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Fowler recommendations -- budget-ish.

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Looking at a few different options for a fowler. Intent would be for general purpose hunting gun on small game, birds, etc. Wouldn't mind the ability to use for big game but I have other options for that. I'm not much of a builder so the most complicated kit I'd be willing to try is an in-the-white kit. But the price difference between an in-the-white kit vs finished build seems to be less than a couple hundred bucks. At that point, I'd happily pay somebody who knows what they're doing to finish it up.

Primary use would be for turkey & small game. Needs to work with bismuth shot for hunting. No need for 40-yard shots but 25 yards would be good. For my 12-ga modern gun, I almost always shot full or extra full -- even for doves. I like how it gave me a clean miss or a clean kill and almost no cripples. I went to modified or imp for quail though and did well enough with that. I doubt I'd be doing much quail hunting with it. Duck is something I'd do maybe once or twice a year. I'd probably take more coots with it than anything else as those teals come in at full speed where I hunt. If I wanted to be serious about ducks or geese that day, I'd just take the 12-ga centerfire. This would be for the times when I have my boys with me and I'm more focused on them having a good time and less on my bag limit that day.

My .50 smoothie can't seem to hold a killing pattern at much more than 10 yards with bismuth. Lead seems fine but that only helps me break clays, not hunt. How would a .54 smoothbore with a jug choke to modified or full compare to a 20 ga cyl bore? Do 20 ga trade guns have enough steel on them to jug choke? Is it worth going up to a 12 ga?

I'm not somebody to buy wall-hangers. It's going to get time in the field. Mud, sweat, sun, humidity, ice, heat, cold, bumps and nicks are just part of the fun. Anything so nice or expensive that I have to worry about the gun more than the hunt isn't a gun for me. We hunted in mud seats this year while standing in knee-deep water -- not the kind of place where I'd want to take a $2k+ piece of artwork.

Any suggestions?
 
What are you looking to spend?
Check our classified I think there is a poor boy fowler on right now.
A 62 is good to twenty five yards with shot, maybe thirty.
If you choke the gun it won’t be a good ball gun
Sitting Fox has in the white guns or good kits.
Not the top end for HC
Loyalist sells Indian made guns that are not bad for the price. Not top end for sure. The TFC and North west guns can be inexpensive about $750.
About kit price
Better is Perdasoli$1700
Best is custom two grand or much more.
 
What are you looking to spend?
Check our classified I think there is a poor boy fowler on right now.
A 62 is good to twenty five yards with shot, maybe thirty.
If you choke the gun it won’t be a good ball gun
Sitting Fox has in the white guns or good kits.
Not the top end for HC
Loyalist sells Indian made guns that are not bad for the price. Not top end for sure. The TFC and North west guns can be inexpensive about $750.
About kit price
Better is Perdasoli$1700
Best is custom two grand or much more.

I was hoping to keep it under $1500. I could go a little higher. But that seems more like wall hanger material than a working gun. Maybe I’m just too cheap.
I have a Pedersoli Kentucky & like it. Haven’t shot it much yet but now that I have a few bugs worked out, I really want to go back & shoot it again, and again…. There are a couple trade guns for <$1200. I’ve heard the triggers aren’t great but have no experience with any BP guns but my own. What model were you thinking of?

Loyalist & other India guns — worth it? The Price is good but I don’t know a thing about lock tuning yet.
 
Loyalist turns out the gun ready to shoot. The stocks are teak and heavy, they leave on too much wood and have a high polish on the metal.
the fit and finish is not as high quality
But it’s half the price, you get what you pay for.
A kit or in the white by Sitting Fox has to be finished by you. The kit requires some hand work but there are plenty of books and you tube video to walk you through this
In the white means you have to sand and apply finel finish to the wood. These are not the quality of a high dollar gun, but I have one and super satisfied with it.
On their kits they can do some of the harder stuff like fitting butt plate ect. You would look at a thousand- thirteen hundred for a kit with hard stuff done or an in the white.
The French style Tulle Fusil de chase, or the North west trade gun has a big easy matinee lock and the French gun is real easy on the eyes. The trade guns is a solid no nonsense working gun.
They also do poor boys or barn guns. These are super simple.
They may be more popular now then in the past but real nice looking high preformsnce smooth bores.
Then they are one of the few places you can get a Dutch club butt. These are very distinctive looking, they look like they are very clumsy but come to the shoulder like a dream and point very naturally.
Per performance they all shoot very similar. With ball you will have deer hunting accuracy to fifty yards, with shot twenty five yards
If you watch the classified you may find a good gun but much of what’s offered is fifteen-twentyfive
 
