Smoothbore vs shotgun

[prroh]

Porter Alexander in his memoirs says that he picked up a smoothbore musket and his "servant" cut up some lead rounds into bird-shot. The gamebirds he shot kept a varied menu for his mess. What is the difference in performance between this jury rigged affair and a shotgun? In combat what would be the performance differences between a smoothbore firing "buck and ball" or a shotgun firing "buck and slug"?

 

[Historyprof]

There would have been no difference.
Confederate arsenals manufactured buckshot cartridges for use in both the .69 caliber smoothbore musket and shotguns. The buck & ball cartridges could also be used in either. After the war, the old smoothbore muskets, and some rifle muskets as well, were used as shotguns. I have an Austrian M1842 musket that only had the stock trimmed down and the barrel shortened for use as a shotgun. I remember many years ago an old man showing me his father's Enfield and he told me he used to load it with shot to hunt squirrels.
I wonder how Alexander's homemade bird shot patterned?

 

[prroh]

Since the bird shot was cut with a knife from lead rounds, I would suspect a certain amount of randomness but based on his reputation of keeping his mess' larder supplied with birds, it had to be effective. This is what I like about Alexander's memoirs. His inclusions of personal stuff is great

 

[Pvt.A.Wells]

Lets remember the confederat buckshot round was 12, .32 buckshot.

 

[Tin cup]

Sometimes 15 buckshot!

Kevin Dally

 

[prroh]

Since there appears to be so little difference between the two weapons, were shotguns breech loaders and if so, wouldn't a double barrel , breech loader be more effective than a smoothbore?

 

[johan_steele]

Very few shotguns were breachloaders, they existed but weren't prevelant until the advent of effective metallic cartridges.

 

[Jobe Holiday]

The majority of breech loading shotguns available during the ACW time frame were pin fire Theywere very delicate and quite expensive.

J.

 

[prroh]

So Porter Alexander's use of a smoothbore musket he picked up on a battlefield and a fancy shotgun, he likely had at home, had little, if any difference in performance. how skillful was his "servant" in chopping a musket slug into bird-shot seems to be the only performance issue.

Would the average 12 gauge be capable of firing a buck and ball round?

 

[BillO]

So Porter Alexander's use of a smoothbore musket he picked up on a battlefield and a fancy shotgun, he likely had at home, had little, if any difference in performance. how skillful was his "servant" in chopping a musket slug into bird-shot seems to be the only performance issue.

Would the average 12 gauge be capable of firing a buck and ball round?

Yep, they still make a version of Buck and ball for defense loads. Some have discs rather than the ball, dissimiliar size of shot in the same round. Shotguns are very adaptible and you can stuff all kinds of things inside a 12 guage as long as you are mindful of pressures.