I bought a flintlock double smoothbore 30 years ago and had plans for taking all the game I normally hunt with it. I collected rabbits, squirrels, quail, doves, one groundhog, a tom turkey and one javelina, but I kept putting off a deer hunt, afraid I might hurt one. The gun shoots very small groups with ball in both barrels, but the barrels are not registered to the same point of aim by just a little bit. I can make her hit with a little Kentucky windage, but that somehow was intimidating to me when it came to deer. Not to worry, I collected a fat buck with it yesterday. It stopped at less than 25 yards in deep, tall weeds and only its head showing, so I shot that. My ‘to do’ list with that gun is finished, and it felt good to do it. I’m a tired old man today from all that goes on after the shot, but it still feels good.
I loaded 80 grains Goex 2F, one 1/8” hard card, one 1/2” cushion wad soaked with beeswax-lard and a cast .600” ball in a ticking patch of .018”. That load has always been an accurate one for me in all my smoothbores, and it was again yesterday.
Spence
I loaded 80 grains Goex 2F, one 1/8” hard card, one 1/2” cushion wad soaked with beeswax-lard and a cast .600” ball in a ticking patch of .018”. That load has always been an accurate one for me in all my smoothbores, and it was again yesterday.
Spence
Never really thought about it before, but what valuable function do the "hooks" really do anyway? The barrel isn't going to fall out forwards! All the pressures are backwards. As long as there is some kind of solid "insert" from the breech back into the metal tang mount area, that should suffice....as indeed this shotgun shows it does.