Loyalist turns out the gun ready to shoot. The stocks are teak and heavy, they leave on too much wood and have a high polish on the metal.
the fit and finish is not as high quality
But it’s half the price, you get what you pay for.
A kit or in the white by Sitting Fox has to be finished by you. The kit requires some hand work but there are plenty of books and you tube video to walk you through this
In the white means you have to sand and apply finel finish to the wood. These are not the quality of a high dollar gun, but I have one and super satisfied with it.
On their kits they can do some of the harder stuff like fitting butt plate ect. You would look at a thousand- thirteen hundred for a kit with hard stuff done or an in the white.
The French style Tulle Fusil de chase, or the North west trade gun has a big easy matinee lock and the French gun is real easy on the eyes. The trade guns is a solid no nonsense working gun.
They also do poor boys or barn guns. These are super simple.
They may be more popular now then in the past but real nice looking high preformsnce smooth bores.
Then they are one of the few places you can get a Dutch club butt. These are very distinctive looking, they look like they are very clumsy but come to the shoulder like a dream and point very naturally.
Per performance they all shoot very similar. With ball you will have deer hunting accuracy to fifty yards, with shot twenty five yards
If you watch the classified you may find a good gun but much of what’s offered is fifteen-twentyfive

the sitting fox all seem to run about $1600 and up for an “in the white” kit. Barely more for a finished gun. Close enough to tempt me, for sure. How was the lock on yours? Did it need work to tune or are they tuned before shipping?
 
Kibler will be introducing a fowler soon. Their kit is very nearly the equivalent of in the white.
 
Looking at a few different options for a fowler. Intent would be for general purpose hunting gun on small game, birds, etc. Wouldn't mind the ability to use for big game but I have other options for that. I'm not much of a builder so the most complicated kit I'd be willing to try is an in-the-white kit. But the price difference between an in-the-white kit vs finished build seems to be less than a couple hundred bucks. At that point, I'd happily pay somebody who knows what they're doing to finish it up.

Primary use would be for turkey & small game. Needs to work with bismuth shot for hunting. No need for 40-yard shots but 25 yards would be good. For my 12-ga modern gun, I almost always shot full or extra full -- even for doves. I like how it gave me a clean miss or a clean kill and almost no cripples. I went to modified or imp for quail though and did well enough with that. I doubt I'd be doing much quail hunting with it. Duck is something I'd do maybe once or twice a year. I'd probably take more coots with it than anything else as those teals come in at full speed where I hunt. If I wanted to be serious about ducks or geese that day, I'd just take the 12-ga centerfire. This would be for the times when I have my boys with me and I'm more focused on them having a good time and less on my bag limit that day.

My .50 smoothie can't seem to hold a killing pattern at much more than 10 yards with bismuth. Lead seems fine but that only helps me break clays, not hunt. How would a .54 smoothbore with a jug choke to modified or full compare to a 20 ga cyl bore? Do 20 ga trade guns have enough steel on them to jug choke? Is it worth going up to a 12 ga?

I'm not somebody to buy wall-hangers. It's going to get time in the field. Mud, sweat, sun, humidity, ice, heat, cold, bumps and nicks are just part of the fun. Anything so nice or expensive that I have to worry about the gun more than the hunt isn't a gun for me. We hunted in mud seats this year while standing in knee-deep water -- not the kind of place where I'd want to take a $2k+ piece of artwork.

