• This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.



    Sign up here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/account/upgrades

.45 Smoothy?

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
By law in England I can (apparently) load no less than five .36" balls into a "shotgun" ( don't ask me to explain, I don't try and understand idiots be them in government, law makers or whomever) and for the purpose of this thread and all things .45" smoothrifle I've done it with success.
Ok, only on small game still but heck, I would not like to be a small deer to 30 yards no siree!
Now as much as I like all my muzzleloaders, the Bess could go, the 12gauges could go but the .45" and the .63" ( Pedersoli trade gun) stay put!
I have know idea about English gun laws.
can you get a license for a ml rifle?
Can you get your smooth rifle classed as a rifle.
I note you shoot smoothies, living up to your name, but are all legal long guns required to be smooth?
 
I have know idea about English gun laws.
can you get a license for a ml rifle?
Can you get your smooth rifle classed as a rifle.
I note you shoot smoothies, living up to your name, but are all legal long guns required to be smooth?
There are two types of gun license in the UK. A shotgun and a firearm licence.
Anyone ( within limits) is entitled to a shotgun licence. For a firearm licence....read rifle...the applicant has to give a good reason to acquire a rifle. For example, vermin shooting, deer shooting or target shooting.
So once you put in your application the local police check on a list to see if the type of rifle you have requested falls inside the "guidelines" of use etc. For some bizarre and obscure reason the guidelines to the police of firearms licencing supplied by government strongly deterred the use of muzzleloading rifles for any hunting applicants!
So after many attempts I gave up trying and stuck to my smoothbores. Shotguns in muzzleloading form can be used to hunt with so that is what I use.
Back to the thread....when I saw this smoothrifle I was a little concerned. I wanted a .50 originally but the price was so good I could not resist it. It was in good shape inside and out so I chanced it. I got the nipple bolster and lock plate separated for eternity and supported the breach of the barrel with canvass, greased.
My little .45 handles well as a shotgun and has downed many birds off the wing. It is better than a 410 3" and I shoot a lot of 410 3"! I have a huge respect of 410!

My theory, I say theory because I have no proof nor do I seek any proof but have enough experience to feel it is a valid theory, is that while many for some obscure reason think a column of shot if taller than it is wide think it is bad, I don't! Is not a conventional shotgun choked barrel elongating a shot column?
So in my view any shall we say small bore muzzleloading shotgun with a tall column of shot is going to work and so far I have found that to be true.
 
I have no doubt a .45 smooth rifle, loaded with shot, can take small game efficiently and could also take deer with a round ball.
I’m not clear why one would choose .45 for such purposes over, say, a .54.
I’d warrant the Britsmoothie is a much better than average wing shooter and all-around marksman than most and so for him a .410 or a .45 smooth rifle works well. I’ve seen a lot of game keep on going when fired at with a .410 when I was a kid. No personal experience though- just fellow hunters.
 
Last edited:
I have no doubt a .45 smooth rifle, loaded with shot, can take small game efficiently and could also take deer with a round ball.
I’m not clear why one would choose .45 for such purposes over, say, a .54.
I’d warrant the Britsmoothie is a much better than average wing shooter and all-around marksman than most and so for him a .410 or a .45 smooth rifle works well. I’ve seen a lot of game keep on going when fired at with a .410 when I was a kid. No personal experience though- just fellow hunters.

I know of no long barreled .54 that will handle as well as a lightweight A weight .45. The .54 would be more cumbersome either way you put it.

I will be using it mostly with roundball and I like a .45 over a .54 everyday till Sunday for that. Some think you need a .54 or .58 or “you aren’t muzzleloading”. I go my own way and shoot what I please.
 
Well, excuse me for asking a question and having an opinion.
See, if somebody has their mind made up, it confuses me if they ask the question, “what do you think of this?” I make the assumption that they want to hear different opinions, both pros and cons.

