Originally Posted By: hotrack
Didn't smooth bore rifles come before shotguns and weren't these rifles measured as bore, shotgunning appeard later and was just a fist full of shot thrown down the barrell instead of a lead ball. Hotrach



Hotrack-

"Smooth bore rifle" would be an oxymoron in the US. Smooth bore did come first no doubt, and we referred to them as muskets or fowlers depending on the design for the intended use. If the bore was rifled, here it would have been called a rifle or a rifled musket to distinguish the rifled muskets from the smooth bore counterparts.

Doug