179. Location. Texas. May 8, 2020. #1. These precision made tools are the preferred way to cone the muzzles of roundball guns either rifled or smoothbore. Greatly eases starting the ball and the long cone allows the ball to be gently swaged into the bore without damage. I believe accuracy is unchanged.1,161. Nov 20, 2023. #1. Today I received a call from Shiloh Sharps that my percussion 1863 Shiloh Sharps was ready for shipping. However, they said that it had to be shipped to an FFL. When I asked whose rules this was, eventually the lady said it was UPS's rules. I said you could ship through USPS and she said, "If that was an option we would ...It is nice and small and reasonably easy to make. The pattern is drawn on 1" squares. The area above the "dot-dash" to the "dash-dash" can be used in one of two ways. 1) folded under and sewn or 2) separate piece from thinner leather and folded as an edging as can be seen in the first photo.The Meat Counter. Sep 5, 2023. #3. Take a DIY store 3/4" chamfering tool, hold it your hand and rotate it back and forth to cut a small chamfer. All you need to do is break the edge a bit. Just do it evenly. Sandpaper and bluing optional. Last edited: Sep 5, 2023. W.Friends, our 2nd Amendment rights are always under attack and the NRA has been a constant for decades in helping fight that fight. We have partnered with the NRA to offer you a discount on membership and Muzzleloading Forum gets a small percentage too of each membership, so you are supporting both the NRA and us.733. Location. Jacksonville, Florida. Dec 4, 2022. #9. The best range rod I have ever owned is the 44" stainless steel Creedmoor rod threaded 8/32 with a brass muzzle protector. I have broken and lost many range rods over the years and the Creedmoor steel rod from Track of the Wolf is the best I have ever used.Fortytwoguns | The Muzzleloading Forum. This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you ...Friends, our 2nd Amendment rights are always under attack and the NRA has been a constant for decades in helping fight that fight. We have partnered with the NRA to offer you a discount on membership and Muzzleloading Forum gets a small percentage too of each membership, so you are supporting both the NRA and us.Throat: .448". As final observation, both barrels are tight at the frame threads. Well, that leaves me pretty well stuck as far as improvements. I'd hoped to ream the cylinder to .001 over groove diameter, but I'm not terribly excited about reaming it to .461. At the same time I have only .001" rifling engagement!Southeast | The Muzzleloading Forum. This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.The rifled barrel will spin the shot. When the shot leaves the muzzle it will open the pattern at very close range. The shot will most likely be damaged to add to poor shooting. Even in a smooth bore getting a good pattern can be a difficult. Leading the rifled barrel is a problem, and cleaning it out is a real chore.13,610. Location. Owego, NY. Jan 13, 2024. #5. My rule is if they don't take PayPal or credit cards but just Zelle or Venmo I google their name and ask if they are a scam. Generally, the answer is yes. You can also google their address and see if they are really there.20. Location. Western Connecticut. Feb 27, 2023. #1. EZ Loader I Cap & Ball Revolver cylinder loader. Sold through Powder Inc. Can be used with all percussion Cap & Ball revolvers. , 40-45 cal and 32-36 cal. All hardware, fittings, instructions included.An invoice found in the AFC records for goods sent to the 1834 rendezvous lists "6 steel mounted rifles, Hawken," at $20 each and "10 steel mounted rifles," at $17.50 each. The latter are probably some of the "steel" mounted American pattern rifles that the AFC ordered from JJ Henry based on the listed price.Oh you are into etching. I made some steel medallions Battery charger very cleaned steel object . Second bit of steel Plain water Plus salt I painted the steel I did not want etched , I recall the positive went to the object and negative to the scrap bit of steel , after 20 mins at 12v the water had become thick and black and deep groves were cut in my medallion where it was not painted.Reaction score. 