livbucks

I learned everything I know so far about MLing from this forum. I've got the hankering to shoot a gobbler with my flintlock this spring. How can I use it like a shotgun, if that's possible?

frontier gander

I used to take some shot pellets and put maybe 25 in the barrel over a wad of tin foil. Dont use foil! they sell felt wads and if i were to do it again, i'd use 2 wads. Recoil was horrible with the foil wads i made.

livbucks

I would be loading a half charge for close-in turkey shooting of say, 40 grains or so. What do you put on top of the shot to keep it in the barrel? Is that a dumb question?

frontier gander

No its not a dumb question. I'd use a felt wad over the powder and another one over the shot. 40 grains and say maybe 25-30 of the shot bb's would be ok. You could probably use more bb's but start it off low and work your way up. No sense taking a chance at hurting your gun.

nchawkeye

Use hornets nesting, I use when loading my .54 heavy...Or use a felt wad, Remington makes them...

I've never tried shot in either of my flinters, I have heard other guys say that the rifling will tend to scatter the shot...The guys that use 20 gauge fowlers that aren't modified usually get decent patterns to 25 yards...

livbucks

Are you talking about plain old copper bb's from a bb gun?

frontier gander

No the bb's from a shotshell. They sell it in like 5 to 10 lb bags. Just the normal shotgun bb's.

alleyyooper

They sell different size leadshot in 25 pound bags at reloading stores. If you don't have any hornets nesting dryer lint works well also.

Al

cayugad

The problem you are going to face it.. if your flintlock has rifling you will never get a consistent shot pattern. The rifling will cause the shot to bounce around in the barrel. It will lead it up terrible. Next consider this.. a .50 caliber would be a very small gauge. I shoot a .62 caliber smoothbore and that is a 20 gauge. A .50 caliber would be something under a 28 gauge I think. Your range would be so limited it might not even be legal. They make a .56 smoothbore for T/C and that is for rabbits and squirrels, doves,etc. Turkey I would want something much bigger.

Also with only 40 grains of powder, you have to push shot hard enough to do damage. When I shoot a .62 caliber I use 80 gr of Goex 3f and a 100 gr powder measure setting of #5 bird shot. I load powder, a Winchester AA wad fill the wad cup, then two over the shot cards. Then my max range is 30 yards. Buy the proper wads and shot cards.

So if you want to shoot a flintlock like a smoothbore, then get a musket or smoothbore barrel. Get something .62 caliber or bigger. But if you were going to do this with a .50 caliber flintlock rifle my advise would be.. forget it. Use the right kind of weapon for the job.

livbucks

Thanks for the candid advice Dave.
I like to shoot my gobblers at about 20 feet, still no go?
I was doing this on a whim so I thought I might get away with it if I got one close enough. Like anything, my whims turn into major purchases. I gotta go. I have some smoothbore shopping to get to.
I don't know the legal aspects of what I want to do (PA). I could just shoot center of mass with a conical, but that would waste a good bird.
Maybe I'll use my compound this year.