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Bare Ball Shooting Smooth Bore

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Archer 756

40 Cal.
Joined
Nov 8, 2005
Messages
777
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Location
Mid Huson Valley, NY
How many shoot their smooth bore without any patch. Shoot my 28ga. today and was surprise of how accurate it shoot with out any patch. I found out the Civil War smooth bores are shoot with no patch. One just have to get right sized ball. My 28ga shoots .550 ball.:ThankYou:
 
How many shoot their smooth bore without any patch. Shoot my 28ga. today and was surprise of how accurate it shoot with out any patch. I found out the Civil War smooth bores are shoot with no patch. One just have to get right sized ball. My 28ga shoots .550 ball.:ThankYou:

That is not true. The Civil War smoothbore muskets were fired with musket cartridges using undersized balls. The paper was not separated from the balls before loading, and in fact acted as “windage”.
 
I shoot my smoothrifle with either 85 grains 3f under a .610 ball, with a thin card separating powder from a lubed felt wad, then the ball, then another thin card holding it all in place. Or, 65 grains 3f and a .594 ball patched with .010 pocket drill.
My Fusil des Chase always shot best with 80 grains 3f and a .600 ball with .010 patch. But, I hadn't experimented as much with wads and balls with it before a barrel pin lug let loose. Once I fix it I will play with loads utilizing wads some more.

Some guys have success with a truly bare ball. No wads or anything. But, I notice they are all using pretty heavy power charges to achieve the accuracy the rest of us are getting with wads or patches. Some recent chronograph tests posted on the ALR forum using patches ball vs. card wads vs. tow wads showed a significant decrease in velocity from patch to cards to tow. Which would seem to explain the need for heavier and heavier powder charges as one decreases the gas seal created by patch or wad.

Here are the notes I took from the video posted of the testing,
20200807_121329.jpg20200811_101729.jpg
Hopefully my writing can be read and makes sense. The energy calculator was using the 65 grain 2f and 85 grain 2f patched ball data.
 
Some recent chronograph tests posted on the ALR forum using patches ball vs. card wads vs. tow wads showed a significant decrease in velocity from patch to cards to tow.
Thanks for posting that. I began my experimenting with tow wads using tow only, no cards, for both bare ball and shot. I had success with that loading, but always felt the loads weren't as strong as they should be. I suspected gas was leaking though the tow, in other words, I was getting a poor seal. I tried putting a brown paper wad overpowder and was not surprised to find the shots stronger and more consistent. I now use that combination anytime I'm shooting bare ball or shot wadded with tow, and am pleased with the result. I never measured velocities for any of the combinations, but I'm confident that brown paper wad increased them.

Spence
 
@Brokennock , were your velocities measured in feet/second? The calculation requires the velocity to be in meters/second. 1184 feet/second would be 361 meters/second. And the mass would be in kilograms not grains. 342 grains would be 22.1 grams or 0.0221 kg KE would be 1,440 joules
 
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Were your velocities measured in feet/second? The calculation requires the velocity to be in meters/second. 1184 feet/second would be 361 meters/second. And the mass would be in grams not grains. 342 grains would be 22.1 grams
The online calculator allows you to choose your unit of measure.
I screwed up and took a screen shot of the ones before I figured that out.
Didn't realize til now. Thanks.
 
@Brokennock , were your velocities measured in feet/second? The calculation requires the velocity to be in meters/second. 1184 feet/second would be 361 meters/second. And the mass would be in kilograms not grains. 342 grains would be 22.1 grams or 0.0221 kg KE would be 1,440 joules
Here it is with grains and fps selected,
20200812_225510.jpg
For the record, I don't see this as a great predictor of anything. It is simply a set of data points for comparison. I usually just use IDPA power factor as it is easier.
 
I two am a true bare baller also. my 54 CAL and my 62 CAL smooth bore rock locks are fired with no wadding or material under or on top of the ball. just the ball crushed into the powder. the ball is a tight fit when inserted into the barrel.
 
How many shoot their smooth bore without any patch. Shoot my 28ga. today and was surprise of how accurate it shoot with out any patch. I found out the Civil War smooth bores are shoot with no patch. One just have to get right sized ball. My 28ga shoots .550 ball.:ThankYou:
I have shot my smooth .54 both ways. My gun has a tight bore; about .538. I shoot a .530 ball with either a thin patch or a half-thickness fibre wad with a thin card over the ball to keep it in there. My feeling is that the wad shoots better, but not so much that I can really tell. I like the simplicity of patch better tho'. Just work it out both ways, and decide which is better for you.
 
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