Hi Folks,

Each projectile and loadchoice has a certain limiting factors and constraints.

Roundball hunting demands greater accuracy and shot placement.

For the roundball, the wound channel and hydrostaticshock is not as great as say a hollowpointwhere faster moving, rapid expanding projectiles will cause greater wound channels, more shock and fragmentation. More lethal? Perhaps.

Bigger projectiles cause bigger holes and greater penetration. Does that mean more lethal? Perhaps.

I would say that big conicals and rapid expanding projectiles are more forgiving for less than ideal shot placements than a roundball.

Otherwise, if you put the shot where it's supposed to be in the case of deer or any other mammal then the top end of the heart would be text book followed by a double lung then it really does not matter what you shoot. Some folks like the higher shoulder/spinal shots. I have never been a fan of such shots as strange things have happened to me. Sometimes deer can run forever after being shot to pieces. Other times they simply fall over.

The high shoulder shot is most effective when using either a projectile with higher hydrostatic shock or greater penetration or both.

The main circle of this post is talking about either large heavy projectiles or lighter faster traveling expanding projectiles.

The great thing about muzzleloading is choice.

I hunt with just about everything that loads from the muzzle (roundballs, saboted projectiles, conicals, flintlocks, caplocks, inlines and pistols).

Shot placement is everything regardless of what you are shooting.

But if are shooting a roundball, then shot placement means even more in my book. I feel that the roundball hunter has greater responsibility as the roundball is more limited than other projectile choices.

I have passed on quartering shots with a roundball that I might have taken with a large conical. Does that make the roundball inferior? Not at all.

Michigan does not have acaliber restriction formuzzleloading deer. A fella I know hunts and harvests deer every year with a .36 caliber flintlock rifle and a PRB.

For me the 64 grain .350" roundball is too light to hunt deer with. But who knows? If I had a .36 caliber (or rather when ) then I might just hunt deer with one. Then the next day I would either carry a 50 caliber scoped inline of some flavor shooting say a Hornady SST and the day after perhaps a 54 caliber shooting a hefty conical.

On the day I am carrying a .36 and PRB, I will pass on the high shoulder shot and focus on the top of the heart which it what I aim for most often. Or perhaps a head shot.

Hmm...Now that I have mentioned a .36 caliber, I had better get one this year!



IMHO & Peace,

Tahquamenon