Working out some shot loads with a Pedersoli French Cavallerie musket for hunting

[David LaPell]

I am looking for every alternative I can to cartridge guns whether it's shotguns or .22 rifles for hunting, particularly small game since that's what I tend to hunt more than anything else. One of the guns I bought a couple years back, mainly just because I wanted a military flintlock, is a Pedersoli French IX D Cavallerie carbine, essentially a shorter version of the French Charleville musket that was made for the French cavalry, artillery and even the sappers during the Napoleonic Wars. It's in .69 caliber but is very handy with a 29 1/2" barrel compared to the 46 inch barrel of the full size 1766 Charleville musket.
I decided recently to see how it worked with a load of birdshot since the gun is a smoothbore. I loaded it with 1 ounce, which is about the exact amount of what a lead .648" roundball weighs. I made a few paper cartridges with 80 grains of FFG Goex and tried them out at 30 yards. It patterned very well, well enough that I wouldn't have any issues taking this gun out squirrel hunting in the fall.

https://i.imgur.com/RuYj0Ji.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/BKyT4h1.jpg?1

[ogre]

Is that a Skychief load?

[waksupi]

Have you read the muzzleloading shotgun sticky in this topic? To me, what you have now is not a good pattern.

[Good Cheer]

I am looking for every alternative I can to cartridge guns whether it's shotguns or .22 rifles for hunting, particularly small game since that's what I tend to hunt more than anything else. One of the guns I bought a couple years back, mainly just because I wanted a military flintlock, is a Pedersoli French IX D Cavallerie carbine, essentially a shorter version of the French Charleville musket that was made for the French cavalry, artillery and even the sappers during the Napoleonic Wars. It's in .69 caliber but is very handy with a 29 1/2" barrel compared to the 46 inch barrel of the full size 1766 Charleville musket.
I decided recently to see how it worked with a load of birdshot since the gun is a smoothbore. I loaded it with 1 ounce, which is about the exact amount of what a lead .648" roundball weighs. I made a few paper cartridges with 80 grains of FFG Goex and tried them out at 30 yards. It patterned very well, well enough that I wouldn't have any issues taking this gun out squirrel hunting in the fall.

https://i.imgur.com/RuYj0Ji.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/BKyT4h1.jpg?1

Thanks for posting. I'd eyeballed those when thinking about a piece for hunting in the east Texas thickets as a good all around do-it-all meat getter. But then I moved a thousand miles north.
Glad to see somebody going that route and reporting their results.
Again, thanks for posting.

[toot]

in mine I use 70 GRS. of 1fg, and one ounce and an 1/8, of # 9 SWAN SHOT. works for me. I also use the same load in my BROWN BESS. it will nock a WABBIT OR SQUIRELL every time!

[toot]

BTW, your weapon is a real beauty!

[ogre]

in mine I use 70 GRS. of 1fg, and one ounce and an 1/8, of # 9 SWAN SHOT. works for me. I also use the same load in my BROWN BESS. it will nock a WABBIT OR SQUIRELL every time!

What is #9 SWAN SHOT?

[toot]

it is molten lead that is poured into a piece of screen and lands into a bucket of water and when it is chilled it will have a tail on it. the size is controlled by the size screen that is used. I use a piece of old window screen. that is the way it was done in days of old. a simple way of making home made lead shot. I hope that you understand it now? THE END OF THE PIECE OF SHOT HAS A tail on it that resembles a swan, at least to some. and that tear drop sharp end will inflict a lot of damage!

[ogre]

it is molten lead that is poured into a piece of screen and lands into a bucket of water and when it is chilled it will have a tail on it. the size is controlled by the size screen that is used. I use a piece of old window screen. that is the way it was done in days of old. a simple way of making home made lead shot. I hope that you understand it now? THE END OF THE PIECE OF SHOT HAS A tail on it that resembles a swan, at least to some. and that tear drop sharp end will inflict a lot of damage!

A lot of people wrongly subscribe to that notion. This piece of misinformation was printed in a magazine in 1960 something and refuses to die. The shot you are describing is Rupert shot or sometimes, "Rupert's" shot. It is not swan shot. Swan shot varied from about .24" - .26" and was cast from a mold. Other shot, not generally heard about today, was also cast from a mold: beaver shot for example. I HOPE THAT YOU UNDERSTAND IT NOW.....

[Good Cheer]

Well I Suwanee.

[T-Bird]

Good cheer, heard that phrase all my life, never seen it written. I guess that would be the way you would spell it too! Like the river...

[toot]

so sorry I hit a nerve in my explanation! I still stand by what I said, when I was a kid in the 1940's , probably before you were born, that is what the old-timers' called it, and I will continue to call it.