A few years ago I bought this 20 gauge flintlock Caywood Northwest Trade Gun smoothbore. Because I want this primarily for shooting ball and don't care about NMLRA trade gun match rules, I dovetailed a rear sight into the barrel. (A lot of originals had them added, so it's historically correct anyway.)
Today I took it to my club with the intention of finding an accurate load that is powerful enough for deer hunting. It didn't take long, shooting at 50 yards from the bench.
My first target was using a .600" ball, .010" patch lubed with October Country Bumbing Bear Grease, 80 grains of Scheutzen FFg black powder. It's certainly minute-of-whitetail.
I then shot a group with .015" patches and couldn't believe my eyes. It put three shots into about 2", from a smoothbore. When I viewed it through my spotting scope I was wondering where 2 of the shots went because I was not expecting such a small group from what's basically a shotgun. I had to walk downrange to confirm it. (Luckily, I had the place to myself today.)
After this I used a Wyoming Sight Drifter* to move the rear sight over, and also took a finer bead with the front sight buried in the rear notch to drop the POI. After moving the rear sight I repeated the small group 2 or 3 more times.
My point of aim on both of the targets was at 6:00 to ensure I got as precise a sight picture as possible.
I made this gun holder several years ago for when I'm doing small home gunsmithing jobs. I brought it along today because it makes sight drifting or filing at the range a lot easier.
I'm very close to having this dialed in for deer out to 50 yards. I need to get some more offhand practice in but I'm looking forward to carrying it in the Fall.
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