My son and I went out this morning to shoot my pedersoli frontier that I had Bobby Hoyt bore to a 54 cal smooth bore. Best load was 60 grains graf 3f, 80 grains cornmeal and 80 grains 5 shot, and wad. For some reason wasp nest had a better pattern that paper hornet wadding, go figure. Definitely ready to hunt next week when I get some time. Thanks for the advice on loads.
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Squirrel load
- Thread starter gonpce
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My 28 gauge smooths likes 40 grins of 2 f and 60 grains of shot on top cornmeal.I had better luck with 2 f and lighter charges.
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Very cool .I always use 60 gr. powder and an oz. of #5 . Knocks em dead ! Ever since i switched to #5 in 2014 ive never lost another squirrel .
shaman
40 Cal
I have 80 grains of 3F and 1 OZ of #6 for the Brown Bess. I'm hoping to try it out on the tree rats this weekend. I'm using the SkyChief Method.
hanshi
Cannon
I tried it once and didn't like it. I use a rifle or pistol and save the smoothbore for deer and turkeys.
I wish I had the eyes to use a rifle. Unfortunately the Lord didn't equip me as so.
Doc
Doc
Sidney Smith
58 Cal.
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Same load I use for pheasant hunting, 70 grains 2fg, and 70 grains no. 6 lead shot. 70 grains by volume of lead weighs in at 1 1/8 ounce. Crumpled phone book paper for wadding. Supermarket bag paper shot cups.
Wonder if the old timers used cornmeal?
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It's at least possible - a natural product available in their time, and commonly in use throughout the country.
They would have if they had it and knew about using it. I bet a few of them even used linen patches for round balls.
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Why the corn meal ?
I've used corn meal and cream of wheat as fillers when loading BP cartridges with reduced loads to fill the cartridge, I've been at this M/L game for 60 years, but I'm curious as to why one would use cornmeal or any filler in a smoothbore fowler, I usually load using over powder card, fiber cushion wad, and over shot card wad, I use the same loading procedure with patched round ball but omit the over shot wad.
I've used corn meal and cream of wheat as fillers when loading BP cartridges with reduced loads to fill the cartridge, I've been at this M/L game for 60 years, but I'm curious as to why one would use cornmeal or any filler in a smoothbore fowler, I usually load using over powder card, fiber cushion wad, and over shot card wad, I use the same loading procedure with patched round ball but omit the over shot wad.
My 58 caliber, 24 gauge, likes 50 grains of 3F, a 1/8" nitro wad, a lubed 1/2" cushion wad, 7/8 to an ounce and and eight of shot and a card wad. It patterns well at 25 to 30 yards. I'm new to smoothbores so I'm still figuring it all out. What I'm really trying to figure out is why I didn't build one years ago???
