use a pitted rifle barrel for a shotgun?

Hi, I'm new to muzzle loading. Got ripped off buying a gun before I knew anything about what to look for on a used rifle, so I have a TC New Englander .50 cal with some significant pitting in the barrel. My guess is that it wont shoot straight. Anyone know if I can just use it as a shotgun instead?
I imagine it would be like shooting a 28 gauge or 4-10, might be able to hunt upland game birds or shoot clays with it?
Thanks.

clean it up good and shoot it. It might surprise you. I have three New Englanders and one is a shotgun. The shotgun is a good shotgun. The trouble with rifling in the barrel is that shot gets to bounce around down the barrel and could change the pattern of the gun.

Try shooting it, get some lead conicals, clean barrel real well and shoot a 100 of them thru it.. if it doesn't shoot after that send it to Bobby Hoyt and see if he can re bore to .54 or re bore to smoothbore.. cost about 125.00..

rwabdu said:

Hi, I'm new to muzzle loading. Got ripped off buying a gun before I knew anything about what to look for on a used rifle, so I have a TC New Englander .50 cal with some significant pitting in the barrel. My guess is that it wont shoot straight. Anyone know if I can just use it as a shotgun instead?
I imagine it would be like shooting a 28 gauge or 4-10, might be able to hunt upland game birds or shoot clays with it?
Thanks.

Click to expand...

Thats a cheap enough platform, and barrels are pretty easy to find. I would look for a replacement barrel. You could rebore that one also, and have a switch barrel stock, or try to clean it well and shoot as is. scrub and oil the heck out if it and shoot it a bunch.

Get some 000 or 0000 steel wool and put it on a bore brush, oil it up good and scrub the bore down good. Clean up and dry the bore up good and shoot it and see how it does. I have cleaned up one i got this way for my kids to shoot and it still shoots very good.

Thanks for the advice. Shot it today and I think got some pretty good groups at 50 yards. used between 70 and 90 grains of pyrodex. I think my aim was off more than the gun, but all my shots landed right in a line in the snow.. did hit that green bucket a few times too. Maybe it is accurate?

The barrel on my .54 is pitted. Still shoots well enough to grouip 1/2" at 50 yards. I don't judge 100 yards with iron sights as my eyes are more of a factor than anything else!

Still, if you want to clean up that barrel, there are several ways.
1. Check out this link: http://www.frontiermuzzleloading.com/t9 ... -bore-test
2. Could try Butches Bore Shine or J-B Bore Bright. Available at Brownels. Other similar products.

Best of luck. I think it'll just fine for you, but it sucks to get a bad deals.

Thanks for the reply, ill try the bore cleaners too. So far I'm surprised at how well it shoots. I think My aim is worse than the guns at this point. with enough practice I might be able to take a deer with it this fall .. I hope. next time I'll know what to look for when buying a used gun.