I was shooting my .62 caliber smoothbore Renegade which has a Green Mountain Barrel on it. I wanted to see what kind of penetration I could get with shooting 80 grains of Goex 2f an over the powder card, then an unpatched .600 324 grain roundball and finally an over the shot card to hold it all together. I had the range station set at 30 yards. The log you see in the above picture was penetrated end to end by the roundball at 30 yards. The log is a dried out chunk of Balsum tree. Yet I was impressed it could pass through that much wood. An unfired roundball is next to the short starter and aroundball that I recovered after it went through the wood block and then hit the steel backstop in the bullet trap is next. Pretty good power still on that ball to give it that kind of expansion.




This shows the actual target I was shooting at. The top far right hit was made at 100 yards off a set of shooting sticks shooting for the center of the gray area.The next hit high and right was off the sticks but I had moved up to the 50 yard station. Again, not all that bad, about four inches out of where I was aiming. The last group was done at the 30 yard station off the bench.

A little more work and some sight adjustment and I think I will be ready for the doe season. I am determined to take a doe with my smoothbore.

Interesting! Good penetration! I'm presently in the processs of building a .73 caliber Jaeger, and after running some recoil programs, I'm starting to think maybe I went a little overboard on the caliber! So I will definitely be starting out with some "mild" charges in the thing! The ball will weigh in the vicinity of 550 grains......

I wonder what kind of velocity you are getting with that load?

I have no idea. I would not think it is all that much since 80 grains of powder to many is a moderate charge at best. Although the penetration of it seems fine and the down range thump of the roundball if that is any indication is fantastic. I just need to get a deer within 35 yards and then we are going to cut loose...

I have also thought of a large .72 caliber but from those that I talk to, they load them around 140 grains of powder to get the ball moving at any good speeds. That is a lot of powder but would be a lot of fun to shoot. Maybe just a nice .62 caliber rifle that I could load up a little higher. Actually the .58 caliber I shoot is a great caliber for hunting. It really gets out there and hits hard.

Cayugad - Looks like you have a nice setup there. Wish I could shoot right out my back door, but the neighbors and cops would have no part of it. Darn town ordinances! Thanks for the pictures.

Although I've never shot a smoothbore ML I have to ask, why don't you shoot a patched RB instead of the under/over card setup?

-Hunter John

Good testing Cayugad! Hey I like your adjustable rifle rest!

I tried them as a patched roundball and the accuracy was terrible. I was not sure why the accuracy was so bad but then you think, with a patched ball and no rifling in the barrel, there is no way you can judge how the patch and ball will react in the barrel. With the over the powder card and then the plain ball and again the over the shot card to hold it all together, it is as close to a ball slug as I can come...

That's my $2.00 garage sale trailer jack that I made into an adjustable shooting rest. I made the cradle and even the shooting table so I really have very little invested in the whole thing. It does work real well....

Sure is a great test for that smoothbore Cayugad.
Not that I know much about about them.

Cayugad - Just looking at your pics a little more closely than I did before. Boy, that .62 cal RB sure did expand !! Sheez. That thing is nearly the same size as the head of your ball starter! I can see why some guys still love hunting with PRBs; it seems as though the BEST expanding saboted projectiles expand to the same size as your AVERAGE PRB. Makes me really wonder why I gave up shooting PRBs years ago. [&:] With the super fast twist TCs I own today, unfortunately I don't have much of a choice.[&o]

Yes but you need to remember, after it passed through that wood it hit 3/4 inch fire hardened plate steel. Any speed it had at that point is stopped real fast. And since they are pure lead they flatten. Usually they are about half again the size of the unshot ball which makes them just about an inch in diameter. Still a good size hole by any standards.

Did you weigh the round ball after the shot? If so how much did it weigh in comparison to the original?