Shooting RB in the Trade Gun

I haven’t shot RB in my trade gun for a while. I have been happy with the accuracy of patched RBs but wanted to try bare balls again. I ordered some .610 balls from Track and tried them today. I shoot .595 RB with a .010 patch and 80 grains of 3f. I tried the .610s with the same powder charge at 50 yards. I can’t come close to what I’m getting with the patched balls. Guess I’ll stay with what I’m shootin. I’m shooting left today for some reason but it’s a 1 3/4 3 shot group. The other 4 rounds are from the bare ball load. I’m posting from my iPhone because my laptop is having issues. Hopefully it’ll post what I’m trying to post.
I edited the post to say the picture is sideways. I couldn't seem to get it turned

Try putting a wad under the ball ,

Hey Dunc. Thank you. My bare ball load was 80 grains of 3F, 1 nitro wad, one lubed felt wad, a .610 ball and a thin over shot wad. I substituted 2 thin OS card wads for the nitro but didn't see any improvement

Brad Cayton said:

I haven’t shot RB in my trade gun for a while. I have been happy with the accuracy of patched RBs but wanted to try bare balls again. I ordered some .610 balls from Track and tried them today. I shoot .595 RB with a .010 patch and 80 grains of 3f. I tried the .610s with the same powder charge at 50 yards. I can’t come close to what I’m getting with the patched balls. Guess I’ll stay with what I’m shootin. I’m shooting left today for some reason but it’s a 1 3/4 3 shot group. The other 4 rounds are from the bare ball load. I’m posting from my iPhone because my laptop is having issues. Hopefully it’ll post what I’m trying to post

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Very cool ! Great group at 50 yards ! Yep , your gun likes patched ball ! Nicely done

Thanks Rob

One of my to smoothbores doesn't like a stiff wad under the ball. Both shoot better with some type of wad over and under the ball than they do with tight patched balls. Loose patched balls shoot well, about same as yours, .595 and a .010. The gun that doesn't like a stiff wad,,, nitro cards shoot the worst,,,, likes either heavy brown paper, 2"×1" folded to 1"×1" on the powder then either lubed tow or lubed felt, .610 ball, thin card, or dry felt, lubed wad, ball, thin card.
I don't find lubed tow to provide enough gas seal and I like to keep something between lubed material and powder.

I think it was Mike Bellevue (Duelist Den) who found heavy charges behind bare ball worked the best. Makes for some pretty wicked recoil though. I haven't worked up a decent load in my North Star West fowler yet. Tried the bare ball with nitro card top and bottom and it sprayed them everywhere. Next outing will try patched ball.

akroguy said:

I think it was Mike Bellevue (Duelist Den) who found heavy charges behind bare ball worked the best. Makes for some pretty wicked recoil though. I haven't worked up a decent load in my North Star West fowler yet. Tried the bare ball with nitro card top and bottom and it sprayed them everywhere. Next outing will try patched ball.

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I'm pretty sure there were a lot of folks who found out heavy charges worked best when shooting a ball with no patch or wad before Mr. Bellevue and his mysteriously popular YouTube channel.

My first smoothbore wouldn't shoot a patched ball well. I shot bare ball with great success. 60gr 2ff with a .600 ball on the powder. I was always at the top in competition with that load. Well, in woods walk steel targets anyway.....

I do not load my smoothbore with tight prb. They basically can be thumb started. For bare ball I like a lubed felt wad under the ball and accuracy is pretty good. It has a rear sight which makes aiming simple. It's not a trade gun but an early American smoothbore. The target on the left is a bare ball group. On the right is a prb load. The bare ball group is 2-3/4" while the patched ball load is 1-3/4" both at 50 yards.

Thanks for the advice fellas. The patched ball load shoots very well with a lubed felt wad between the 80 grains of powder and the patched roundball, I'll keep at the bare ball and see if I can get it shooting better.