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Skychief Shot Loads in a blunderbuss

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Has anyone shot a Skychief shot load from blunderbuss and if so, what were the results?

I am curious for any gauge results, but more specifically for 28 since I built one of those Traditions kits in percussion sometime last year. I know they don't look like a real period blunderbuss, but that is not why I bought it. I made a metal ramrod for it, and I intend on putting two leather straps around the barrel with loops to hold the ramrod at the side of the shotgun. If I could afford a real and usable blunderbuss, I would get one. However, they seem somewhat cost prohibitive.

I have not shot it yet and would like to know how it might perform using the above-mentioned load compared to the traditional card and wad loads. My usual loads for 28 gauge out of my 33-inch barrel shotgun is 50 grains of ffg black powder and a 55-grain measure of ITX-10 or bismuth no. 6 shot. This seems like a good starting point for my blunderbuss.

Is any range gained? What kind of patterns, or any other information on how different loads behave for any gauge?
 
There was a guy in the last issue of MuzzleBlasts who used one of these Traditions kits to take a turkey at 16 yards. He was shooting 1.25oz of #6 (about 270 pellets) over card and 80gr of powder. He included a photo of a 12” turkey target that only had 19 holes in it - so, the pattern must be quite large at engagement range.

I have a 4ga blunderbuss that I’ve done some pattering with at 25ft. I’ve not tried the skychief load, but I can say that the load configuration does affect spread. Comparing paper wadding to a full card+cushion will tighten a 24” pattern down to about 12”. Part of the fun of muzzleloaders is figuring out the best way to load each gun. :)

For game, I wouldn’t use any shot smaller than #6. Not only does velocity tend to be less in black powder guns vs nitro, but the shorter barrels in blunderbusses are also a limitation. I’ve chronographed my 20” barrel, and only get about 700-800fps. It makes some amount of sense - if you subtract the funnel and powder column, the gun only has about 15” of bore to accelerate the shot with. Expect to see more pistol-like velocities in a blunderbuss than what what you could get from a fowler.
 
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