doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com How to improve performance of Cyl choke

Without doing anything to the bore/barrels, what can one do to tighten up the pattern out of a cylinder choke? I know shooting harder and larger shot will tighten pattern. Is there any other trick?

moderate velocities and good shotcups go a long way.....

Buffering

When it comes right down to it, there is quite a bit of latitude in load development, that can be manipulated to throw better patterns.
Depending on what you're shooting, the simplist is to just use more pellets...in the black powder muzzleloading world where most smoothbores are indeed cylinder bore, the old saying is still real today:

"Less powder, more lead, shoots far, kills dead"

IMO, the modern rifle and shotgun load development have evolved to efficient top performing shells with two fundamental objectives...power and distance...sometimes referred to as "magnumitis". But if I've learned anything shooting Flintlock smoothbores, it is the stark reality that 99% of every shot I take at a crow over decoys, or a squirrel in a tree, or a turkey in front of me is usually just 20-30 yards...we simply do not need Yorktown battleship size shotshell loads for 99% of our shooting.

So explore reconfiguring your wads to fit in another 1/8 or 1/4 oz of the shot sizde you're wanting to use...and, better yet, if you focus on the fact that most shots are a lot closer than you think, you don't need large pellets with massive energy for 40-50 yards shots...#7.5's or worse case 6's do fine for most any game at these relatively close distances.

Good quality copper or nickel plated shot also adds more pellets to the pattern.
And EcoTungsten(Niceshot) gives me significantly more pellets in the pattern than either of those, but is a very expensive non-toxic for waterfowl and I can't afford to shoot it just for any old thing at $28/pound.

Smoothbores are very forgiving...forget the typical modern ballistics listings as if they are cast in stone...they are just optimized loads to include the 40-50 yard shots...you have a lot of choices to tinker with...think in terms of 25-30 yards with a cylinder bore, using a shot size that will give you more pellets in the pattern, and as a penetration test just be sure they'll blow through the metal of a stong tuna or soup can at that distance.

When I was about 13 years old a kid down the road made a fairly common practice of taking his pen knife and cutting fully around and half way through plastic shotshells just at the bottom of the shot charge which allowed the full front portion of the shell to exit the bore. (I DO NOT RECCOMEND THIS!). He got very tight patterns as was evidenced by the door of his mother's mobile home the day he had an accidental discharge with his shotgun. I remember thinking it looked like he had used a rifled slug! The pattern inside of the door was much wider as it completely peppered the entire interior of the bathroom! As result I have always though that a shotcup without petals should throw tighter patterns than those that spread open as they fly? I don't know if one could tape the petals together safely or not for such an experiment?

Thanks for your input, gents.
The barrels are damascus. Although proofed for 3 tons I would shoot lower pressures. I cannot use hard shot like steel or similar, because of possible bore damage.
Quarry is ruffed grouse and pheasants.
Shots are moslty within 30 yards.

To make a cylinder bore 12 gauge kill reliably to 40 yards, load about 1 3/8 ounces of hard shot with a W114 wad and just enough Unique to propel it at about 1100 or 1125 fps. Don't use the normal Blue Dot for this load because at the low velocity, the pressure will not be high enough for reliable cold weather performance.

Couldn't be farther from the truth...

Just so we're clear on the 3 types I mentioned:
Copper plated and nickel plated are not like steel...they are lead pellets with a coating which does not bother a steel bore...used them in my smoothbore Flintlocks for a few years now.

EcoTungsten is literally a direct lead substitute, can be used in any form of and age of gun without shotcups. In fact, one of the saving graces of EcoTungsten is that is is such an identical soft lead substitue that you can use the corresponding "relatively less expensive" lead pellets for load development & pattern testing.
The just fire a couple of insurance shots with EcoTungsten to satisfy your mind that they do indeed pattern the same way.

Silver,
Trap Commander wads from Ballistic products,low pressure loads for velocity of 1100-1200 fps should be just what you're looking for.
Justin