Interesting, Bob - good stuff. 75 yards is quite easy for a good shot and a properly loaded smoothbore. That's with one sight - with rear sight, that range can be extended by 25 yards IF the gun will hold 7" to 8" at that range. It takes a lot of experimentation sometimes to make that happen.

My source of info on ball and shot guns is what is written in Forsyth's book & concernes hunting in India - deer, tiger, buffalo, bear and elephant.

He mentions that with muzzleloading smoothbores, Manton is perhaps the best at making a dual purpose gun. In the mid 1800's, they were choking, but not at the muzzle. The bore was 2 reversed cones, one starting at the breech becoming tighter in the centre, then reamed out to a larger diameter again at the muzzle. The longer the barrels, the better, as the longer barrels needed less constriction in the middle to shoot strongly with shot. I know it sounds wierd - having a choke in the middle of the bore - they did and it worked - amazingly enough. My bro's 14 bore Manton has no choke - straight all the way through. John Blisset was a popular gun maker as being able to make the "best" true bored smooth barrels and that the true barrel shot better with ball, but weaker with shot - as we know, but - there are tricks to tighten shot loads.