Smooth bore/smooth rifle accuracy with patched round ball

[Maven]

What kind of accuracy can one expect from a smooth bore at 25 yds.? at 50 yds.? Also, is barrel length a factor? E.g., will a 27" bbl. (T/C Renegade) shoot as accurately as a longer (>27" but <44") one? Lastly, when using a patched round ball, how important is it to use an overpowder wad? I.e., is accuracy better with one than without one? Inquiring minds want to know!

[hamour]

From a smooth rifle, (smooth bore with rifle features, sights, stock, etc) you can expect rifle like accuracy out to the yardage at which your RB transitions from sonic to sub-sonic. Then it will act like a knuckle ball when the sonic waves hit it. (Normaly 75 to 85 yds with healthy powder charges)

A spinning RB rides this transition very well and you get better acuracy at range.

Some people experience fliers with an over powder wad in their smooth rifles, I dont use then so I dont know for a fact.

One of the best smooth rifles is a Green Mountain .62 caliber bbl on a Renegade or 1" Hawken stock. The 20ga RB whops the heck out of anything (320+grs)

[northmn]

Most claim wads hurt smoothbore accuracy. They tend to shoot like rifles at 25 yards if properly loaded, spread out to about 4 inches or so at 50 and go to h__l from there. I would agree on the 75-85 yard limitations. In my experiance the bigger bores tended to hold up the best. My Brown Bess and 12 bore seemed more accurate at the 75+ ranges. May have been due to relatively low MV's Never benched them as they were a handful to shoot with any kind of powder charge. I used them from about a 30 inch barrel to the 42 inch. Sighting systems were more of an issue than barrel length. Longer barrels without sights are easier to shoot more accurately. Sights would tend to cancel that out. Almsot all smoothbore matches require no reatr sight, which is a rather silly rule as a large number of originals had some form of "aftermarket" rear sight put on them. A common one on NWTG was to use a chisel and beat up a small wedge that could be filed out. Another trick was to use the tang bolt screw slot.

Northmn

[FL-Flinter]

The three main factors of smoothbore accuracy are component quality, bore quality and loading consistency. Sorting balls not only for appearance but also weight & balance will greatly improve accuracy. Deformation of the ball via tight/loose spots in the bore and/or inconsistency of the bore finish will hurt accuracy. The crown alone can be a deal-breaker for accuracy. Inconsistent loading can wipe out accuracy potential even in a rifled bore. Just like any other gun, the overall accuracy potential is defined by the overall condition of the load and gun - for some reason the majority of people think that muzzleloaders and smoothbores are immuned from requiring quality components and loading consistency. The longer the bbl, the longer the sight radius; the longer sight radius the more human sighting error that is removed. Use or not of a wad will be determined by the load and gun, some work best with a wad, some don't. The type of wad is also important, too-thick or too-heavy and it'll tend to disrupt the ball's flight after the ball clears the muzzle; multi-layer fiber wads normally work best.

Having a rear sight or not will depend on the particular gun style and time frame. Many smoothbores did in fact have some type of rear sight; except for most British, French & American fowlers. One of the more typical military type rear sights was done by forging the tang with a fairly long camelback hump then filing a notch in it. On civilian guns, many were fitted with an actual rear sight and that goes back to the latter period shoulder-fired handgonne days and on matchlocks.