rifle a smooth bore

[Bullshop]

Question - If I had a .69 cal smooth bore where might I have it rifled?
Yes I know in the barrel but I mean where might I have the barrel rifled?
What kind of range could the smooth bore be counted on for lets say dinner plate accuracy?
Kinda like my old Daisy BB gun only with bigger BB's?
These BATF non guns are becoming more appealing to me. I think I prefer the powder burners over the hitech big bore air guns. I got lots ta learn!
Blessings
BIC/BS

[floodgate]

Dan:

Dixie Gun Works offers replicas of the Springfield M1842 musket in both smooth bore (I had an original years ago and fired it a few times with salvaged 12-ga. rifled slugs; not very accurate, but I didn't try all the tricks) and with the rifled bore and elevation-adjustable sights that some were modified to for the Civil War. Lyman still offers a .69 Minie' ball mould, their #68569. Hmmm.....

Doug

[jackley]

Bullshop

Here in this country there are alot of smooth bore shooters, shooting 58's and 62's and they get fantastic groups out to 100yds. A friend shoots elk out to a 100 with one with great resuls.
Jerry

[Bullshop]

Interesting, very interesting! I am mainly interested in shooting round ball to about 100 yards. For some reason I was thinking the smooth bore would only be good to about 50 yards.
Many moon past when I lived in the Bitteroot valley I had a gun built by a neighbor, Ron Paul. It was a 69 rifled barrel and was verry accurate and deadly. I was loading it with 200gn FG and a patched ball for hunting and it worked well. I let it get away and have always been sorry about that.
Now I am looking at a 69 smooth bore and wondering.
I remember reading about an underhammer 72 called the Zepher. I was interested but they didnt seem to be available for very long. Dont know what happened. I did have a small bore underhammer H&A and liked the underhammer lock.
I also remember visiting Les Bauska when they were making a side hammer gun. They looked interesting but outside the plant where they were being made I have never seen one.
I think I may go for the smooth bore. If I get it God willing I will let ya know how it works out.
Blessings
BIC/BS

[725]

Bullshop,
I had a T/C Renegade .50 bored out to a .60 smoothbore and with the right patch, lube, and powder combo I got what I considered fantastic accuracy. Jeff Tanner .593 RB gave me reliable pie plate accuracy at 100. Standard .590 RB was real good but I thought a little bigger ball would fit tighter for some better accuracy. I might be whistling through my hat, but the finished system works just fine.

[StrawHat]

Bullshop,

A good friend of mine easily get pieplate accuracy to 75 yards with his Brown Bess.

Others in his group get similar results at 100.

The Zephyr is an interesting rifle. That long twist allows a lot of powder and spins the RB just enough to stabilize it. Baker used similar in India and seemed pleased with the system.

Here is a link to the Zephyr site. I have not tried to contact them as I am not in the market.

http://www.pacificrifle.com/catalog.htm

You are correct about the underhammer. Direct, inline ignition and no hammer motion or flash inches from your face to distract you.

Too bad H&A is no longer existent, they were good rifles even if they were twisted faster than they needed to be.

You ever give thought to a switch barrel set up on the underhammer action?


Back to your original query. A smoothbore can be rifled.

The fellow who did work for me, Dick Nickel, has passed on.

Here are some I have found but not used.

http://www.bellmtcs.com/store/index.php?cid=217

http://www.randyscustomrifles.com/pricing.html

http://home.earthlink.net/~oregunsmithing/id9.html

Also there is a fellow in Prescott Arizona who's name escapes memory, and Randy Redman.

Good luck

[madcaster]

There is a Bob Hoyt in Pennsylvania,I do not have his contact info.I will post a question on www.Americanlongrifles.com for you and I'm sure we will get contact info.
Jeff

[Boz330]

I have one of the H&As from a kit that I got from Deer Creek Products up in Waldron IN and it really shoots nice. He has sold out that tooling plus the Mowery Rifle which I was also interested in.
I had considered getting an extra smooth bore barrel in 62cal for turkey hunting. Swapping them out would be a peice of cake.
The under hammer gets the ignition out of your face but with stout loads you need a long sleeve shirt because you catch some flash on the arm. Mine is a 50cal and it didn't start shooting good groups till I got up to a 100gr of 3F. The H&A is a sweet hunting gun though, slim and pretty light weight. The action is as simple as they come, no wasted movement.

Bob

[Baron von Trollwhack]

At the N-SSA we have many shooters using 69 caliber rifled muskets both custom and originals, using the minie' ball and BP. Some are 2 minute of angle guns, and that's offhand. Mr Hoyt is the one to talk to.

BvT

[northmn]

I like the advantages of smooth bores well enough to be building one now. As others mentioned, you can get pretty good accuracy with modern molds out to 100 yards. I suspect you have A Charleville or the American adaptation of one after the Revolution, many of which were converted to percussion. Most smoothbore shooters you see in competition limit themselves to no sights or rudimentary sights due to the rules concerning smoothbore competition. You still see some fair shooting at pie plate accuracy. Accuracy is a combination of sights that you can use, trigger pull, lock time, general handling characteristics of the weapon and load. Before getting it rifled I would look at these factors. I used to like to use a card over the powder wad with a smoothie under the tightly patched round ball. Some of the smooth bores reputation for inaccuracy came from the paper patched undersized military loads designed to be loaded for volley shooting. Good shooting have fun.

Northmn

[725]

Bullshop,
madcaster is right. Bob Hoyt does great work.

R.A.Hoyt
Freischutz Shop
700 Fairfield Station Road
Fairfield, Pa. 17320

The one I mentioned above in post #5 was done by Bob. If it's a barrel, Bob can do it. Make a smooth bore from rifle, rifle a smooth bore, reline a bore. He is very good.

[RBak]

Some of the smooth bores reputation for inaccuracy came from the paper patched undersized military loads designed to be loaded for volley shooting.

I agree with this statement, all the way!

FWIW; I have had to eat Humble Pie on more than one occasion when following a smoothie shooter on the firing line.
Those who own and shoot smoothies on a regular basis are a force to be reckoned with....many may have some kind of a rear sight, others have only a front, but either way they can give you considerably more than just pie plate accuracy.
Pie plate seems to be my own standard for a off-hand woods walk, their standard seems more like a "saucer", if you get what I'm trying to say.

I hate to get the line up, and then find out I'm following a smoothie. I'm sure it's just a psychological thingy, but I would certainly prefer somewhere else in that line up. :???:

Anyway, smoothies can be very accurate.

Russ

[waksupi]

Dan, to tell you the truth, the gun you got, I would not invest alot of extra money in it. See how it works first. Also keep in mind, if you rifle it, it will raise pressures, in an already thin barrel.