns I have cut jug chokes into quite a few cylinder bored barrels and I can get any degree of choke desired. I get 50% patterns at 40 yards from my improved cylinder 28 gauge upland gun and 75% full choke patterns from my 12 gauge trap gun. With the cylinder bore and the short barrel you'll be lucky to get 30% and in fact, I'd not even bother trying it at the standard 40 yard range. Test it at 25 yards and you may get 50% in the 30" circle at that reduced range. Jug choking makes a world of improvement in shot patterns and makes the ML shotgun the full equal of a modern shotgun. It does seem to detract from accuracy with ball however. There is some debate on that point however, some folks say it does no harm, but in my own limited experience, if you want accuracy with a ball it is best to leave it cylinder bored.
  I have rifles for ball shooting and consider my smoothbores as shotguns. I therefor prefer a jug choked barrel since it gives a much better pattern with shot. I will leave the Renegade barrel cylinder bored and reserve it for ball as I already have a nice light and handy 28 gauge for birds and bunnies.

[longcaribiner]

Some where along the line, I traded for a smooth bore hawken style percussion barrel, but it says made in Italy on it.  I think it it 50 cal smooth.  It is short, I'll have to measure it.  Never fired it, I have a 24 ga North Star Trade gun I shoot both shot and ball out of.

[nw_hunter]

Does anyone own one ? or had one they used PRB in for deer hunting ?

I bought a Green Mountain drop in barrel for my Thompson Renegade. It's a 62 cal (20 ga) smooth bore barrel.
I have killed quail with it, using #5 shot. I use equal amounts of shot and powder (70 gr)  measure.

I get deer size groups.......Around 3 in at 50 yds.using 80 grains behind the ball.
As far as penetration! It will go through a 10 inch fir tree with more energy to spare.I'll take this gun Elk hunting this fall.

[pab1]

If it cleans up alright, you'll be happy with the smoothbore. I have a .56SB and its shoots around 3-5" 5 shot groups at 50 yards depending on how well I'm shooting. It also shoots fairly tight patterns out to 25 yards with #7-1/2 shot. 7-1/2 shot is light for turkey, but I wanted to see how it would pattern on this target at 25 yards. I picked up a .62 Green Mountain barrel when they were clearing them out but have not shot it yet.