I've always put the flat up, some put it down, some roll their balls between steel sheetsand smooth out the flats, all work...

Shooting with open sights, it won't matter, unless you are Superman and have 8x vision...

Even if the balls aren't perfectly round, it doesn't matter, once you pull the trigger a ball squats so it will not be round anyway...

thanx for the info guys!!

i'll have to remember to take pics of the recovered ball this weekend...and where i found it...probably uncommon...it smashed the shoulder and busted it into pieces...i was impressed...

sproul, i tried the 350gr maxi hunters i think....i'll have to check, i have 2 boxes of TC maxi's cant remember if they were both hunters or not...

also tried the 295gr power belts, and 2 different buffalo ballets...

the good ole round ball is the only thing that would shoot...could group anything else nearly as well....but, i would love to get away from the round ball for hunting...i hit the spine or was close enough to shock the spine on all 3 roundball kills so far...sure they all had 2 1/2 inch holes and with a lung shot they would have died within 100yds...but, i worry that there wont be much of a trail to follow...sometimes its hard to find the holes...i know they kill deer...ive proved it and love shooting the roundball, and the accuracy is GREAT....but for deer hunting out of the 50cal, id like a bullet.....

When I load cast ball, I load them flats up. I was told it really does not matter, but we all get in habits and old habits are hard to break.

Maxiballs always shot best in my T/C hammer guns, Maxihunters were not very good at all.

[quote]ORIGINAL: mauser06


sproul, i tried the 350gr maxi hunters i think....i'll have to check, i have 2 boxes of TC maxi's cant remember if they were both hunters or not...

/quote]

shoot up any MAXI-HUNTERS you have and buy a box of MAXI-BALLS 370.

this bullet was original one tested for your hawkins.

it will cut holes at 50 yds easy.its best for 1-48 twist .
80 grs is what i use of 2f.with bore button.

some use 90 grs.

powerbelt 295 will shoot great too with 80/90 grs of 2f.

we have 6 hawkins .50 cals like yours.

all wont shoot the maxi-hunters, all shoot the maxi-balls 370 fine.

all shoot the pb 295 great too.

so, if yours does not, i would clean it real good with brush, if that does not work, ask CAYUGUG ,he may have answer.

alsoour hawkins were tested long ago and found that the 28 inch barrel was best length.
they started with 36 inch barrel.

best load velocity /energy thing was with 70 grs of 2f with a .018 patch and .490 rb.

anything above that was shown to benot improvement .

just some info.

you are correct