A Tale of Two Smoothbores & Tow Wads

I got to wondering the other day about "bare ball" loads after reading some posts on another site. Since the consensus was more favorable than unfavorable, I decided to try them for the first time in my T/C Renegade SB (caplock) and my sometimes problematic Green River Forge 20ga. NW trade gun (flintlock). The T/C SB uses a tight .550" which I cast (Lyman mould) and is very accurate @ 25 yd. with a thin (.012") patch @ 25 yd., but it's not easy to start and seat. The GRF trade gun, using either .014" or .018" patches and RB's of diameters between .598" (Tanner & Lee moulds) and .604" (slightly out of round Lyman mould) is equally accurate at that range. Powder charges between 65- and 85gr. FFFg (alll I had on hand) don't seem to make much difference.

Tow Wads As I didn't like pounding a patched RB down the bbl. of the T/C SB, I thought, "why not try tow wads (and nothing else between powder & ball) in it?" I bench rested these @ 25 yd. with tow wads fore & aft and the .550" RB + 75gr. FFFg @ 25 yd. and was surprised and pleased with the result. (See photo below: white target, 10 shots).

Full disclosure: I tried tow wads in the GRF trade gun @ 50 yd. with .598" RB's (as recommended) and 100gr. FFg and was greatly disappointed with their inaccuracy, which I blamed on them and the gun. Yesterday, however, I tried fairly tight tow wads with a .618" bore diameter RB (Tanner mould) bench rested with 85gr. FFFg GOEX at the greater distance and was rewarded by a pretty good grouping for 9 out of twelve shots. In the photo below, you'll notice two hits off my "high tech" paper bag target backer that were pre-existing and another two marked "fouler," which were fired with a different RB. The remaining ones, with the exception of #'s 4, 9, & 10 grouped exceptionally well for a gun with no rear sight. So far as I can tell, shot #9 was a flyer, but #4 was due to a dirty bore (more below) and #10 was an aiming issue (labeled "My bad!"on the brown target below: 12 shots + 2 foulers).

Lessons learned: Tow wads seem to scour the bore, but accuracy suffers when you don't damp swab after every shot as indicated above. Moreover, they can and do smolder, so be aware of that in dry conditions. Third, in my guns at least, I got the best accuracy with tight fitting RB's (.550" for the T/C and .618" for the GRF) and hand rolled tow wads requiring a bit of "oomph" to start and seat. Lastly and editorially, I found Goex FFFg to be no dirtier than any other brand of BP I've used except maybe Elephant twenty or more years ago.

Help! I have the pics, but I can't seem to attach them to my post. I.e., When I drag & drop them, I can't get to "add files, " which means I can't attach the pics to my post.

With Tatume's help and resizing the pics a bit, the problem, as you can see, has been solved!

I like to use the icon on the top bar of the quick editor (browse, select, insert).

Attachment 265882

Thanks, Tatume!

You're welcome. Thank you for your kind words.

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Originally Posted by Maven

With Tatume's help and resizing the pics a bit, the problem, as you can see, has been solved !

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There be good folk here...….. :)


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Amen to that, pietro!

I can't find my loading records from a few years back.
But I had a TC 56 SB that I shot with I think 28 ga plastic shotgun wads and a .535 ball over a over powder powder card.
It shot pretty good out to 75 yards.
I wanted longer range , so I had the barrel bored and rifled by Hoyt to .600
But the SB would be good enough for areas where they only allow you to use slick barrels during ML seasons.

And you have an adjustable rear sight, LAGS!

I've always wondered if those shooting bare ball have any leading problems?

Not a trace of lead, Ric, but enough powder fouling to make me swab after each shot (learned the hard way).

For a number of years, I have been shooting my smoothies with wadding (usually tow) and bare ball. My typical load for my 20 ga. barrels is 70 gr. of 3Fg, wad of tow about twice the volume of my ball, and then a .600 or .610 round ball (depending on the gun but most of mine are slightly undersized) that I have "chewed up" with a wood rasp. The "chewing" tends to give a little raise up to tighten the fit and the dimples work for some increased accuracy like on a golf ball.

BPL, I've tried the .618" RB rolled between 2 coarse files and as cast, both with OP & OS wads, and the 2 foulers in the photo above. My gun didn't care for it at all at either 25- or 50 yd. Not being critical, but just saying different guns, with different dimensions have different preferences. Btw, with a .598" RB + .014" @ 25 yd., it may be the most accurate of all. The jury's still out @ 50 yd. for that combination though.

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Originally Posted by Maven

BPL, I've tried the .618" RB rolled between 2 coarse files and as cast, both with OP & OS wads, and the 2 foulers in the photo above. My gun didn't care for it at all at either 25- or 50 yd. Not being critical, but just saying different guns, with different dimensions have different preferences. Btw, with a .598" RB + .014" @ 25 yd., it may be the most accurate of all. The jury's still out @ 50 yd. for that combination though.

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Yup... different guns and different barrels make a huge difference. My old fusil with 44" colerain barrel loved the .600s rolled under the rasp. The year before I went bison hunting, I shot it a ton and was cloverleafing shots at 50 yds when sitting and without sticks or rest. My shorter barreled NW gun is not quite the same. It likes slightly larger balls and is good at 25-30 but looses a bit out at 50 yd.

I forgot to add that I usually out a small wad of tow in front of the ball for good measure, holding it in place while hunting