Guest
On Monday, my Brother Taylor, and I went out to the rod and gun club shooting the flinters. I was sighting in the .50 barrel on the long rifle, while Taylor said he needed practice with his Bess shooting patched round ball. We also both wanted to try out Stumpy's Moose Snot in these guns.
: The target rack was placed at 49yds.(lazer range finder) from the benches and was frozen into the ground so we couldn't move it. So be it. Targets were posted.
: Taylor started out shooting the Bess with spit patch, using a coloured Pidgeon target I printed off the internet for an aiming point. His charge was 100gr. 2F, .735 Ball with a .030" Denim patch. This combination measures .795" total, which gives .010" compression on each side for the ball in his .775" Colerain barrel. It sounds tight, but isn't excessively so, loading easily with the Bess's hickory rod.
: His first shot hit the bird dead centre in the body, with succeeding shots liberally sprinked around and on it, striking the bird 3 times out of the 6 shots. It was a correct sized barn pigeon (homing pigeon) target. His group size for the 6 rounds, 3 with spit and 3 with Stumpies Moose Snot was 6" - all shot standing. He's older now, but is still a good shot. I know many fellows who can't shoot 6" at 50yds. offhand with rifles, let alone a bayonette lugged smoothbore.
: The reason for this post, is to show people that smoothbores will shoot quite accurately, and one must experiment to find accurate loads. Tight loads have always shot well for him from his Besses, whether his first back in the 70's, a Navy Arms, probably Pedersoli, to the custom Bess's he's made since then. He believes the secret is the thick Denim patch material as it holds lots of lube, and compresses more easily than ticking. This may be the reason Denim seems to require a tighter combo than does ticking material. As well, he reported that Moose Snot shot cleaner than the spit he's preferred untill now. We merely pressed a wad of it into the patch, spread it around, squeezing it into the patch material betwen thumb and forefinger, then loaded with short starter as normal.
: I hope suggestions here help with your smoothbore ball pelter.
: The target rack was placed at 49yds.(lazer range finder) from the benches and was frozen into the ground so we couldn't move it. So be it. Targets were posted.
: Taylor started out shooting the Bess with spit patch, using a coloured Pidgeon target I printed off the internet for an aiming point. His charge was 100gr. 2F, .735 Ball with a .030" Denim patch. This combination measures .795" total, which gives .010" compression on each side for the ball in his .775" Colerain barrel. It sounds tight, but isn't excessively so, loading easily with the Bess's hickory rod.
: His first shot hit the bird dead centre in the body, with succeeding shots liberally sprinked around and on it, striking the bird 3 times out of the 6 shots. It was a correct sized barn pigeon (homing pigeon) target. His group size for the 6 rounds, 3 with spit and 3 with Stumpies Moose Snot was 6" - all shot standing. He's older now, but is still a good shot. I know many fellows who can't shoot 6" at 50yds. offhand with rifles, let alone a bayonette lugged smoothbore.
: The reason for this post, is to show people that smoothbores will shoot quite accurately, and one must experiment to find accurate loads. Tight loads have always shot well for him from his Besses, whether his first back in the 70's, a Navy Arms, probably Pedersoli, to the custom Bess's he's made since then. He believes the secret is the thick Denim patch material as it holds lots of lube, and compresses more easily than ticking. This may be the reason Denim seems to require a tighter combo than does ticking material. As well, he reported that Moose Snot shot cleaner than the spit he's preferred untill now. We merely pressed a wad of it into the patch, spread it around, squeezing it into the patch material betwen thumb and forefinger, then loaded with short starter as normal.
: I hope suggestions here help with your smoothbore ball pelter.
