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Suggestion for testing:

Just this morning, I was reading an old Cast Bullet Association magazine, "The Fouling Shot" and came across an article that reminded me of some testing done by friends some years ago. 2 of them are still using this system, yet I haven't tried it myself. Their success and the article prompted this post.

When I detailed how I was loading the round balls to them for my shotgun and supplied them with balls, they decided it was too much work, so took a different and easier path. They simply patched the balls as they would for a muzzleloading rifle, with cloth patches.

The article I read suggested using buckshot size that would easily fit in ctg. brass they were using, and described excellent accuracy for small game shooting with the hunting rifle. They were talking about 6.5Mm through .30 cal. hunting rifles. This system demands further attention for us in finding and developing loads for our smoothies. If a .308 or .30/06 can give the 1" accuracy at 25 yards with a cloth patched buckshot ball, then our smoothbores with sights should do the same, as the larger the ball, the more accurate the shooting. We don't have scopes and rifling, but we have bll diameter to make up for some of that advantage loss - should come out about even, I figure.

Way back when, the boys asked me if I thought patched balls would work, instead of using the base cup off a trap wad and I merely said - give it a try. I was so enamoured with my own success that I didn't even try their method. Since they are still using it and claim it's terrific, I MUST give it a whirl myself.

They wanted a round ball load they could shoot from their duck guns having full chokes. I told them to use cloth that allowed them to still push or tap the ball through the choke with a rod. They were using the .684" RB's I gave them and probably tee-shirt material or other thin cotton. I suggest you stay away from synthetics, however they may work as well - plastic wads do, but also foul the bore sometimes. I remember Howard telling me the WW balls would go through both sides of a 45 gallon (imp. measure) drum, while a factory Foster slug just lead splashed it and some made a small split at impact, but none penetrated one side, let alone both as those round balls did. Evena pure lead ball would punch through one side, then split the other with lead extruded out the slit.

Loads, yes, loads - they used normal 1 1/4oz. duck loads with 7625 and 4756. Look them up - from my memory, probably around 24gr. SR7625 or 26 to 28gr. of SR4756. These loads are slightly less than what can be used with round balls in 12 bores. The velocities the guys were getting were probably a lot lower that what is possible, but perhaps they were in the 1,250fps to 1,350fps range. The moose they shot while duck hunting didn't know the loads were 200fps lower than possible. Both guys reported groups in the 5" range at 50 yards - I know they were shooting either offhand, or off the hoods of their pick-ups as there are no benches at the gravel pit where they shoot.

They were both enamoured with the accuracy in any event and just recently were asking me for more balls. They'd bought new duck guns and wanted to do some more testing.

So - no matter what the calibre, you can shoot patched round balls in your bore rifle or smoothbore. I will be trying this method in the straight rifled Husky 16 - with a .021" denim patch lubed with beeswax/vaseline or beeswax/olive oil for lube in the patch and a .662" round ball.

Such an undersized ball can easily be patched to fit the .703" grooved diameter of the straight rifled bore. It can do nothing but be perfectly centred as well just as it is in a muzzleloading rifle. This also goes for smoothbores - no need for the inverted plastic gas check wads and bore lubrication at the same time.

For unchoked 20 bore, I suggest a .595" ball and a .015" to .020" patch. This is what the local muzzleloading shooters use in their 20 bore smoothbores. For a true 16 bore, you'd need a ball somewhere in the .620" to .648" range and .020" to .015" patch - whatever fits in the bore with the patch around the ball fora very snug fit. Testing will quickly show what patch is needed. One merely picks an undersized ball and patches it to fit in the bore. I suggest with hard balls, the patch be a really tight fit only. With pure lead balls, which work just fine on any North American game, the fit can be even tighter as the balls easily compress going into the bore when fired.

How to load patche dround balls? Simply dump your powder charge into the primed hull, then card wad, then the fibre or filler wads until the height will allow a ball with patch and still be crimped, either roll or folded is fine. Lay the lubricated patch over the case mouth, and shove in a round ball. Use a short dowel or the wad seater plunger on your shotshell loading press to seat the patch and ball onto the top wad, then crimp - easy as can be.

This type of loading is easily accomplished with a set of Lee hand tools, or no comperical tools at all - just what you can make for yourself, but crimping is easier with the proper tool. The Lee-loader-type tools make depriming and re-priming easy, as well as wad insertion into the hull, then crimping. I do suggest them as a minimum tool set.

ww.trackofthewolf.com sells loaders as well as balls of many different sizes, swaged and/or cast, along with the wads. Check the wad diameters and get the one that is a tight fit in your cases. I just received the proper sized 14 bore wads from them for use in my 16 bore straight rifled tube. The left tube uses normal 16 bore wads in plastic hulls. I will be trying the cloth patched round balls in both barrels myself this coming week - if the winds let off a bit.

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Daryl

"a gun without hammers is like a Spaniel without ears" King George V