10,753. Location. North Central Connecticut. Dec 9, 2022. #6. Traditionally black powder is measured by volume. Measuring by weight is more precise, but bringing a powder scale to the range os a pain, and bringing one hunting seems ridiculous. While a gram of water will weigh a gram on a scale,,,, black powder is not the same.A 1:48 twist in larger calibers (.45 and up) is generally very finicky in what it will shoot accurately with. Ask any serious Buffalo match or bench rest shooter what the twist is in their rifles. Invariably they will be 1:66; 1:72 or even 1:144.Join the online community of muzzleloader enthusiasts and share your experiences, tips, questions and photos. Browse the latest posts on topics such as wet weather tips, bullet stability, flintlocks, percussion caps, and more.General Muzzleloading. If it's not specific to the other Firearm categories, post it here.Thanks, Spence. :hatsoff: That is exactly the table that I was looking for. My revolver seems to have no date marks on it anywhere. It has the two proof marks and the letters PN but nothing else other than the serial number. :idunno: I know it of recent manufacture since Pietta began making this particular model only in recent years. :hmm: Thanks for the help.Friends, our 2nd Amendment rights are always under attack and the NRA has been a constant for decades in helping fight that fight. We have partnered with the NRA to offer you a discount on membership and Muzzleloading Forum gets a small percentage too of each membership, so you are supporting both the NRA and us.Depreciation is considered a non-cash transaction. This is because it is an adjustment to net income that allows companies to write off a certain amount of the asset's value in the...The one I think I'm most attracted to is the Clay Smith kit. NW Trade Gun. A number of options. One that is attractive, from a skill level perspective, is the Pedersoli NW kit. Kibler Colonial. A no brainer build, and quality parts. For the moment, let's disregard caliber. Weight is one consideration.Stabbed in that outline, back cut all the edges, gouged out the middle of the mortice and then flattened the bottom and cleaned up the mortice. The side plate went right in. I think it took me 20 minutes to outline the plate and cut the mortice. I am definitely finding that Edward Marshall rifle in the slab of wood.New to this site and also new to the idea of a muzzleloading flintlock. My uncle was a PA/KY long rifle collector back in the day. I want something of good quality and shootable. Been reading here about some manufacturers/makers. Anybody have any opinions on Tennessee Valley guns? I am...Upcoming Longrifle related shows/events. Please contact a administrator or moderator about placing a post here. 9 Posts 5 Topics Last post by Ky-Flinter in Re: 4th …Traditional Muzzleloading on the Cheap - Info Center. 170762 Posts in 21384 Topics by 144 Members. Latest Member: smdoyle. Latest Post: "Re: Powder" ( Today at …Turkey city pa. Mar 25, 2024. #1. Bought my first muzzleloader flintlock shotgun recently. I've been trying to work up a load that was consistent. Your load formula had the best results for my gun by a wide margin. I'm still hitting consistently to the right of my aming point.Jun 6, 2008. #11. I received a box of Hornady Great Plains bullets in .58 caliber with a lightly used .58 cal Zouave. When I got to the range I wiped the bore, poured 60 grains of Pyrodex RS down the hole and started the pre lubed bullet. It got about 12 inches down the bore and stopped.Reaction score. 334. Jul 2, 2023. #9. I have said before the first thing to do with a colt clone is to smooth the hammer face. This is the most common cause of cap jams. I use a hard arkansas stone on the face of the hammer to smooth it. And it should not be a surprise that RWS caps fit on original nipples.A forum for discussing various types of muzzleloading firearms and black powder shooting. Find threads on topics such as barrels, caps, patches, loads, guns, and more.Friends, our 2nd Amendment rights are always under attack and the NRA has been a constant for decades in helping fight that fight. We have partnered with the NRA to offer you a discount on membership and Muzzleloading Forum gets a small percentage too of each membership, so you are supporting both the NRA and us.The synthetic powders energy level per cubic inch is the same as black powder so use the volume measure for all of them. A .45 caliber rifle will use a .440 diameter ball patched with a patch that may be from .010 to .020 thick. Most people find that a .015-=.018 patch works best. The patch must also be made of pure cotton.Obsidian is a volcanic glass. It tends to shatter like glass. While flint, agate, etc are 7 on Moh's hardness scale, obsidian is only 5. BTW stainless steel is also around 5 on the same scale. A good frizzen may actually be harder than obsidian. When I was studying this, we used a stainless steel watch back to test this.May 14, 2014. #12. The Italian guns are, in general, very good