Bobby Hoyt Smoothbore Barrel for T-C

[Winter Hawk]

A quick critique of the barrel I bought from Mr. Hoyt.  Not anything detrimental or trying to nit-pick as I am pickled tink to have it, but just a couple of things someone else may want to discuss with him if they have him build something for them.

1) The under rib is flat on the top to match a bottom flat of an octagonal barrel.  I would have specified one with a dished top to match the round portion of the barrel.  As it is, it works but there is a small gap along each edge.

2) The front of the under rib is not rounded off.  Not a big deal as a few minutes with a file fixed it.  Maybe that is considered normal for an in-the-white barrel?

3) No touch hole liner.  The touch hole was drilled into the barrel.  This may be a blessing as I believe it is too low, almost even with the bottom of the pan.  Installing a liner would allow the larger hole to be drilled even with the top of the pan and would remove the hole that is there now.

4) Again not a big deal, but I believe the turtle front sight is soldered on backwards.  At least the head is pointing towards the rear of the gun, but what do I know?  That may be how the old trade guns were made.

All in all it turned out very nice at a super good price.  I haven't had the chance to shoot it yet as there have been some issues which have kept me close to home.  I do have over powder and over shot wads for it and a bag of #5 shot.  My 70 grain powder measure gives me one ounce of that shot so that may be my "square load" whenever I get the chance to put it through its paces.  I also bought a box of 25, .61 diameter balls for it to try before I get carried away buying a mold.

Photos are in the pictures forum.

~Kees~

[Winter Hawk]

Figured today was a good day to shoot my May postal shoot target before I ran out of May.  Took the T-C and brought along the new barrel which I tried first.  Okay, I probably should have remembered Mr. Hoyt saying the bore was actually .615" as I tried to run a patched .610 ball down and couldn't get it properly into the muzzle, where it was stuck.  I thumped the butt on the floor to settle the powder, primed and shot it out.  It wasn't in far enough to build up any pressure or I wouldn't have done so.  A "pop" and it was out.

Things went south from there.  I ran an over-powder wad down, dropped a ball on that and finished with an over-shot wad but forgot the powder!  I was able to get the o-s wad and ball out by bumping the muzzle on a piece of 2 x 4 but the o-p wad was a different story.  But I now know that the touch hole allows fire to get to the charge!  Oh, I did get the wad out at home.

~Kees~