will a smooth bore shotgun have better accuracy with round balls or a conoical shapedbullet..one of thepresicion reloading or ballistic reloading did have a cheap mold for a ten ga..i m gona get one some day...charlie

I'm thinking with the mini balls I can make the bullet diameters whatever us a snug fit in the shot cups .

Craig nei makes like a .770 diameter slug mould it is a real slug not some foster type .
Plus a mini ball wouldn't work in a brown bess because its a smooth bore .
My bad its a .774 diameter but close enough to .775

I was fed up with NEI about five years ago . They do decent enough work but every time I ordered a mold they gave me a quick turn around date and never ever came close to meeting it . Always excuses and excuses . Not once but five times , after five times of that I never bothered to order the sixth mold .

For me personally I've found Mountain Molds to be the better option . I have 5 or 6 of their molds . They also have a computer program that allows one to design their own mold send it to them and use Paypal to pay for it . Each time I've ordered from them they got it to me quicker then the time they quoted .

www.mountainmolds.com

All the 69 cal US muskets were smooth as well but they still made mini balls for them .

its a fine point - but the French inventor Minie' designed the round to seal to the rifling in a rifled musket to gain accuracy.

will it fire from a smooth bore - certainly- but the effect is lost

I'm thinking if I take the mini's and wrap them with enough tape to make them tight inside the shot cup they should do as well as any Foster style slug . And if I can keep the right and left barrel within 3 or 4 inches of each other at 25 yards then it's all good .

I may find mini balls or roundballs inside the shot cups of any of my 10;s , 12's or 16's isn't hitting on much and then I'll go back to buckshot only .

Craig ive read that 14,000 of the 1842s had their barrels rifled and 9,000 or so had rifle sights fitted to them for the rifling and these were used by the C.S.A with the 69 cal mini balls . I also read they were more accurate than the enfields but had way more recoil . though I don't see how a 750gr mini at 800 fps has alot of recoil ? That's about 1 3/4 oz (764gr) I think . Craig I bet you would love one of those old "bore" rifles used back in the day of the empire .

By april I should have my 3rd 10 bore double im going to have to reload those rst shells are pricey but good

there is recoil - and there is felt recoil

the later is as much a factor of design as it is physics

I have one original 1842 Harpers Ferry and I think one Prussian musket thats 69 cal . But have never had a Brown Bess .

I kinda want to find an original Enfield that can atleast be traced back to the North rather then say the Crimean War . I also would like o get my hands on a decent Austrian Lorenz musket .

Confederate marked weapons are like Lugers and high grade Parkers . The prices scare me !

Yeah I seen a conferdate Sharps going gor 40,000$
You can probably get one on gunbroker . A yankee enfield I mean .
Craig ever heard of jack hinson ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Hinson


Craig you should look up murphys muskets on youtubes . Im not into muzzleloaders as I am pre smokeless cartridge rifles . I would like to get a 6.5 vertelli and a 1871 mauser and 1871 rem rolling block 36" 50-70

That was the first I ever heard of the Hinson fellow .

You want a nice military gun to shoot thats easy to load for get you a nice Swedish Mauser in 6.5x55 . I have one of those now and have had a few others . And believe it or not they all shot well . Only other cartridge military I have are a couple M1 Carbines , a 6.5x50 Arisaka and a 1884 Trapdoor Artillary Model .

A Saimese Mauser in 8x50R or 8x52R would be kinda neat as well .

What a post! Drew, the picture of Grover Cleveland in a duck boat is southern, notice the palmetto frond, perhaps at the Santee Club in South Carolina. David

Hi guys,

Let's bring this back on topic to other fine doubles, or I can move it to the Off Topic Forum?

Best to all,

- John

I kinda figure since I started it , if I'm not complaining about off topic it shouldn't matter !

Seems kinda unfair to move it to your "off topic" whatever since I can't get to it there . Or perhaps this is just a thinly veiled way of you wanting to shut me up .

Problem for you is - if it's off topic - it matters to me.

BTW - nice edit after I posted. If I wanted to "shut you up" - I would have closed the thread. Please feel free to play the martyr elsewhere, OK?

Have a nice evening,

- John

Those replies just strengthen my opinion .

And yes I know you could care less about my opinion .

OK - at your request, this thread is closed.

My thanks!

John