Working up a load for a fowler

[Huntschool]

Load work with a .62 fowler
After some nasty rainy weather and two days at the AMM Spring gathering over at the Eastern AMM property at Dawson Springs KY, the weather finally got nice for a day (Sunday) and I was able to do some load work for this fowler.

I wanted a good RB load for this gun. The bore measures .608-.609 (cause I got shaky hands) with my digi calipers. I knew I wanted a bit of a tight load with patched RB and had test balls of .595, .597 and .600. So, I decided to start with the biggest just for the heck of it. I made some assumptions on powder loads and decided to start with 80 gr of GOEX 3fffg powder.

The patch material was a thin cotton tick of .012 from wally world. Spit patched.....

I fired a number of shots with this load and with the .597 load with a slightly thicker ticking patch and have decided the .600 ball and the .012 patch is the way to go.

Here is a pic of three patches from that load. They look good and I was a bit surprised to see the performance on a 50 yard gong. I was slapping the heck out of it. There is no back sight on this gun and the front (turtle style) sight is very low on the barrel.



As you can see, there is no burn through and these patches, they could be used again in a pinch. They were a tight load. I could start them with my thumb to just below the muzzle to cut off the patching. I did use a short strater at that point to get the ball down a bit so that I did not have to worry with the ram rod. I am building (scraping) a 7/16 rod down to have a larger front end for this gun.

I did find that after 4 shots there was a powder/gunk ring in front of the charge whe I loaded the 5th shot and had to apply a bit of "persuasion" to seating the ball but I am not sure that patch was as wet as it could have been.

With this load and using my sight hold this load shot almost to point of aim at 50 yds. I suspect, based on that performance I will be holding low at 25 yds or will drop the powder charge down.

I am a happy camper......

 

[Skychief]

Something tells me you'll be hooked on fowlers/smoothbores Huntschool.

Nothing is easier on patches in our world and once you work up a load and practice a bit, your rifles may gather some dust. Mine did.

Good luck, have fun and keep sharing with us. Would love to see some groups once you've worked with her awhile.

Best regards, Skychief.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Smoothbores are a lot easier on patching than rifles.

Keep at it. They are delightful firearms to work with.

Like Skychief said: your rifles may feel neglected once you go down the smooth fowler path.

 

[Huntschool]

Thanks guys. I am already a smoothie fan and have been for near 50 years now. Still like my rifled guns and will continue to shoot them but, as you know, these guns have a way about getting in your head. I have a .62 smooth rifle being built with an old (like 30+ years) Getz Golden Age swamped profile barrel and using a Chambers round faced lock in an early VA style in one crazy great chunk of American Walnut. Will be interested to see what that gun can do with a full set of sights on it.