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I was chattting with a muzzle loading shotgunner at a local winter league shoot this last Sunday. He mentioned that his custom built reproduction of an English double fowler fires some of the best patterns he's ever seen with unchoked barrels. He stated that he has taken pheasant at over 40 yards with 1-1/8 ounces of #5 shot over a volume for volume FFG black powder to shot load with greased card and felt wads and a thin over shot wad to retain the load in the barrel.

The barrels on his gun are 32 inches long with very slightly tapered bores from breech to muzzle with only a couple of thousanths difference max. Both bores are highly polished and very round. the gun is also very well regulated. He feels that the lack of a forcing cone in these straight bores and the high degree of polish helps patterns to a large degree. He remarked that this gun is the easiest one to clean he's ever owned too.

I tend to agree about polished bores. I 've been following the advice of a very accomplished trap shooter I met a few years back and have been polishing my Perazzi bores to keep them squeaky clean and shiny for the last few seasons. It seems to work very well. Patterns appear to be better, there is less fouling, and the gun seems to actually recoil a bit less too.

I've started polishing all my modern steel barreled shotguns now based on my findings. A little 0000 steel wool wrappd around a one size smaller than bore bronze brush attached to an older cleaning rod that is chucked up in an elactic hand drill is all it takes. A few passes up and down the bore keeps the barrels clean and shiny. I follow up with a clean patch or two and then an oily one. I've noticed a considerable drop in plastic wad fouling in the guns that I've treated regularly.

OOOO steel wool does not seem to hurt modern barrel steel and it also has not affected the choke tubes either. In fact, I'm geeting much less plastic wad residue on the choke tube throats now. this was a problem. now the stuff seems to get less purchase. It wipes out with ease now.

I would not advise polishing any of the old pre WWI shotguns unless you know for certain the barrel steel is as tough as modern barrel steel. but if you have a modern gun that fouls up with wad residue easily, you might try this polishing method. It does help.

Member Joined: 08 Nov 2005 Posts: 3438 Location: Illinois

16GG---you have discovered a well kept secret Wink

A few years back, I got interested in the history of shotguns. This led me to read up on English percussion doubles. What I learned drove home the point that the heart of any shotgun is the barrel.

The best English shotgun or fowling gun makers spent a considerable time in reaming, lapping and polishing the bores as straight, round, smoothly polished, and even as was humanly possible given the tools and the technology available. They spent considerable time regulating a pair to shoot true to the same spot. These barrels easily rival the best we have today.

These finely made barrels made the gun shoot better than any lesser pair and were reserved for the best guns. Hence the designation, "best gun". Other guns of that era that were all gussied up but did not shoot well were referred to as "laquered trash" by the knowledgeable shooters of the day. Many of the English immigrants who came to America would give the nod to a well made, but plainer American gun over the embellished, but cheaply made English trade guns of the day, because the best American makers also knew how to make a good smoothbore barrel too. They simply made the guns less fancy for practical reasons. However, these better native smoothbores shot just as well as the best English guns. It took a solid and knowledgeable shot to recognize this though.

It never ceases to amaze me that modern folks will spend a wad of good money on gadgets, embellishments, and pretty wood without hardly considering the bores on the double they buy. Perhaps we should relearn what the folks of the mid 19th century knew -- more than any other factor, good barrels make the gun.