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Since we are talking about BP weapons, thought that this may be of some interest…

Source is Civil War Firearms by Joseph G. Bilby

Smoothbores

At first glance, many decree the lowly smoothbore citing its poor accuracy and horrible effective range. To be sure, these are valid arguments, but smoothbores have several advantages. Among muzzle loaders, the smoothbore was cheaper to manufacture and faster to load than a rifle-musket. It was capable of reasonable accuracy on man-sized targets up to fifty yards and volley fire was effective on large formations up to a hundred yards.

Although loading a single-round ball was standard procedure in the early days of the musket, the ability of the smooth bore to fire multiple projectiles was quickly discovered. In 1609, for example, the explorer Samuel de Champlain loaded four balls into his harquebus before engaging Iroquois Indians. His single shot struck several Indians..

Although Champlain had used full sized balls, by the time of the American Revolution it was common practice to load smaller buckshot, averaging around .30-caliber, along with a musket ball. The number of buckshot varied from eight to as many as fifteen. Gang molds that allowed the troops to cast both ball and buckshot were common issue.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition issued each of its men with one hundred balls and two pounds of buckshot before leaving St. Louis, Missouri. The so-called “buck-and-ball” cartridge was standard issue during the War of 1812.

By 1835, the U.S. Army standardized its buck-and-ball cartridges at one .65-caliber musket ball and three buckshot.

By the time of the Civil War, both sides were largely equipped with smoothbores with rifle-muskets equipping roughly one-third of the troops. Opinions on the value of the smoothbore was widely divided. Some troops would ditch their smoothbores and pick up rifle-muskets from the battlefield. Other units (the famous Irish Brigade is just one example) kept their smoothbores and rushed to close range where their buck-and-ball rounds gave them a tremendous advantage in a short-range fight.

Another famous example was the actions of the 12th New Jersey Volunteers at Gettysburg. While waiting to for Pickett’s Charge, the Jerseymen tore open back and ball cartridges and loaded their smoothbores with massive charges of buckshot which they then used to deadly effect on the left flank of the Confederates. The monument of the 12th New Jersey puzzles many tourists as it is a column topped by one huge ball and three smaller balls, mute testimony to the reverence these soldiers had for their “obsolete” but deadly smoothbores.

The original U.S. Model 1842 musket fired a 412-grain .65-caliber ball backed by 130 grains of musket powder. Ten grains of this charge was used as the priming charge, while 120 grains went down the muzzle. For modern black powder shooters, a charge of 60-70 grains of FFG powder is a good starting place.

Before firing, the user should first insure that the barrel is thoroughly cleaned to remove all traces of oil before firing. Oil in the barrel will “kill” a charge, leaving the shooter with the problem of extracting it. After cleaning and before firing, check once more to confirm the weapon is loaded. This excellent safety habit consists of dropping the ramrod down the barrel. If you hear a metallic ring rather than a thud and the ramrod goes down as far inside the barrel as it does when held alongside, then the weapon is confirmed as empty and safe to load.

Before actually loading, point the musket in a safe direction and prime it and then fire. The explosion of the powder will clear any remaining oil and debris out of the touchhole and serves as a final check to insure the weapon is empty.

While paper cartridges can be used, most modern shooters use either a plastic or cardboard tube to hold the ball and powder. To load, remove the ball from the tube, and keeping the barrel pointed away from your face, pour the powder charge into the barrel. Grasp the ball between thumb and forefinger and then insert it into the muzzle in a sliding motion, making sure to keep the fingers from directly crossing the muzzle. Take the ramrod between thumb and forefinger and ram the ball down onto the powder charge. Remove the ramrod and then raise the musket to the ready position, at waist level with the muzzle pointing down range. Thumb the hammer to half cock, push the frizzen forward and then place about 10 grains of priming powder (FFFFH works best) away from the touchhole and then close the frizzen. Bring the hammer to full cock and then bring the musket to your shoulder.

Most smoothbores do not have a rear sight, with the shooter’s eye serving as the rear sight. For this reason, it is important to always place your cheek on the same spot for each and every shot, in order to provide consistency of aim. Elevation and windage corrections may be made by filing or moving the front sight.

Unlike the minie ball, the round ball has no grooves to hold lubricant which softens powder fouling. Without lubricant, a tight-fitting ball will quickly become difficult to ram home. The fouling problem can be mitigated by cleaning between shots. An easy way to provide lubricant while shooting a smoothbore is to encase the ball in a lubricated cloth patch while loading.

A lubricated, less-than-bore diameter ball is necessary to limit fouling uring a match shoot. One way to lubricate a round abll is to insert the ball in a plastic cartridge tube, depressing it a quarter of an inch below the top of the tube and spoon melted bullet lubricant (a vegetable shorting and beeswax mix is popular (yet another use for Crisco!!!!) on top of the ball. This creates a lubricant plug on one end of the ball. Load the ball with the lubricant on top of the powder.

Another convenient way to apply lubricant to a round ball is to tak a small square of aluminum foil and deposit a spoonful of lubricant in the cent of the foil. Place the ball on the lubricant and then fold up the foil around the ball and twist shut. Insert the ball into a cartridge tube, twist up. The ball is easily removed from the tube by the twist and then inserted, twist up into the bore. Not only does this method provide lubrication to keep fouling soft, but the foil acts as a patch to help center the ball.