Poor mans 20 bore rifle

plumberroy

plumberroy

Joined
Jan 27, 2007
Messages
3,591
:D I have read some on the late 19th century big bore guns of the British Empire. By some I mean every thing I can find on the net. Seems for an every day gun a 20 bore single shot breech loader was a commoners gun in Africa or India in the late 1800's . now we all have visions of agun firing long brass shell like a rifle shell but 20 ga size . Only about 20% of the guns were such . The rest were paper hull brass based rounds firing either a hard cast round ball or a full bore slug around the same length as the bullet diameter . Basicly a rifled slug gun!! The were loaded with enough black power to do 1000-1200 F.P.S. I started this project 4-5 years ago the my job went away and it was put on the back burner . I had found some bullet .620 diameter .660 long and was getting decent results . well I picked up the gun a couple months ago and though about finishing what I started. first thing I found out the original slugs are no longer sold :mad: So after some digging. and experimenting here are my results {My goals were 3" group at 50 yards at around 1200 f.p.s. }
The gun H&R tracker II 20 ga rifled barrel I am firing hard cast round balls .626 diameter out of a 3inch hull after firing for groups witch I suck at. I did some fun shooting. At our range people put clay bird on the bank for targets this is 20 foot behind the 50 yard target stands shooting at peices of clay birds I hit 4 out of 5 . The last test was How fast Well I fired 5 rounds over the chronagraph yesterday I got 1190. 1190, 1196,1197 and 1201 f.p.s.
So what I have is a 6 pound gun that I can reload accurate enough to head shoot small game and with enough power to take anything in the lower 48 and it is a blast to shoot :D
Roy
An average target
P1070198.jpg
 
Roy,
I don't shoot much or own guns like I once did but I used to love BP, lead bullets and big holes. I shot a .62 smoothbore flintlock and a reproduction Sharps .45-120. 500Gr lead for the .45-120 or switch off to a .45 soft lead round ball and 70grs. powder for small game. I had a hand press that made it easily field reloadable- which gave it a little "long term wilderness survival" tilt.

I have since thought a Remington Rolling Block in 45-70 would be a wonderful wilderness rifle for the ability to hand load the simple straight wall brass, use of cast lead conicals or round balls and VERY basic action- so little to go wrong with it.
.357 magnum chamber might be another contender.

Maybe I will revisit my idea one day ;)

Gotta love those big holes in the target. I shoot slugs through my 870 primarily and the .75 holes are easy to see from the firing line.

Bill
 
Last edited:
Very nice! I have a youth model Topper in 20ga. It's a smooth bore, but I put Remington rifle sights on it and it works pretty good with slugs or shot.

My next project is to get myself a 20ga Northwest Trade Gun. I like the idea of reloading without any brass.
 
Heh heh. I did approx. the same thing, shooting 54 caliber pure lead muzzle loader round balls out of my 28 gauge. Even w/o a rear sight, it was surprisingly easy to keep 'em on a pizza box @ 50 yards.

If you shoot round balls out of a choked barrel, just be sure that an individual ball is small enough to roll all the way through the barrel with only a small clearance. If the ball is so big that it hits the choke and sticks, you will sooner or later make your muzzle blossom out and peel like a cartoon flower.
 
I am shooting these out of a fully rifled barrel being hard cast and full diameter shooting them out of a choked gun would be bad news
this isn't my gun but mine is a carbon copy

55069.jpg

this is the load minus powder
P1050196.jpg

Loaded rounds last trip to the club I was drawing a crowd watching me bust claybirds setting 55-60 yards out with my cheapy slug gun
P1070200.jpg
 
Last edited:
Wow, respectable reloaded shotgun ammo! I've done a bunch of rifle and pistol reloading, but am practically at sea with making smokeless shotgun ammo. I never seemed to get the internal volume right, or a pretty crimp...

I do OK with Goex black, though. All you need for that is some decent factory made overpowder fiber wads, loose shot, and some brown paper grocery sack to glue in as an overshot wad w/ Elmer's Glue. Low pressure stuff, and less MV, too, but it makes the wierd old (read that "expensive factory ammo") smoothbores go boom, when you needs your shooting fix.
 
Since this is a mold that will have to be custom made I have found a gentleman who makes them . He sells on a aution sight for reloading. The round balls are cast from wheel weights and quenched in water lubed and dusted with talc so they are not sticky. Some day I may have a mold made but, for now I am buying them . I am getting them for $30 for a hundred including shipping and he sends several hundred nitro cards with the order. as far as reloading shotshells I do all right using a 12 ga lee loader using a recipe from published data. 20 ga stuff I have a box of assorted 20 ga wads and a roll crimper so I biuld it to a level I can slap a overshot card and roll crimp it. It is slow but I can make about anything I want, just remember you can replace plastic wads with fiber traditional wads but you can't replace traditional wads with plastic wads without adjusting the charge.
This project started out to duplicate what an average 1880's british empire traveler in Africa or India would have carried with out spending a ton of money. most of the "gauge" rifles were just rifled shotguns
Roy
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top