Round balls thru jug chokes

[followed by]

Friend of mine thinking of trying round balls thru his jug choked 12ga fowler. Would like to hear from our panel of experts!

[Fletcher]

I have heard that since you would have to patch the ball thin to get through the choke, then it would be loose in the barrel and would not perform as well as a straight cylindar.

I am not sure about dangerous pressures if the patch balled up.

I would avoid it and save the fowler for shot.

Get a true smoothie in something a bit samller than 12 ga. and save a lot of $$ on lead balls!!!

[MikeC]

Well...A jug-choke is not a constriction.  A section of the barrel just shy of the muzzle and about 5 inches long give or take, is actually honed out wider with gentle tapers.  Myself personally have seen not ill effects when shooting roundballs from my .015 jug-choked 20 gauge.

[Captchee]

As was side , jug choking is different then   the type of chokes most folks know .
  Jugging is where a  area pre muzzle is actually opened up larger then the bore
 The area  forward of this is left  to bore size .

 The only issue I could see with shooting a RB through a jug is  that  you may have issues of  the ball losing the patch  when fired .
 If however your  using a wad and a card to hold the ball  in place then  I cant se any real issue

[followed by]

Thanks MikeC and Captchee; That's what I have told him and now have confirmation.

[Choupic]

Sure glad yall explained jug chokin, thought I was gettin dumber, dont need that!

[hankaye]

So, let me ask this...
Would you use a different size wad and card or should you just use the "regular" size that you would for a straight barrel?

[Captchee]

same size wad and card .
 jug choking only enlarges a small section of the bore .
 it does not effect the size of the bore before or after the choke

[MikeC]

So, let me ask this...
Would you use a different size wad and card or should you just use the "regular" size that you would for a straight barrel?

As stated same size.  I use a a wool wonder wad over the powder, never saw a need for a card.  I wouldn't worry about loosing the patch either, just find a load that works and go for it.  Little piece of advice...with smoothbores, go with a smaller ball and thicker patch.

[cb]

FWIW - Many original rifles were built with a mild choke (not jug). I've done the same to mine and also owned a couple of Bill Large barrels with chokes and they all shot great with no patch problems.....

[hankaye]

Thanks for clearin that up...now let me ask ya this...

Does it (jug choke), really make a difference in the patterns? If so how much of a difference?

Thanks again...

[62flint]

I have a 20 ga smoothbore that is jug choked.
Just as with modern chokes you can get different jug chokes. Depending on how the barrel is cut.  The more relief in the barrel{jug} the tighter the pattern becomes.  I am sure jug choking does not work as well as modern style chokes. But they work real well for a muzzleloading gun.
My jug choked gun throws patterns comparable to a modern modified choke. It could still be choked tighter if I wanted. But modified is the pattern I like.
I also shoot round ball out of it. With a 600 round ball and .015 patching. It shoots great. Lest I think so. I think jug choking it even helped the round ball shooting.
I like my jug choked gun. So much so I don't think I will own a smoothbore any more with out a jug choke.
Just my 2 cents