I wonder if this forum is turning into an attaboy forum.
Calibers are chosen because their advantages outweigh their disadvantages for a particular use. I’m pretty sure most shooters will find a .45 smoothbore, unchoked, to be a 20 yard gun with shot and by no means a turkey gun.
I prefer the .54 as a minimum for a smoothbore as I see no advantage to anything smaller.
I’m finishing up a .58 New England fowler that handles like a magic wand. Just about perfect bore for an all rounder for me.
To each, his own, right?

By the way, I hope everyone feels free to disagree with me and tell me why. Because this is a discussion forum.
 
Well, excuse me for asking a question and having an opinion.
See, if somebody has their mind made up, it confuses me if they ask the question, “what do you think of this?” I make the assumption that they want to hear different opinions, both pros and cons.

I wonder if this forum is turning into an attaboy forum.
Calibers are chosen because their advantages outweigh their disadvantages for a particular use. I’m pretty sure most shooters will find a .45 smoothbore, unchoked, to be a 20 yard gun with shot and by no means a turkey gun.
I prefer the .54 as a minimum for a smoothbore as I see no advantage to anything smaller.
I’m finishing up a .58 New England fowler that handles like a magic wand. Just about perfect bore for an all rounder for me.
To each, his own, right?

By the way, I hope everyone feels free to disagree with me and tell me why. Because this is a discussion forum.
30yds, my .45 reaches 30yd with shot easily 👍
 
Would a .45 smooth rifle be useful at all with shot?
I know of no long barreled .54 that will handle as well as a lightweight A weight .45. The .54 would be more cumbersome either way you put it.

I will be using it mostly with roundball and I like a .45 over a .54 everyday till Sunday for that. Some think you need a .54 or .58 or “you aren’t muzzleloading”. I go my own way and shoot what I please.
I’m with @rich pierce on this one. Don’t see how you got from your OP to the Napoleonic post in less than a week. Not sure what you were looking for, but it was obviously not a discussion or opinions on using shot in a 45 smoothbore.
 
Yes, but it will be less balanced. There’s just no getting around it. I asked if a .45 smoothy was useful in these regards and it’s been proven by Britsmoothy and others that yes it can.

We can close this one now less more feelers be ouchied.
 
I’ve been contemplating a small game smoothbore as well and have considered the 40 ga (0.488”) as I think I can patch a 0.457” ball. Not sure if that stretches a 13/16” too far though.
 
54' Handles like a wand ' I like that. Its how a fowling piece should be its easy to make a 7 pound bludgeon but its not so easy to get below 5 pounds . I made a little 50 cal rifle to weigh 5 pounds its been a positive gem on many week long bush trips (26" round swamped barrel in mid 18th English provincial style flint). Not much of a target rifle but quite suffice for hunting needs .
Rudyard
 
I plan to mostly shoot roundies and I love .45 roundies. I have no interest at all in a .54 or larger, not for this build.

Already more than enough proof to me a .45 smoothbore is capable with shot loads and that’s what I care about.
 
There is no accounting for taste.' Like a wand' . Suits me . Mr smoothy seems to like his smooth affair. Evidently that suits him so good on him.& you.
Rudyard
 
Put a deer drive on for my hunting buddy . He used a .41 smooth bore. A buck passed him @ 25 yds., he said the buck dropped immediately. We performed an autopsy back at camp , the .41 ball severed the two large vessels just beneath the spine , and stalled under the hide on the opposite side.
For fun , think I might go to the range and see how 2 balls would perform@ 25 yds. , in my rifled .40. Perhaps , if the 25 yd. accuracy is ok , that might be a way to increase the kill energy of my .40 in an emergency. According to books I read , this practice was used in the old days by many............oldwood
 
if you want tight groups if you use birdshot do this. make paper holders that are round and the out side diam is about the same as the inside diam of the top of bore. slightly smaller. make them as long as the amount of shot you waht to use. fill them with bird shot and liquid wax mixed. put them down the bore on top of a wad about 60 thousands thick all this over the powder. they bump up and stay together until they hit what they were ment to. then they come apart. hit like a slug. saw this on the internet. seemed to work every time.
 
Back
Top