Gene L said:
I don't know, but I think most combat on the Frontier was at close range. Except for sieges behind walls when time could be taken to patch and load for accuracy.
But I'm more curious about whether a rifled barrel with a slightly undersized non-patched ball is less accurate than a slightly undersized unpatched ball in a smooth bore. The effect of rifling on a ball moving inside the barrel.
I intuit that there would be little difference, but having never tried it, I wouldn't know.
There was only one example I ever fired an unpatched ball for accuracy and that was in my Brown Bess Carbine smoothbore barrel. For accuracy for competition, I used a .735 ball in the .753 bore and used a thick greased ticking patch. That day in the Trade Gun Aggregate match, everything came together that day for a while. I had stuck the tomahawk and knife three times each and set a personal record of 4 seconds from first strike of the flint to flames. Never got all that together before, so I was pretty confident about the shooting part of the match.
I had loaded the first ball with the greased ticking patch and split the ball on the axe blade to shatter both clay pigeons on each side, as pretty as you please from 20 yards offhand. So things were REALLY going well, at least to that point.
However, when I tried to load my next round, I just could not get it down the bore with the thick greased patch. It was VERY hot and humid that day and my best guess was that and the fouling in the bore would not allow the greased ticking patch. I had never run into that before on other hot and humid days, just that one time. The problem was in that match, one was not allowed to go back and get something after one stepped over a line to begin the match. The idea was that replicated real life that way. OMG I was in trouble.
I had a hand sewn shirt on that my wife had made, so cutting that fabric was out of the question. I had nothing else that I could use as patching as I had burnt up the tow I had in the fire starting phase. So not wanting to give up, I loaded a bare ball for the additional shots I had to fire.
MUCH to my shock and delight, it shot as well as a patched ball normally shot on two targets out to 50 yards. The final target was 73 yards away and it was a very small steel buffalo silhouette normally used in .22 cal. shooting at much closer distance. (The guy who set up the match did not want "standard" distances to shoot at, since this would also better replicate real life.)
Honestly, I thought I had no hope at all of hitting that tiny silhouette offhand from that range, without a greased patch. I wasn't even sure I could make that shot from the required offhand stance WITH a greased patch around the ball. So I aimed as careful as I could and fired. I wasn't surprised I did not hear a
"SPLANG" noise that would have signaled a hit. However, when we went down to check the target, there was a divot in the ground within four inches from the silhouette, so I was extremely surprised (and pleased) I had come that close without a patch.
I never again ran into the problem of not being able to load the Bess Carbine without a patch, even when firing four or five shots in such a match, so I don't know how it would have shot on other days.
When we used to compete in the "break the board" with rifle balls team match for speed, the boards were set in the ground about 25 yards away and everyone loaded and fired as fast as possible. I used spit patches for that competition and never had a problem quickly loading up to three to four times in a match. So I never fired an unpatched ball in my Rifle Gun.
Gus