Round ball effectiveness?
 

Hi everybody we just recently bought my dad a percussion hawkins rifle from cabelas. He shoots 70 grs of triple seven and hornady .490 round balls. He is getting good accuracy but I was wondering what the effective lethal range on a whitetail would be? And how far to expect one to run after being hit? and if anyone has ever shot a deer using round ball ammunition would you mind letting me know what the results were like?

Let me see...Daniel Boone died in his sleep at 85, he never used anything but a roundball and was a market hunter in his younger days...

I started using a flintlock back in 1977, it was a .45...I never lost a deer because I was using a roundball...I've since rebarreled the .45 to a .40 and made a .54 back in the 70s, mainly because we have black bears on our farms...

Ain't nothing wrong with a roundball, it will kill as far as you need to be shooting with open sights...

A round ball from a .50 is good for 100 yards on a whitetail westtexducks. Heart/lung shots are recommended. Some run, some drop. The ball will usually pass through and give you a good blood trail.

Welcome to the Black Powder forum.

That combo would be good out to 100 yards. I say that because I've killed several w/80g of Pyrodex (which is about the same load as what your dad is shooting)

If he is making good shoots on them i.e. not shooting them facing away from you, then you'll be just fine.

People don't seem to like the RB but when I think back, I believe I've probably had more boom-flops with a RB than I have any other bullet...

In the last eight years I have taken 8 deer using patched round balls. None have traveled more than 20 yards after being hit and two were out past 100 yards. I will never take a shot at a running deer and always only take heart lung shots.

That is a 100 yard load but of course we all want closer then that. As for how far the deer will run.. that will all depend on where that ball is placed. Neck shots plant them, but are risky at best. Head shots, the same as a neck shot. Heart and lung will kill them without doubt. I have had then run from nothing to almost fifty yards. It also depends on the deer. Some are in alert or flight mode and it seems when you shoot them, they can really put some distance under them.

I have used roundball for many years. A roundball in the right place is all that you will need. Those Cabela's are nice rifles.

The first deer I ever shot with a muzzle loader was with a .50 cal. Hawkins loaded with 83 grains fff Goex and a patched round ball. It seems I am the only one who doesn't believe round balls to be the an efficient way to harvest deer. The shot I took was no more than 20 yards and did not pass through. Had the deer run a long distance and gotten out of sight, there would have been no way to track it due to the lack of a blood trail. I have not used a round ball to hunt deer with since. Use a Maxi Ball and there will be no problem tracking the deer if the need arises. I just got a .54 cal. side lock and if I can get round balls to group out of it I will try to harvest a deer with a round ball out of it.

In the 80's I only shot round ball and never lost a deer some of the biggest mulies I ever shot was when I lived in NM and they were taken with a 54 cal round ball

A round ball is all I shoot out of my hawkens flintlock. I killed a lot of deer w no problem with it. This year I am going after bear and elk with it. I am extremly confident that it can do the job.

I have to agree with NCHawkeye and the Daniel Boone story. If our fore fathers had our luck, we would not be here today I think. Sounds like you had a powder problem pal. I have yet to have any problems shooting a PRB. I shoot PRBs from both my .50 Hawkens and .58 Big Boar. :confused0024: