useing shot, in black powder rifle?

I am haveing trouble with a bunch of young rabbits, eating the tops off my cabbage starts. I took the 22 pump out to the garden, in the evening,sat on the AC B for elevation, and waited. The first rabbit to show up, sat there with me kicking dirt up all around him, before he got bored and hopped off.I just can't see the front sight, to line up the two sights, and have new lenses in my bifocals. No trouble seeing the target, or rear sight. Don't want to spend on a shotgun, but wondered if I can put shot down the pipe of my Lyman great plains 54 cal rifle, and use it as a shotgun? Just point and shoot! Any one done this? I really did use the Allis as a shooting platform, and not just to stay on topic!

Dunno about the shot in the black powder rifle idea, but I DO have a solution for "can't see the front sight".

Go to a Super Walmart or a Cabela or any decent gun shop and get a Red Dot sight. BSA makes a decent one for less than $50. I have them on two .22 rifles and a .22 handgun and they work slicker than a smelt.

No eye relief to worry about, nice big optic, easy to see, variable intensity to adjust for ambient light. Put the dot on the target, squeeze the trigger and BANG! dead wabbit.

Amazon has them. Check the link. The first one listed is one of the ones I use.
Red Dot Sight

It would work..........BUT.........IF YOU DID IT A LOT.... You would lead up your bore and make cleaning tough. Accuracy would be marginal. Just use it as an excuse to buy a BP shotgun...... Then you can have lots more fun.

With some wadding it can be done. Patterns are awful, usually a big hole in the middle of the pattern. Figure on a 30" pattern at 40 feet.

Anytime you shoot shot through a rifled barrel it is going to spread out rather quickly. I have some shot shells for my .357 and they are for shooting snakes at your feet, although my Son shot a grouse with it a few years ago. I would go with a better sight on the .22.

I have an old Remington "take down" 22 auto. Before I could afford a laser sight, I rigged a laser pointer onto it with shims and black electrical tape. I got a black cat in pitch dark first try. Put the red dot on the target and squeeze the trigger.

THANKS Fawteen and Old Popper! I have heard of both sights, but my mind just refused to remember them, probably because I have never used either of them. I very seldom have used a scope, due to good eyesight,(till 65 yrs), and our brushy, forested terrain, didn't allow for more than 100 yd shots. My Remington Fieldmaster pump has a grooved reciever, and should mount a new sight ok! Maybe after I take care of my rabbit problem, I can enjoy plinking again! Ashamed to admit that I have seen those sights in the American Rifleman ads, and breezed right on past them, without making the connection. That should work well with low light shooting, in the evening.

I've mounted an low power 2.5X 32mm "shotgun" scope on a a pellet rifle to control rabbits eating plants in the yard in winter. It took a while to get the combination sighted in but after that it worked well in the winter with snow on the ground and a little moonlight. The bigger lens sucked in more light than I could with my eye alone and I didn't have the problem of trying to see both sights with bifocals in low light conditions. The used scopes was around $30 on e-bay, rings were around $10.

A 3X scope with a 38mm or 40mm objective could be even better, but would sit higher above the barrel. I've never used a RedDot scope, but some of my friends like them.

The most effective solution was to put wire fence or chicken wire around the shrubs, that worked 24-7.

Go sit behind a bush with a club,..immitate the sound of a carrot or cabbage,..wait til wabbit comes close to investigate,...wack wabbit on the head with club. :lol:

Wabbit makes good eating,..and no lead to worry about :wink:

like the earlier reply you get terrible patterns,..the rifleing imparts spin to the shot,..go with the red dot

yes,you can,theres ways of helping the patterning problem.normal charge in a black powder shotgun is a 1-1 ratio of powder and shot BY VOLUME.try lowering your powder charge to about half and try it.its not great but it helps.I have a very old spanish rife thats sort of a rifled musket type affair.it has very shallow medford type rifling (rounded instead of square type lands) it shoots best with 50 grains of black and fifty grains of shot(thats a normal 28 ga load in a modern shell by the way),with a cardboard wad over powder,a cushion wad made from a chalkboard eraser,and two overshot wads. fyi 28 ga is slightly larger than 54 cal,my deer load for this uses a 54cal ball with two patches. ive hunted quail,dove turkey and deer with it.even shot a deer,and 15 minutes later shot a turkey from the same stand using it.with your square rifling i would start off with around 30 grains of powder and shot.and start up from there until your pattern becomes unusable.be careful of shot in your veggies though!by the way,pattern your rifle/shotgun at the distance you shoot from a stand,if thats 10 yards and you can get a good pattern there,your good to go.no need to load to shoot 60 yards.thats whats so nice about black powder its so easy to customize your load to your shot.remember your not shooting flying birds here at come what may ranges,your shooting stationary targets at known ranges,world of difference. just use heavy enough shot,for turkeys i use #2.But i will concure with the others,for very little ,far less than you could buy powder and shot ,you can buy a decent 22 scope at wally world.