Discussion Buckshot Spread from Smoothbore Buck ‘n Ball

Civilian fowling guns of the period (think of them as today's shotguns) did have a couple of types of chokes. The first, and most common was the length of the barrel; a longer barrel gave a little bit tighter group of shot. Combine the longer barrel with various powder charges and wadding of the shot can give a tighter or looser spread of shot. The second type of choking is called a "Jug" choke. From the muzzle end of the barrel, a small amount of the interior of the barrel was removed a few inches from the bore. As the shot moved down the barrel and entered this area of the barrel where the interior dimension was slightly larger, the shot would spread out. As the shot moved past this area, it would be constricted again. If the honing of the interior of the barrel was done properly, and the correct distance from the end of the muzzle, the shot would have a tighter pattern. This method of choking was not used as much, and probably only done on the better grades of goose and turkey shotguns. With Jug choking however, since it does not involve constricting the bore, (actually the opposite), one could shoot shot as well as a solid ball without problems.

In modern shotguns, the choking is accomplished by constricting the bore to some degree. But remember that we're concerned here with guns that were loaded from the muzzle, so any constriction would not only make loading more difficult, and in some cases, such as loading a large caliber ball, perhaps dangerous, if not impossible.
Experiments with a type of "choke" for fowlers goes back to the mid 17th century. Their goal was to improve the "evenness" of the shot pattern v.s. the "tightness". The late Kit Ravenshear discussed this and how some fowling pieces had a "double taper" meaning the bore at the muzzle was larger and tapered smaller towards the middle and resumed the size at the breech. Since tow flax was frequently used for wadding back then this method worked even with a ball. Paper was also used for over powder and over shot wads. (Ezekial Baker mentions this in his book "Baker's Remarks" published in the 1830's) In America Fred Kimble, a champion duck hunter with a muzzle-loader is often given credit for discovering choke boring in the mid 1860's. "Elastic" wads for m/l shotguns appeared in the 1830's/40's
And for what it's worth, greased felt wads for fowlers is mentioned in a 17th century Spanish publication. "Greek pitch" was part of the lubricant.
 
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