quality; more-so than the Spanish creations. The barrels, though, on both are as about as good as they get on a factory gun. The weak link seems to be the flint locks they come with (both makers). they are mostly good/very good but are often very, very bad.Friends, our 2nd Amendment rights are always under attack and the NRA has been a constant for decades in helping fight that fight. We have partnered with the NRA to offer you a discount on membership and Muzzleloading Forum gets a small percentage too of each membership, so you are supporting both the NRA and us.Location. Andover, VT. Aug 25, 2012. #2. Nitric acid is technically aquafortis, for sure, but the solution folks use to stain rifles is saturated with iron. Make the 10% or up to 25% solution, add iron shavings or small nails, let it cook uncovered until it is done consuming iron. Filter through a coffee filter, etc, and use this to stain maple.Jan 3, 2024. #1. Traditions .50 Kentucky rifle percussion kit. It's not all fancy schmantzy, but I've wanted to build this particular rifle since the mid 80's. Had the .45 Cal CVA kit of the same type when I was in the Marines, but didn't have the tools nor the smarts at the time to build it. M.What it looks like, does matter. There are some Yazel pistols that fit the forums idea of what is traditional so, if they look like the pistols that were used in 1866 or earlier, they are allowed. There are many Yazel pistols that look like a cross between a traditional sidelock or underhammer gun and a modern Colt 1911 or a High Standard ...Location. Montana. Jan 23, 2024. #1. One thing I do like about winter is that it gives me a little spare time to catch up on some of my projects. I just finished this 1769 Pattern Short Land Brown Bess from the Rifle Shoppe. Now I will finish out the TRS Baker rifle I started a while back.You may have noticed that shotgun barrels are in gauges of so many spherical shot to the pound - 12 gauge [aka 12 bore] is the measure here, not 18mm or thereabouts. A token nod to the metric system suffices here in UK, and even the government of the day gave up trying to fully metricate the UK back in the 80's.The old standard for 12 gauge full choke was .040" constriction. Modern guns with modern loads really don't need that much constriction but with muzzleloaders we still are duplicating the old loadings. So the recess for a full choke 12 is .020" deep, which of course enlarges the bore diameter by the required .040".Canada | The Muzzleloading Forum. This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.Both rifles will produce comparable accuracy/precision. Using a 50 yard zero, the difference in drop between the two at this range is less then an inch, 45cal (4.9”), 58cal (5.7”), The initial gap in velocity evens up at 100 yards with the 45cal at 997FPS compared to the 58cal at 992FPS, even with the 300FPS difference at the muzzle.Friends, our 2nd Amendment rights are always under attack and the NRA has been a constant for decades in helping fight that fight. We have partnered with the NRA to offer you a discount on membership and Muzzleloading Forum gets a small percentage too of each membership, so you are supporting both the NRA and us.Mar 23, 2023 · Jul 23, 2023. #5. I have a Pedersoli Kentucky in .50cal with both the flint lock and percussion lock. Though a nicely made rifle and straight shooter it is defiantly my most disliked Muzzleloading rifle due to the heavy trigger and rather poor preforming lock. I would not buy another single trigger only, though would if it had the double set ... I did a sort of "halfway house" by milling the slots, but then cutting the dovetails with a three square file with one face ground off.. The bit that gave me nightmares was brazing on the bayonet bar and sling lug.. i used the last of my "old" silver solder on the bar, but had to use new stuff on the sling lug.Reaction score. 8,783. Location. Rocky Radon Country Pa. Nov 6, 2023. #10. Eric Krewson said: Just wondering, I get a ton of PMs from people wanting to know how to do things, very involved questions that take me up to an hour to answer, I can't type so answers take me a long time, I do have pictures that I share of everything I ever did during ...Hi, You should buy Ricky Robert and Bryan Brown's little book "Every Insult and Indignity" which is a short history of the rifle and Ferguson and it describes their intensive experiments with powder, ball, and lubrication. Use a mix of beeswax and either mutton tallow or Crisco melted together to lubricate the threads. Dip the screw plug into the warm melted wax and tallow mix.Surry