.610" RB with tow fiber wads in my 20 ga. trade gun (a la Mike Beliveau)

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  • Last Post 24 July 2015
Maven posted this 22 July 2015

Mike Beliveau's article, “Old School Smoothbore Loading, Part I:  Round Ball” in the July - August 2015 issue of “Muzzleloader” prompted me to try some of his methods.  To wit, he achieved great accuracy @ 50 yd. from his 20ga. smoothbore using a .610” ball and tow fiber over powder and over shot “wads,” albeit with 110gr. charges of FFg.  Over the last several weeks I got two bags of tow from Silver Shuttle/Susan Wallace (Memphis, TN) and enough .610” RB's to try in my 20ga. Green River Forge flintlock trade gun (no rear sight).    Yesterday I tested that combination and got mixed, but largely positive, results.  First, the good news:  The bare ball + tow wadding actually worked as I got groups with both 100- and 110gr. charges of FFg which were less than 6” across and with no discernible difference between the 2 charges.  However, those groups were at least 8” to the right of my point of aim; elevation was OK though.  The bad news?  There were serious flyers that more than doubled the group size, most likely because of severe bore fouling since the tow fiber is used without any lube.  As I have 6 of those .610” RB's remaining, I'll try this again, but swab the bore after each shot and use a proper rest rather than kneeling with both elbows on the concrete bench.  Btw, from that same position, the gun will put 5 into 3” - 4", most of them touching, @ 25 yd. with a .597” - .600” RB + .014” or .018” patch and 80 gr. DB FFg.  

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Ken Campbell Iowa posted this 23 July 2015

just wondering ::: what is TOW ?

also, how good a fit is your roundball to the barrel ? in my roundball shooting i ( seem to ) find that a snug fit improves target groups . i am reading that in this test you are not using a patch ....

not sure it applies to smooth bores, but in my rifle shooting of round balls , i find that slightly over-groove balls shoot better .... probably means slightly distorted balls are still better than perfect balls that wobble ... ( please no jokes here ) ...

thanks for your post, it is interesting ...

ken

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Maven posted this 23 July 2015

ken, In my trade gun, I use .597” - .605” RB's (different moulds) with .014” or .018” pillow tick patches, sometimes with a felt or cardboard over powder wad.  I've found the smaller ball actually is more accurate with the addition of the OP wad.  Mike Beliveau, in the article mentioned in my original post,  got vG accuracy with a .597” RB in his 20ga. smoothbore as well.  Btw, tow is flax fiber (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tow),>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tow), which many use as wads or for ML bore cleaning with a “tow worm.”  The good thing is that it's reusable, which I can attest to since I gathered up the strands after firing and rolled them into wads a second and possibly a third time.  Moreover, the RB's I used in that test were .611” - .612” in fact and rolled in and out of my gun's bbl., which I think is .615".  Lastly, while Beliveau got his best accuracy @ 50 yd. using 110r. FFg, I couldn't see any difference between 110- and 100r. charges at that distance.

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Ken Campbell Iowa posted this 23 July 2015

thanks ...how neat ... i hadn't heard of wadding by the foot ...dang !! in lead bullets i guess we need to keep well ROUNDED !! ( get it ? rounded ... ) ...

good stuff ...

ken

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Maven posted this 23 July 2015

You're most welcome, ken!  Btw, the raw tow smells great too, rather like fresh cut grass.

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Maven posted this 24 July 2015

I tested the remaining 6 .610” RB's today with similar results.  I.e., tow fiber seems to promote small groups as I got several small groups (3” - 5"), but an equal number of widely dispersed hits @ 50 yd. today as well. (Remember, the trade gun has no rear sight.)  This time, I'm positive it wasn't me, as I used a proper rest and rear bag, and it wasn't bore fouling, as I cleaned after every other shot today.  In short, tow works to a certain degree, but the “good” groups were at least 8” to the right of my point of aim.  Btw, even with a .597” ball + .018” patch, a tow over powder wad pushed shots off the target to the right of center by ~6".  If you're curious about tow and have a smoothbore, by all means try it, as your gun may respond to it more favorably than mine.

On a lark, I decided to try the remaining .597” RB's with a 5/8” corrugated cardboard wad that I'd punched out and lubricated + a .018” (compressed) pillow ticking patch:  very easy to start and seat.  The distance was 50 yd., but I used only 90gr. FFg, but the grouping, although low, was closer to the target center and more than “minute of deer.”  The best group was 3 in 3", which was the best shooting I've ever done with the trade gun.

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