Round ball Vs Minnie

[adbranaman]

I have a smoothbore Enfield. I shoot a .562 patched round ball out of it. I bought a oversized .578 minnie mold thinking that since it's a smoothbore it would need to be bigger.but it is almost to tight to fit down the barrel. It well with alot of effort,but I've never tryed again.I'm thinking about getting a .575 minnie to replace it.I was wondering if it would improve the accruacy or wither I'm just wasteing money and should stick with the patched round ball.I may buy a .562 round ball mold instead.I haven't really done much shooting with it,but I recently joined a gun club and plan to check the accruacy of it and maybe use it for deer hunting.I realize that without the spin on a minnie it well probably just start tumbling and may actually be worse then the roundball. Has anyone else tryed minnies in their smoothbore? What were the results?

 

[Va.Manuf.06]

Without spin to stabilize it the Minie ball will keyhole. Are you sure your gun has been reamed smooth? That Minie should have been loose in a reamed barrel.

 

[Tumblernotch]

I shot some .69 cal. Ideal Minies from a smoothbore. Just as VA said they will keyhole. I even had some keyhole as close as 25 yds. I expected it, but just had to try some anyhow. For an elongated bullet to fly true, it HAS to be spinning.

 

[ohio ramrod]

So very true the mini's must spin to be accurate. Several years back I tried some of my 45 mini's in my target rifle just to see how they would work in case I decided to use my target rifle for deer hunting. The same mini that was accurate at 100 yrds in the deer rifle ( land to land .450 one in fourty eight twist) could not even hit paper at 50 yrds in the target rifle. ( land to land .453 one in 66 twist). Mini's must spin, just .003 difference in bore fit and the slower twist was the only thing different.

 

[adbranaman]

The barrels as smooth as a baby's butt.When I bought the over sized mold I didn't know that Enfields were .577.I actually had to use a flat board I found to hammer the minnie down the barrel with the ramrod.I made sure it was all the way down as I worried about gappage causing it to blow up the barrel.I tryed to pull it out ,but just couldn't get the screw to go deep enough.

 

[adbranaman]

That about answers my question. The keyholeing effect at 25 yards is worse then what the roundball well probably do. I hope to get decent accruacy at 50 yards with the patched ball.I guess it's time to get out to the range. It has a decent pattern with No. 6 shot at 20 yards.Maybe I'll go shoot a couple rounds for the Shotgun Postal Shoot.One of these guns was found at Gettysburg.Appartly they were loaded with Buck Shot and Ball together.Thanks

 

[blafen]

I always wondered how well hollowbase slugs would work.
I got a 20 bore and have been looking into getting some rifled slugs for a 20 gauge modern shotgun, these have a hollow base so all thw weight is up front making the bullet fly straight, basically a lead shuttlecock.

 

[rabjr]

I always wondered how well hollowbase slugs would work.
I got a 20 bore and have been looking into getting some rifled slugs for a 20 gauge modern shotgun, these have a hollow base so all thw weight is up front making the bullet fly straight, basically a lead shuttlecock.

The old Foster type slugs we all used back in the 70's out of smoothbore shotgun barrels. You can buy molds here, dunno if you can buy em already molded or not. http://www.ballisticproducts.com/products.asp?dept=148

 

[Zoar]

Good replies. I shoot smooth bore shotguns for accuracy and deer hunting. They can be very accurate at 50 yards. You can use round ball or slugs, but as everyone, said NOT minnie's. I think because of availablity etc in your bore size, I would just stay with a round ball. Get the best mold you can get. I like Tanner's molds.