County, North Carolina. Jan 30, 2024. #449. Tommy Bruce said: Top to bottom: Don Bruton "Boone Rifle" .54 cal. Greg Park copy of the Schriet rifle .62 cal. Ken Netting Virginia rifle, .40 cal. Rob Miller early NW trade gun 20 ga.The proposed rule changes could make Roth accounts and Roth conversions even more valuable than ever, since they are not subject to RMDs. The Internal Revenue Service has proposed ...Feb 12, 2023. #1. I had not been able to find someone (in Oz) who could/would machine the dovetails for the underlugs and sights on my Baker Rifle build and I couldn't find much on-line covering the process so I ended up having a crck at it myself with some pretty basic tools. This is my first ever build so I am very new to this and so I can ...11,693. Location. St. Louis, MO. Oct 11, 2023. #10. At the Hawken Classic, I went to his display and asked if he had either a 0.480 or a 0.485 to get a slightly smaller ball for my 50 caliber rifle to be used for the out of the pouch matches. He had a 0.482" mold. Now I have a 0.482 mold in my collection.I try to explain it like this. The tried-and-true 45/70. 45 cal. lead bullet pushed by 70 gr. black powder. With muzzle energy of more than 1,600 foot-pounds, the 405 grain FP bullet hit a distance of 200 yards and flew at 1,330 feet per second. This bullet easily killed bears, moose, and bison.1,464. Location. Pacific Northwest. Jun 20, 2022. #1. I have an assembled unfired Classic Arms New Orleans Ace smoothbore for sale. Instruction sheet says it is a .44 cal ball with a .015" patch. My hole gage measures the bore at .440. Price $125 US Postal Money Order, Price includes shipping and insurance.Friends, our 2nd Amendment rights are always under attack and the NRA has been a constant for decades in helping fight that fight. We have partnered with the NRA to offer you a discount on membership and Muzzleloading Forum gets a small percentage too of each membership, so you are supporting both the NRA and us.Mar 1, 2024. AZ Muzzleloaders posted the thread FOR SALE 54 Caliber Custom Hawken. Built from TOTW Parts Set, Curly Maple in Firearms For Sale/Trade/Wanted . Built about 1986 from a Track of the Wolf parts set. Barrel measures 32 1/4" x 1" (actual 0.985"), 1:66 rate of twist.Friends, our 2nd Amendment rights are always under attack and the NRA has been a constant for decades in helping fight that fight. We have partnered with the NRA to offer you a discount on membership and Muzzleloading Forum gets a small percentage too of each membership, so you are supporting both the NRA and us.15. Mar 1, 2014. #2. You're right about Illinois law making little sense. Some of the goofy stuff; During the muzzleloading rifle only season pistols are NOT allowed. But you CAN use your muzzleloading pistol during the late-winter antlerless-only season so long as it meets muzzle energy requirements.I am in the process of making my own stain for curly maple using nitric acid and distilled water in a 5/1 solution. Going to split it up and try adding iron from different sources and see how it work out. My intention is to have one batch with wrought Iron added, another with some 1095 steel I have, and the last batch be a basic acid/water mix.JB may be too fine, depending on how rough the bore actually is. 320 grit Clover compound is good as is fine valve grinding compound. If the bore shows reamer marks across the rifling that may be the problem. If it's smooth then it's something else wrong, like the lube. As mentioned, check the patches for being cut.Oct 18, 2020. #1. Yesterday I was fortunate enough to kill a nice buck with my .54 flintlock using a .530 round ball with a .018 patch over 80 grains of Swiss FFG at about 60 yards.. Although I posted the fact I was blessed with success, I neglected to comment on the sheer power displayed by the round ball I shot.Andover, VT. Apr 28, 2021. #4. Chunk gun shooting goes way back before the mid 1900s. Our ML club has a barrel dating to the Civil War era that has been re-breeched, re-stocked, and rifling re-cut many times. All the flats have multiple dovetails on them as it’s had under lugs and sights at every position possible.Oct 5, 2021 · Similar threads. SOLD - Pending funds PRICE DROP -- Unknown Maker .50 cal. Musket Cap Percussion Rifle.. $375.00 SHIPPED / INSURED!! Offering a very gently used Hatfield percussion rifle in 50 cal. This appears to be one of the earlier guns with a US made barrel and lock. NorCal | The Muzzleloading Forum. This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.Nothern Nevada. Dec 18, 2017. #20. My first flintlock was that Traditions Kentucky rifle