I started with a 30" Armisport Macon and was lucky enough to get an Elka .678 mould to go with it. Shot the heck out of it, including going 8 for 8 in the inaugural sesquicentennial Smoothbore Demonstration match. Because I couldn't hit literally ANYTHING at 50, I sold the Macon and bought an H&P with a Hoyt liner and luckily, another Elka mould.
There is a size difference between the Italian repros (.690 bore) and the Hoyt reline jobs (.687) mostly because the tooling isn't readily available to ream a .690 bore. (It's cheaper to buy an 11/16" reamer.) Anyway, I bought an original 42 rifle (possibly a Fremont?) and made another 30" Macon with a Hoyt liner that matches the bore on my H&P. The plan, which worked perfectly, was to have two guns that shoot the same ammunition so that my grandson, Owen, could compete in the team smoothbore events and I didn't have to create and carry a different smoothbore load. I do prepare a 50 yard load for the Macon by bumping the powder charge which is working very well for Owen.
Steve, your daughter will probably do very well with a Macon, but I'd drop that powder charge to about 40 grains of Goex Old Eynsford 3f. In my experience, you don't need the big charges in a smoothie. Ball prep and a powder that doesn't produce hard fouling is the secret to making these things run. For 3 years now, I've been shooting our smoothbores with NO LUBE and have had no problems loading and shooting long strings.
Bob Anderson
Ordnance Sergeant
Company C, 1st Michigan Volunteer Infantry
Small Arms Committee
"I won't be wronged. I won't be insulted. I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them."
- John Wayne in "The Shootist", 1976
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