Any suggestions?
My first smoothbore was a Pedersoli Brown Bess carbine, I got it as a kit gun from Dixie Gunworks and was my introduction to flint. Great gun, I’ve taken 2 deer with it, but mostly it’s been used as a flintlock shotgun. For an 11 gauge, it’s done everything from dove loads up to goose loads. My favorite goose load in that gun is 90 grains ffg, and 110 steel T shot…very killer out to 40yrds +/-.

I have a Fusil de Chase, 42“ 20 gauge flinter, built by TVM. Beautiful gun, full curly maple stock, killed lots of rabbits, squirrels, doves. It’ll do everything that the Bess will do with less powder…though I’ve yet to take her hunting geese. 85 grains of ffg, heavy card wad over the powder and 2 ozs of 6 shot, light shot card…killer on turkeys out to 40 yards.

Neither of these guns are choked…shoot very well and I will never sell them

I have a couple double barrels that are amazing. One is a 10 gauge double made by Pieta, I was disappointed in this gun, because the guy selling it to me (bought it online) promoted it as a Pedersoli…but that gun has proved to be such an amazing goose gun…no complaints. Load it down and hunt doves, rabbits…quail, whatever…drop goose loads into it and take doubles on ducks or geese. Muzzleloaders are so versatile.

My other double is a light English stocked 20 gauge made by Pedersoli; great pheasant, quail, chukar gun. It’s very light and fast handling. I wish Pedersoli still sold them, I’d like 2 more for my grandkids…

I bought a single barrel half stock percussion 11 gauge to use as a loaner gun. It’s India made so my expectations were not high, and the price was such that if it was junk, I’d be upset, but not hurt. Wow, what a surprisingly beautiful gun…I had to replace one screw, and I got 2 spare nipples from Track of the Wolf, that fit nicely into the steel patchbox. It came with sling swivels, so carry’s very nice. Never did put a sling on the Brown Bess, and it does everything that the Bess will do, same loads, nearly the same performance. Still looking for that loaner smoothbore…

My dad has a .56 calibre TC smoothbore. That gun shoots hard and accurately…that’s becoming my #1 choice for turkey. It’s essentially a 24 gauge. It shoots very tight groups and hits hard. Short little gun is perfect hunting turkey with good solid patterns of 6 shot out to 35-40 yards. Another gun not made anymore, and getting harder to find.
 
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How was the lock on yours? Did it need work to tune or are they tuned before shipping?
If you go with Sitting Fox, be sure to ask who he is going to farm your build out to. Mine was built by a first grader with a chain saw. Yours could end up with a decent builder.

It was my very first "custom built" purchase many years ago and I no idea the build was being farmed out. Owner of Sitting Fox was zero help, basically telling me I rushed them. The gun was months beyond the promised date and I needed it for the pending turkey season. My mistake for taking someone at their word on completion date.

Caveat emptor is the word with Sitting Fox.
 
Ended up jumping on a Pedersoli trade gun from Dixie. Hoping to get it next week & get a workable pattern before turkey opens up. Got the gun, a cleaning jag, some flints and a .600 ball mold for less than an “in the white” kit. Hope it’s at least as good as my Kentucky.

And if I can’t get a decent pattern in time, there’s always the .50 smoothbore with a patched ball. Muzzy “shotguns” have few rules out here.

Thanks for the suggestions.
 
If you're gonna wade & shoot ducks, get a shorter barrel than my 42" flint fowler. Trying to reload in knee-deep water did not go well, but it "where the ducks wanted to be".
That was my thinking too. Pretty sure even a 36” barrel will take some contortions to load in the marshes.
 
Ended up jumping on a Pedersoli trade gun from Dixie. Hoping to get it next week & get a workable pattern before turkey opens up. Got the gun, a cleaning jag, some flints and a .600 ball mold for less than an “in the white” kit. Hope it’s at least as good as my Kentucky.

And if I can’t get a decent pattern in time, there’s always the .50 smoothbore with a patched ball. Muzzy “shotguns” have few rules out here.

Thanks for the suggestions.

I have one, you will get it patterning in no time. Great guns.
 
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