Hunting with Muzzleloading Shotguns and Smoothbore Muskets: Smoothbores Let You Hunt Small Game, Big Game and Fowl with the Same Gun

By Wm. Hovey Smith

Smoothbore guns such as shotguns, muskets and blunderbusses are a less frequently used part of the present muzzleloading market, yet these versatile guns can take small game, fowl and big game in all parts of the world. This is illustrated by the author using a variety of replica and original guns to take game in the U.S., Canada and South Africa. Species taken include quail, dove, squirrel, rabbits, ducks, geese, swan, wild turkeys, deer. wild hogs, bison, warthogs and blue wildebeest. Guns include single shots, doubles and bolt-action guns, including some original military issued muskets.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jul 31, 2013
• ISBN: 9780985596569

Wm. Hovey Smith

Now returned to Central Georgia, Wm. Hovey Smith is a Geologist/outdoorsman who has written 13 books and is the Producer/Host of Hoveys Outdoor Adventures on WebTalkRadio.net. He is a Corresponding Editor for Gun Digest where he writes about muzzleloading guns and hunting in the U.S., Europe and Africa.

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hunting.

Chapter 1.

Muskets, fowlers, shotguns and blunderbusses

In modern times there is no class of muzzleloading guns whose capabilities are less appreciated than smoothbore guns. Although they may be loaded with either shot or ball and used on all types of game, comparatively few black-powder hunters use them and those in North America often only think of muzzleloading smoothbores as alternative turkey guns.

Hunters in countries where gun ownership is closely controlled have been forced into using muzzleloading smoothbores for their historic purposes of taking small game and waterfowl, but have mostly forgot about their potential for hunting big game animals at close range. Taking big game with muzzleloading smoothbores is mostly done by African poachers who will use anything that will project a bullet from a gun.

Muskets

Muskets are civilian and military guns of typically large caliber with smoothbore barrels. Early on there was no difference between a matchlock musket used for civilian or military use, except that those made for the nobility were crafted of better materials and surviving pieces are often highly decorated. These were preserved in royal collections and in the world’s museums as objects d’art.

Muskets were designed to be used with round balls as the usual projectile, although some interesting variations were seen, such as cube-shaped bullets. When used with lead balls, these muskets were also employed to hunt wild boar and deer.

Matchlock muskets were most effective when the animals could be baited to pull them near fixed stands so that the hunter would have time to prepare his match and make his gun ready to shoot. Even during the matchlock era, it was appreciated that these muskets could be loaded with shot and used to take waterfowl and smaller species of big game, like roe deer.

Hunting with matchlocks was a cumbersome affair, but was done all over Europe where they were often used for duck hunting in the Venice Lagoon alongside shot-shooting crossbows. More commonly these difficult-to-deploy guns were used to ambush sitting birds by hunters sneaking over dikes and riverbanks, as in the Netherlands.

It was a fortunate hunter indeed who could shoot flying birds with his heavy cylinder-bored gun. I gained an appreciation of hunting with a matchlock by using a Japanese matchlock which will be described in Chapter 4.

As muskets progressed from the matchlock to wheellock, to flintlock to the percussion system, they became more portable. It was now possible to not only shoot game from stands, but to also stalk animals on foot. As the guns became more likely to shoot on demand, they largely supplanted the crossbow for hunting big game.

There was a practical limit on the length of barrels that foot solders could use on military muskets, as these guns were loaded while standing in close ranks. Your fellow musketeers would be only a few inches to your left and right and perhaps 2- feet behind you. Trained units standing and firing volleys in ranks were typical in Europe during the Napoleonic wars when these guns were most commonly used.

The general European consensus was that these muskets should be .75 caliber, with the notable exception of France where the .69-caliber muskets were adopted. This size ball was nearly as deadly as the .75 and did not require as much imported lead to make.

Because the French supplied arms and troops to the American revolutionaries, the .69-caliber became standard for U.S. military smoothbore muskets and continued through the adoption of the percussion system. Picket’s charge at Gettysburg, for example, was repelled by buck and ball loads from such muskets.

The end of the American Civil War released a flood of .75 and .69-caliber muskets on the civilian market. These were snapped up and used as shotguns by settlers going west and those needing inexpensive hunting guns elsewhere in the country. Many of these guns were shot to destruction. Most ex-military muskets in pioneer museums throughout the West are rusted wrecks held together with wires and nails.

Throughout their use, muskets retained their large calibers which ultimately transferred in civilian life to the 10, 11, 12, 16, 18 and 20-gauge shotguns. The civilian guns weighed less because they no longer had to be strong enough substitute for a pike once its single shot had been fired and its bayonet attached.

Fowlers

Once flintlock metallurgy advanced to the stage where small lock parts would function reliably, more refined locks could be made. This advance in parts fabrication allowed appropriately-sized single-barreled smoothbore guns to be made for grouse, pigeon and waterfowl hunting.

Some of the most handsome examples were designed for shooting driven game. On these shoots the gunners would