Smoothbore accuracy?

[His lordship.]

I have been reading and seeing test videos of smooth bore flintlock muskets where the narrator keeps saying they are inaccurate, where you have to be within 50 yards to hit anything, etc.  I was at a gun range in the early 90's and there was a fellow with a replica flintlock trade musket and he was getting excellent groups at 50 yards with his gun, my Japanese type 38 center fire rifle could not match the accuracy of his "antique", and this rifle of mine was a good shooter too!

I have always used rifled muskets over the years and found them accurate, but no real experience with smooth bores.  I have done wonders using a "Wrist Rocket" sling shot at varmints, and have always been skeptical of these inaccuracy claims if I can hit things with a sling shot.

For those of you who have a smoothbore, just how accurate are they at distances of 100, 200, yards, etc?

[srussell]

thats my next thing to do is build a smooth bore, theres a guy that shoots matches with us that has a 20 gage smooth bore. he does real well out to 100yards. his will shoot better that a 12 gage smooth bore with slugs lots better. im not sure about 200 yards not sure what kind of sights ill put on mine. he has a beadon his and uses the tang screw for his back sight i guess what ever works. hope i help you out some  have fun bill

[coyotejoe]

There are some smoothbore shooters who can compete with the rifles. Generally speaking however, I think it not far wrong to call a smoothbore a 50 yard gun. I've tried a few loads in 20 gauge and never gotten better than a 5" group at 50 yards. I have a 12 gauge Winchester pump with a 22" barrel and open sights which will do about that well at 100 yards with one selected brand of ammo. I know that smoothbores "can" be accurate but it seems to take a lot of experimentation to get there, to find the just right load. As far as military muskets, they made no attempt at accuracy, just rammed a grossly undersize ball down the bore and pointed in the general direction of the enemy.
 I have a .50 caliber Bucks County rifle which I am considering getting rebored to .54 smoothbore just because I've always wanted to try a "smooth rifle". It's a fact that many "Kentucky Rifles" were indeed smoothbores. They have all the normal appearance of a rifle but with a smooth bore. I always wondered why, since the bores seem too small and the stock shape all wrong for a shotgun. I think they were not used for wing shooting but in the forest, where shots are close they could take any standing target with either ball or shot. Anyhow, I want to try one and see for myself.
 You can get a lot of info on smoothbores on the Muzzleloading Forum.
http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showforum.php?fid/16/

[srussell]

There are some smoothbore shooters who can compete with the rifles. Generally speaking however, I think it not far wrong to call a smoothbore a 50 yard gun. I've tried a few loads in 20 gauge and never gotten better than a 5" group at 50 yards. I have a 12 gauge Winchester pump with a 22" barrel and open sights which will do about that well at 100 yards with one selected brand of ammo. I know that smoothbores "can" be accurate but it seems to take a lot of experimentation to get there, to find the just right load. As far as military muskets, they made no attempt at accuracy, just rammed a grossly undersize ball down the bore and pointed in the general direction of the enemy.
 I have a .50 caliber Bucks County rifle which I am considering getting rebored to .54 smoothbore just because I've always wanted to try a "smooth rifle". It's a fact that many "Kentucky Rifles" were indeed smoothbores. They have all the normal appearance of a rifle but with a smooth bore. I always wondered why, since the bores seem too small and the stock shape all wrong for a shotgun. I think they were not used for wing shooting but in the forest, where shots are close they could take any standing target with either ball or shot. Anyhow, I want to try one and see for myself.
 You can get a lot of info on smoothbores on the Muzzleloading Forum.
http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showforum.php?fid/16/

 i do agree most cant get them to shoot that well past 50yd. and the military didnt care who you killed the guy you were aiming at are the one next to him. still i gots to have one just becouse this is America and i want it

[Forestclimber]

It's like any other sport.  There are some serious smoothbore shooters out there that have worked up good loads and fine tuned their gun.  Go to Friendship, Indiana sometime and look at the smoothbore scores there.
There are some pretty good trade gun shooters out there too.

[Swampman]

I've found them to be very accurate.  I've out shot 40 rifle shooters in a woodswalk with my .62.

[thejanitor]

I watched a group of guys at the rendezvous that could hit a 6 inch gong at 100 yds very consistanly. It was THE gun they carried all the time, not just a gun they carried now and then. When you know how a charge works in your gun and it is the only gun you use, you get good with it. My Tulle shoots great off a bench, but put me on the line in a competition and I can't keep it on the paper at 100 yds. So if you know your gun and are comfortable with it it can be quite accurate. You have to try a patched ball or a ball and wad, there are different things to try to get them dialed in.
   You can't pick up a smoothy and shoot it like your favorite old .22 you have 5000 rounds through, but shoot 5000 shots through your shoothy and see how you do. It takes practice, and getting used to no rear sight can be kind of tough. The guns can do it. I just can't.
thejanitor

[srussell]

i never miss friendship great place and great folks

[coyotejoe]

I built a nice fusil de chase from a Centermark kit and worked with it for a couple of years. It was a beautiful gun with a sure fire lock but I never did get decent accuracy from it. I tried various ball sizes, patch thicknesses, wads, cornmeal, even loaded balls inside modern plastic shotcups. I never did get 50 yard groups smaller than 5-6" and finally sold it for a lot less than I had in it.
 MuzzleBlast magazine ran an interview with a top smoothbore shooter and asked how he got such accuracy. He said there is no formula, just try everything you can think of, whether or not it makes any sense. Work with it for a year and if still not satisfied sell it and start over with another gun!
 So even he was saying that not just any smoothbore can be made to shoot accurately, some will and some won't, no mater how much time and effort you may expend or how badly you want it.

[srussell]

i agree with that allways puzzled me how you can get wo alike guns and one will shoot great the other is like pitching bricks

[coyotejoe]

I haven't put much time and effort into shooting ball with smoothbores except for that one fuisl. I generally consider smoothbores to be shotguns and I have rifles for ball shooting. But I have had a life long love of shotguns and they are very much individuals, far more so than are rifles. I don't discount anything anyone says about their shotgun, no matter how unlikely, it just might be true.