back in 1992. I got the kit as a percussion gun and when the flintlock bug bit, I ordered a Flintlock from Traditions for $90 removed the drum and put in a liner.Dec 20, 2022. #12. I bought a Sitting Fox Pennsylvania in .54 cal smoothbore. It was my third kit, the first two were Dixie. They have good quality parts, but the kit needs work, and you must have tools. Mine is iron mounted, single trigger, straight barrel, and I browned everything. It has been very reliable.With the common double set double lever set triggers, the fly is needed to allow the hammer or cock to fall from a fully cocked position to the fired position without your finger holding the trigger back. To find out if your lock has a fly, take your unloaded gun and point it in a safe direction.Friends, our 2nd Amendment rights are always under attack and the NRA has been a constant for decades in helping fight that fight. We have partnered with the NRA to offer you a discount on membership and Muzzleloading Forum gets a small percentage too of each membership, so you are supporting both the NRA and us.Apr 11, 2022. #1. I have an 1858 Remington .44 Pietta revolver. It is a great gun however it is very difficult to cock. There is an adjustment screw in the front of the grip. With it completely out it is still a little heavy to cock. Dixie sells these main springs for less than $5.00 dollars each.Stack all that over FFFG black powder. Start your charges around 45-50 grains of powder. Increase the charge 5 grains at a time until you find what the rifle likes. Consider getting a range rod for loading, use the short starter you have shown in the photo.Townsend sells a pack. We don't have a lot of documentation for civilian. American Rev war packs were often haversack style with two straps. The 'New Pattern' was the same with a strap that went over both deltoids and cross body. Snapsack were simple one strap tubular bags, just a long rectangle folded in half.Clothing, Cookware, Crafts For Sale/Wanted/Trade. Reenactment clothing, fabric, patterns, cookware and craft finished products and supplies. No commercial sales. You must have 15 posts AND be a member for 30 days OR be a Supporting Member to post here.540. Location. Uwharrie Mountains, N. Carolina. Mar 25, 2024. #1. Navy Arms powder measure, unmarked pan primer, and a ball starter. $35 shipped CONUS. PM if interested. PayPal Friends and Family or money order accepted.Defeating and Detecting IEDs - Detecting IEDs can be done with trained soldiers, robots or even drones. Learn how the U.S. Army is detecting IEDs and defeating them. Advertisement ...H-48 Primer compound formula by weight: Potassium chlorate 51%. Antimony sulfide 27.3%. Sulfur 9.1%. Glass powder 12.1%. Sodium bicarbonate trace (optional) Aluminum powder trace (optional) Or go to ebay, search "priming compound". It'll be at the top of the page.Shiloh Sharps 1863 infantry rifle with .535” ball at 50 yards. Loaded loose 2fg powder after lightly breech seating the ball and CCI musket caps. After more then a dozen shots I adjusted the sight for the last two in the bullseye. 383D6502-C1B1-43A3-8F7B-FFEC3DAC92E5 by Oliver Sudden, on Flickr.I went grey squirrel hunting with a buddy this morning. He used a 36 and I tried my T/C New Englander 12 gauge with cylinber bore. I shot and killed with the first pull of the trigger at a squirrel between 20-25 yards away. The rest of the morning I fired 3 more shots at squirrels from 30...1,161. Nov 20, 2023. #1. Today I received a call from Shiloh Sharps that my percussion 1863 Shiloh Sharps was ready for shipping. However, they said that it had to be shipped to an FFL. When I asked whose rules this was, eventually the lady said it was UPS's rules. I said you could ship through USPS and she said, "If that was an option we would ...
Pour quickly, and swing the sprue plate after the puddle on top hardens with a gloved hand: don't strike it with anything. If the balls don't fall from the mold lightly tap the handles at the bolt where they come together and they will fall out. Don't worry about the sprue (flat spot) on the ball. Click to expand.... Bokeptop indo
