The last chart on this page has some good round ball data.

http://www.hpmuzzleloading.com/TraditionalBallistics.html

It sure makes you question the viability of even a .54 caliber PRB at 100 yards with energy of less than 600 ft. lbs.

With that data I would tend to agree but knowing that a many a Deer have been taken out to 100 yards with a .54 PRB makes me think that the data is mostly suggestive of knowing your weapons limitations & capabilities.

With a ME of around 550 a person would more than likely know their weapon enough & make shot placement at 100 yards priority.

PRBs have killed an awful lot of game animals.Like every rifle projectile ever made, it has limitations. Read the journal of the Lewis and Clark Expedition once. The meanest animal to inhabit the west was the plains grizzly bear, now extinct: Members of the the expedition shot one eleven times with rifles and muskets before it was killed.

Good link, with good info. Thanks for sharing.

But, KE calculations favor higher speed, lighter weight bullets, while momentum calculations favor lower speed heavier weight bullets. KE may not be the best way to describe the effectiveness of a round ball. Undoubtably a conical is much more effective at distance than a PRB, but does that meanthe PRBcannot be effective within it's limitations? Is the ball getting a short shrift in KE calculations? Is there a better way to describe it's effectiveness?

Thats kinda slanted to show what they want,I chrony my 54cal with a 35.5 inch barrel a tight 535 ball and ticking patch at 2150 with 130 gr of RS and while I never bothered to figer the enegry on it I took two deer and one 680 pound bear at between 170 and 188 yds and they were all bang flops. Now if they managed to settle the west with them they have to have something going for them.
Swiss black is almost equal to pyrodex. There is a lot more to it than that page would have you believe,I wonder who they are trying to fool. Lee

I don't think they're trying to fool anyone - just stating facts. Physics is physics. The only opinion stated, andit's commonly held, is that a projectileshould have at least800 ft. lbs. of energy for an effective kill on a whitetail.

Of course that's only part of the equation. A 200 grain solid steel 30 caliber spitzer at 1900 fps has tons of energy but would not be an effective deer killer. A well sharpened broadhead at 400 fps had little energy but is an effective killer.

They say they will be adding data in the future. I'm looking forward to it.

Quote:

More Traditional Loads & Ballistics To Be Added In The Coming Months - Watch For More Conical Bullet Loads And More Patched Round Ball Load Data...Especially For The Really Big Bores - .58, .62 & Bigger! If You Want To Share Your Favorite Load, Send it To Us At The Following E-mail: [email protected]

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All I know is when I shoot a Deer with my 54Cal. P&B,pushed by 90gr. Pyrodex.They very seldom run.



big rockpile

All I know is I never killed a deer with a chart, but I sure took a lot of them with roundball... It's still the old story, put a 1/2 inch hole through an animals major organs and it will die. It might not be where they are standing, but you punch a hole like that an something has to shut down. Also roundball really penetrate well for some reason. In all the deer I shot with roundball I can only remember two that did not get a pass through (or at least a second hole I did not find).

Here's one for the .50

http://members.aol.com/illinewek/faqs/tc50bal.htm

The round ball delivers allot of "shock" to the animal on impact! On most game,the meat around the bullet hole is very blood shot,a sign of sever tissue damage,or "shock". The round ball does shed velocity very fast(it's about the worst projectile,as far as BC is concerned. But it hits like a brick batt ,and transfers that energy to the animal.