There are some things one can due with a cylinder bore smoothie to make a more effective load. I, and several others that I know, have had success with prerolled paper cartridges. The better the paper and more wraps makes the tube stay intact longer. Some folks have even gone to the trouble of waxing their cartridge tubes for this reason. The tube ends up acting like a shot cup, and holds the shot column together for a split second as it exits the barrel. It also prevents the gas in the tube from disrupting the shot column. You have to experiment as you can get too much paper and the column can tumble when it exits the muzzle before it separates really screwing things up, and you have to adjust the diameter of the dowel that you use so the cartridge doesn't get too big for the barrel.
You can also increase the size of the shot, although that does reduce the amount of pellets in the pattern. For example I use 7.5 shot in a choked caplock SxS for squirrel, but I use 5 or 4 in a cylinder bore musket.
You load the gun with your standard powder quantity (I like 70 grains of 2Fg = 2.5 drams) Then you would ram a pre-rolled paper cartridge on top holding your shot. No need to tear it open. It works best when it fits so well that it contacts the sides of the barrel, but isn't so tight that you have to jam it hard to seat it. You want the cartridge to stay intact in the gun. On the other hand you don't want it so loose it will slide forward if you point the barrel at the ground. Some of my friends report that they put a wad between the shot cartridge and the powder, to further protect the shot column, but I have not had to do that with squirrel loads. It does give me enough to hit squirrels at 30 yards when 20 was what I could do with a standard load in the past, and the turkey hunters report better patterns at 30 yards as well.
You will have to experiment.
LD
Topic: Brown Bess shot patterns vs barrel length (Read 1973 times)