Desktop email clients like Sparrow and Postbox seem like they're breathing new life into desktop email, but I'd also heard that Thunderbird is going into "maintena...Heading to the hills like a modern day mountain man. 1; 2; 3 … Go to pageWith the common double set double lever set triggers, the fly is needed to allow the hammer or cock to fall from a fully cocked position to the fired position without your finger holding the trigger back. To find out if your lock has a fly, take your unloaded gun and point it in a safe direction.Canada | The Muzzleloading Forum. This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.It is nice and small and reasonably easy to make. The pattern is drawn on 1" squares. The area above the "dot-dash" to the "dash-dash" can be used in one of two ways. 1) folded under and sewn or 2) separate piece from thinner leather and folded as an edging as can be seen in the first photo.Edged Weapons Sale/Trade/Wanted. Hawks, knives and other edged weapons for sale here. No commercial sales. You must have 15 posts AND be a member for 30 days OR be a Supporting Member to post here.Reaction score. 21,973. Location. Louisiana & My camp in Mississippi. Jul 9, 2023. #2. Mike, there's been some controversy over TVM's quality control in recent post. I can't prove or disprove that. But I have a Kibler Woodsrunner and SMR with another Woodsrunner on the way.Reaction score. 11,681. Location. St. Louis, MO. Feb 9, 2018. #20. Historically the very short barreled smooth bores would have been thought of as blanket guns to be hidden under a blanket for defense or a surprise assault. The canoe gun is a modern term for a short barreled gun that might have been used in a canoe.I am in the process of finding the most accurate hunting bullet for my 1:38 twist 58 cal carbine In the line up are 580 grain Maxi-ball, 560 grain Maxi-hunter, 440 grain REAL as well as some oversized minie ball 500 grain. I wish I could get my hands on some more maxi-hunters.Location. Maine. Mar 26, 2019. #1. I bought a Spanish .50 cal Hawken made in Ardessa Spain. The bore was cruddy but it cleaned up with some elbow grease.This isn't a CVA Hawken. This one is a very good copy, actually put a T/C to shame. It's double pinned, hooked breech, long tang and double set triggers.A bullet such as this will expand the due to obturation during firing and will imbed itself into the rifling grooves. The current muzzleloaders on the market with twist rates of 1:48 up thru 1:66 (inches) are designed for cloth patched round balls. They have rifling grooves which are .007 inch to .010 inch deep.Apr 21, 2024 ... Well, the Palmetto Sharpshooters (N-SSA) shot in a small match and had a ball. Smoothbore and Carbine then break for lunch and then into the ...Reaction score. 1,088. Location. oklahoma. Jan 6, 2022. #1. Im just getting in to muzzleloaders and am with the American custom gunmakers guild. Im wanting to get a Lyman great Plains Rifle to restock to be my first try at it before I do a whole kit gun. Im wanting the Lyman 50 caliber percussion, right hand.Vintage Thompson center .45 cal flintlock. Excellent condition and solid wood, brass shows patina but can easily be polished. Double set triggers and a 28" browned octagon barrel held in place by wedge. Overall length is 46". Never fired by me, but lock is in great working condition and previous... muskethunter1109.We thought that PPDG was dead as a bonus category with the end of 5X Ultimate Rewards earning. But there is still one bonus option left. Increased Offer! Hilton No Annual Fee 70K +...Friends, our 2nd Amendment rights are always under attack and the NRA has been a constant for decades in helping fight that fight. We have partnered with the NRA to offer you a discount on membership and Muzzleloading Forum gets a small percentage too of each membership, so you are supporting both the NRA and us.Federal Way Washington. Dec 1, 2019. #1. T/C Hawken rifles appear to have gone through a number of changes over the years, barrel wedge and lock bolt escutcheons surface mounted rather than inlet, clean out screws discontinued, sight changes, hammer configuration changes, stock shape and perhaps some others.Location. St. Louis, MO. Feb 20, 2022. #3. As far as being a turkey gun, the 56 caliber smooth bore can be loaded up to be an effective turkey gun and it will be effective for all the other game you mentioned. There are lots of threads on the Forum extolling the effectiveness of the 56 caliber smoothbore. It's an effective 28 gauge.Reducing width by 25% reduces spring strength by 25%. Thinning by narrowing reduces strength proportionally. Thinning reduces strength relative to the square of the thickness. 3/4 times 3/4 = 9/16. 4/4 times 4/4 =16/16 or one (unchanged). 16/16 minus 9/16 = 7/16 loss or 43% loss.Mar 9, 2010. #20. You know all ML shooters have thier own priorities. I would never build or request a flintlock rifle with a patent breech. When I dump a load of powder in the barrel I want it to flow directly to the touch hole. IMHO the modern patent breech does not allow that as well as a normal breech. Salt. 1..