smoothebore loads

[RaccoonRough Spence]

Hello,I have a repro 1842 Springfield. I have not shot it and would like to get a load worked up for it over the winter. I am new to the whole smoothbore thing and am looking for some advice on where to start.Does anyone have any suggestions?

[pastore]

.678 ball rasped and lubed with your choice of lube, 47 grs FFF. HAVE FUN !

[Phil Spaugy, 3475V]

.678 ball, rattled with some others in a metal coffee can, lightly lubed with some liquid Alox, 55 grains of 3f.

Fire and Fall Back.

Phil

[Eggman]

Is there a creek nearby you could toss it in to??

[tmont]

Let not your heart be troubled. The 42 is a great shooter. You will wonder why your other rifles have rear sights once you get used to it.

[Eggman]

To clarify, like most smoothbores it's a great shooter at say a twenty gallon gas can or a watermellon at ten yards. However, the N-SSA, in its avarace, makes you shoot at a clay pigeon at twenty-five yards. They keep recycling the same pigeons from skirmish to skirmish. The team that actually hits a pigeon gets the medals.

[pastore]

Since you are a new smoothbore shooter, I would like to share with you an email I received in 1998 when I was inquireing about smoothbore loads. The email was from
Don DiCicco, who is now deceassed.

"God help thee my skirmish brother. Thou hast bought a demon musket placed here by Satan. Thou searcheth for the tight of group in vain. Pray sell that demon musket before you loseth your sanity. Listen not to false experts."

I got such a laugh out of this that I printed it and have had it on my bulletin board since then.

Notwithstanding this warning, You will have fun with the smoothbore. Rear sights are truely "highly over-rated" :p

[Maillemaker]

To clarify, like most smoothbores it's a great shooter at say a twenty gallon gas can or a watermellon at ten yards. However, the N-SSA, in its avarace, makes you shoot at a clay pigeon at twenty-five yards. They keep recycling the same pigeons from skirmish to skirmish. The team that actually hits a pigeon gets the medals.

LOL. I get the spirit of the joke, but just wanted to say this:

I was timing and safetying a smoothbore team at our 4th LA skirmish last month and that team scored a perfect run - every single shot fired by every team member broke a target. I think there were 6 or 8 targets and 4 or 5 shooters. I think it was 25 yards. It was impressive! I think the team was a GA team.

Steve

[Phil Spaugy, 3475V]

Since you are a new smoothbore shooter, I would like to share with you an email I received in 1998 when I was inquireing about smoothbore loads. The email was from
Don DiCicco, who is now deceassed.

"God help thee my skirmish brother. Thou hast bought a demon musket placed here by Satan. Thou searcheth for the tight of group in vain. Pray sell that demon musket before you loseth your sanity. Listen not to false experts."

I got such a laugh out of this that I printed it and have had it on my bulletin board since then.

Notwithstanding this warning, You will have fun with the smoothbore. Rear sights are truely "highly over-rated" :p


Listen to Fletcher. The yoke is on the Eggman !!

Phil

[RaccoonRough Spence]

Thanks to all for your advice! I guess I will need to find me a new bullet mould, as the one I have is like .685 or something? Dont really remember right now.

But it gives me an idea on where to start!

)

[Paul Lampman 263V]

Don't give up on your .685. They work also.

[MR. GADGET]

Don't give up on your .685. They work also.

Just need to watch your lead that you use, watch your mold temp and lead temp real close and remove all your sprew.

If you don't it will only work for a few shots then you will have a problem loading it.
Also you get the mold to hot and it drops a larger ball you end up with it stuck...


I use a 678, I decked the mold,little to no sprew, have a ball roller to roll the sprew into the ball and true the ball.
Then light file to hold lube and keep it in the tube. 84 grns of FF and dip in my hot lube 3 times. Lube is 50/50 bees wax and EVOO.

[Wagonrider]

Before I realized that my hands were full trying to master (if that's what you want to call it) the musket and carbine I too had a smoothbore. To remove tha sprue I would remove the media from my brass tumbler and throw in some roundballs and let the tumbler work its' magic. This resulted in a roundball absent of a sprue and also dimpled like a golf ball. At this point one could lube and shoot them as they were, eliminating the need for rasping.

[Eggman]

Or, as I was saying, just toss it in the creek.

[snapcap14]

mine Armi sport .690 bore dia. 69grn 2ffg goex. dip trice, real snotty lube. ballr run thru vibrator w/ walnut media. Loaded sprue up lube up.

[xring2245]

Find out for yourself... smoothbores can be very accurate. Just like you would test loads for other guns, the right ball and powder charge combination is very important. The .678 RB shoots very well in MY smoothbore, along with 57gr. of 3F. Years ago, this same gun shot well with 60gr. and a .685 RB. Just like people, guns change and get better with age. When I realized the "old" load didn't shoot as well anymore, I did more testing and came up with a more accurate load (.678/57gr). This may change in a few years too, but I will stay on top of this.

People who downplay the value of a smoothbore are probably not doing so from experience. Hearsay has no value. Naysayers aren't much help either. Get to know your gun, spend time with it, and you will be rewarded with one that will shoot well.

James