Same Caliber For Rifle and Fusil?

[pipascus]

Howdy!
My Mark Silver rifle is a .58 caliber. I was looking at TOTW Fusil de Chasse kit and it's available in a .58 as well.
Would it be a good idea to get the Fusil in .58? My original idea was in .62/20g but just thinking if it would be a good idea to be able to use the same ball mold.

New to all this so not sure if it even translates to the same thing, as I would likely have to size the proper ball size not only for the rifle, but also the fusil.
Also concerend if the smaller bore would affect it's usability as a fowler, with shot.

 

[appalichian hunter]

Sounds like a win win situation, I would not trade my .62 smooth bore and rifle for the world.

 

[Ontario47]

A.H. Did load development result with the same ball/patch combination or ball for both rifle and smoothbore? It was and still is a "thing" to have a rifle and pistol combination that used the same cartridge (eg. 44/40 WCF) . And a number of military smoothbore muskets and pistols were intended to use the same paper cartridges, usually not appreciated.because of pistol recoil. But rifle/musket combination seems like a stretch IMHO.

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
Things to consider. You might be shooting .570" balls from your rifle with pretty thick patches to seal the grooves. Your 0.58 caliber smoothbore does not have grooves to squeeze patches into so a 0.570" ball will require a thin patch. Even 0.010" patches will be really tight particularly after the barrel fouls a bit. You may find that a 0.560" ball or even smaller works better.

dave

 

[appalichian hunter]

Powder loads are the same 80 gr. 3f goex but patch thickness will vary for the round ball. As Mr. Pearson has stated you just have to tinker with it a bit to find the right patch ball combo. also I have a separate bag for each weapon specific to that weapon. I can shoot a .590 ball with a thick patch in the rifle and use the same ball with a thinner patch in the smooth bore seems to work well out too 50- 60 yards which is my self imposed range for deer. A .600 ball with a patch 20 thousandths works well in the rifle, with a thinner patch in the smooth bore it becomes harder to load if not swabbing about every 4-5 shots. A lot depends on the actual bore dia. especially in a smoothie.

 

[nhmoose]

If you want a heavy fusil yep. I would buy a new mold and have a lighter fusil it is a very small % of getting the new gun, why scrimp to save buying another mold.

 

[pipascus]

Great information. Thank you all!

My rifle is a .58 so, after thinking about it, I'd still rather have mu fusil as a .62 than .58
They're going to have seperate shooting bags etc anyway.