ORIGINAL: mauser06
im going to be shooting roundballs this ywar out of my 50cal tc hawken flintlock...with homeade patches cut the old fashioned way out of pillow ticking and homemade moosemilk for lube....but im about out of balls...and will need more....i was just wondering if anyone has any reason to believe roundballs arent created equal?? and if so...what maker makes the best?? i shot a box of hornadys now....only thing i killed though were 2 groundhogs with them....so what do you guys say who makes THE best roundball?? or all they all created pretty much equal??.....also...shooting a 50cal with say...90grs of 3fg goex....what kind of performance on deer can i expect from 5-75 yards?? or should i limit my shots to 50?? im confident to 75+ with it...well was...gota go shoot the new patches and balls and powder...but i used to beable to whack a coffee can at 75yds no problem...so that would be no problem putting one in a deer that far..but will a ball have the power and effectiveness to put a deer down?? i have no expirience with a round ball except 2 groundhogs...which were pretty much clean holes in and out...so i was just wondering what to expect hitting a deer...and how far youd limit its effectivness saying that you can hit the deer cleanly...i wouldnt shot farther then comfortable...and know a roundball drops pretty good.....but if im comfortable what would the max be for a good clean easy kill?? thanx guys
The ONLY RB I/'ve ever killed anything with have been .500" diameter ones I cast myself with a Lyman mould.I use them in my ..50 with 90 to 120 grains of GOEX FFg. I have fired Speer, Hornady, and Remington "Gold" RB's at targets, and can see no differences between any of them when shot with the same powder charges and patch thicknesses. For hunting lightly constructed critters like whitetail deer, I insist on using
pure lead balls or bullets, regardless of type of bullet.
As cayugad says, the load you propose using is plenty deadly enough out to 100 yards or so, plus the trajectory is pretty flat out to that distance. If you zero at 100 yards, your RB will be no more than 2.5" or so high at all ranges in between, so you can aim dead on at any range out to 100 yards and make a killing shot.
The round ball is the only bullet I've ever used that often makes a bigger entry hole than an exit hole. The ball seems to "splatter out" on impact, and the dense center portion then carries on through, leaving about a .50 cal. exit hole, whereas the entry wound can be from pingpong ball diameter up to baseball size, depending on distance from the gun- the closer the deer is, the bigger the entry hole! Every deer I've killed with a round ball has been when using 90 grains of GOEX FFg with a .50 caliberball. Balls leave a tremendous blood trail on both sides of the critter, and the farthest one has ever travelled after I shot it was perhaps 30 yards.