Do You Doubt The PRB?
 

Some think the PRB is a poor choice to hunt with. It's true that they aren't for long range, but within their range they can get it done.

Looky...


http://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/hun...lintlock-rifle

Yeah, saw that last year when he took it. That's one hell of a pretty rifle he has. But I sure as heck wouldn't want to have to lug that dang Howitzer around! 42" barrel!!! And a full stock no less! Lord knows how much that thing weighs!

I trust my 50-cal roundballer (1:66) out to 75 yards. My last harvest several years ago returned a flattened lead-piece a smidge bigger than a nickel.

I'm hunting all-lead this weekend. Changed my mind this afternoon and decided to take my Knight Vision and 240gr T/C Cheapshots and 285gr Hornady Great Plains conicals for the ride into the Huron National Forest.

This will be my first-ever hunt with that new Vision. Hope it brings me some luck.

If it's a swamped barrel it will be surprisingly light. Less than a Hawken. .54 bore helps lighten it too.

I don't doubt it, but I will say the longest I've ever seen a deer run was my buddy shot one with his .50 hawken and prb. We trailed it about 300yds and jumped it up about 20 minutes after he shot it. It ran over a ridge and finally fell out. Total was close to 400yds and it had a hole right through the heart. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it (and stuck my finger in the hole). Damn craziest thing I've ever seen. I think the .54 is a better option than .45 or .50, but obviously many have been killed with them too.

To this day I still wonder how that could have happened.

Good on the hunter.

i'm an advocate of patched round balls within their effective range. i'm not an advocate of unwieldy guns with very long barrels, however pretty they may be.

I agree that long barrel would be a pain to hunt with. I like to keep them a bit under 30".

Some love the long rifles. Some love the Hawken style. Both work well. Since I live in the Rockies. The Hawken style appeals to me.

I started with a 40 caliber in the 1960's for deer hunting it really did not leave a good blood trail or put them down fast I had one run over a quarter mile, I up graded to a bigger caliber many times until I got a 62 then I went back to a 54 with a 35.5 inch barrel, it shot the flattest put the deer down the quickest, I also took boar ,elk and bear with it I used 120 grain of RS Pyrodex a ticking patch lubed with bear grease from my first bear.
It actually put deer down at the shot most of the time and did it faster than anything I have shot in my inlines except the Lehigh brass bullets, I actually stuck my fist through the chest of the deer I got during mz. season this year it spun when I hit it and dropped right there.

Nothing better than dropping the game where you shoot them .

I have an old .54 TC Renegade in pristine condition that I stumbled on to a few years back. I have not shot it yet, but my plan is to shoot PRB out of it. Hopefully next spring I can get out and work up a load, and hopefully harvest something with it. Its a beautiful rifle, and I'm a big fan of the .54

I think it will work like a champ :D

I am sure it will I would try 90 gr powder with a 425 gr conical. Good medicine and accurate in mine

I just bought a Renegade that looks unshot. It has a Sharon barrel 1-72 twist, 29", .54. Definitely a PRB only setup which suits me fine.

I've always like the Renegade, because I can shoot it left handed, and not worry about a cheek piece on the wrong side. What side the lock is on doesn't matter much.

Those that know me also know I love shooting round ball. I have numerous rifles and different calibers. Do I doubt the effectiveness of the roundball? Good question. I doubt the effectiveness of any projectile when its not put in the right spot. I have shot and killed a lot of whitetail over the years with a patched roundball. I never had a problem taking them, or tracking them. Do I trust the round ball. Under its limitations. But I personally feel the round ball limitations are more set by the skills of the shooter then the actual ball itself.

Also I have a 42" swamped Early Lancaster rifle. its is a pleasure to carry and to shoot. Free hand it has a almost built in balance point that with that known, a good shooter can do amazing things with it. Although it is too large to sit in my ground blind.

I love the long rifles. The long barrel helps me see the front sight a little better. The longest one i've owned was 36".

They don't work well for my hunting though. I hunt a lot of thick dark timber with lots of blow down. The long barrel is a pain, and i'd get it banged up if I used it all the time. The shorter Hawken style is better for me.

.54 cal roundball is devastating on deer.

No doubt! Mine likes the .530 PRB with 80gr. of 2FT7 out to 50yds, open sights. I won't put a scope on her so she is basically a target range fun gun now with my aged eyes...

I hear ya Steve on the scope. I have not shot open sights in a while, hoping that I'm still good for a little while longer, though I know its going downhill a bit. Dang dollar store readers are an every day necessity now it seems.

Mine came with one of those TC peeps and the std open sights too. Hopefully I should be ok... at least out to about 75yds or so which is probably all I'd want to shoot it in the woods anyhow. Heck, most of my shots ain't that far. We will see :happy0001: I'll probably be picking some of ya'll brains this spring when I shoot her.

I'll kill Deer with a pellet gun. Will it work, yep. Will a round ball work on Deer, yep. Is there more bullets that will kill Deer more effectively, yep!!

45 and 50cal muzzleloaders with round balls is terrible. I could definitely see where bigger is better when it comes to round balls. It's a real toss up to what's worse at 75 yards and under between 50cal rounballs and powerbelts.

I've shot 40 to 50 Deer with patched round balls over my life time. But I refuse to use a bullet that I gotta put in the right spot for it to work. That's great that works for you, and it has very well. But highly suggest people don't do that and they use the best bullet to harvest there game if they don't make the perfect shot. And if you think that's a round ball use it. Way to many variables in hunting out of people's control.

What a beautiful Elk!!

I'm glad that man shot it with his flintlock rifle, he's much more deserving of a trophy like that than some ...Edited by Champlain Islander... wielding an inline!

And for those of you whaa-whaa-ing over projectiles... the doe I shot Saturday was a textbook center heart shot with a center fire rifle chambered for 7-30 Waters. It was approximately 50 yds. from me when I squeezed the trigger and there was barely enough of that deer's heart left to identify when I gutted it but it still ran 75 yards before piling up. It was only a 100 lb. (dressed) doe but it traveled more than twice the distance of his monster Elk.

Hmmm... maybe I should have used one of my .54's with a patched RB... wouldn't have had to drag it as far!! :biggrin:

BPS

Exactly! Easier is not better.

Any person who takes the time to hunt big game and harvest a nice animal deserves the same respect as anyone else. If you feel your at a disadvantage with a flintlock you just need to learn how to use it. All three Elk I've shot, would of been killed just as easy with a Flintlock. And since you wanna call inline shooters some ...edited by Champlain Islander..., go to the primitive forum and learn how to use your a Flintlock and stay off this forum until you can learn to be nice and respect what others can and can't do.

Okay, let me see if I understand this correctly. The guy got within 75 yards of an Elk and shot it with a flintlock so he is more deserving of "trophy" status than if I got within 75 yards of the same animal and shot it with a sidelock percussion .54? Or an Inline .50 within the same range? Just how is it he is a better "hunter" because of the type of ignition system he chooses? Man pulls trigger, gun goes bang. Has absolutely nothing to do with his skills to get within range of an animal. Now yes it does show that he is a good hunter because he got within range for his primitive weapon but I wouldn't consider myself MORE of a hunter because I get within archery range of an animal which is, by the way, MUCH closer than he got! I've taken several Elk with traditional bow and a few with compounds. I don't call myself a "pud" for using my compounds.

So BP, how about you take a little step back there bud and apologize to those of us who use more modern equipment as HUNTERS!!!

He was probably thinking of those who take long shots with scoped inlines.

If you can get within 75yds, or less for a kill. It's good hunting no matter what gun you're using.

I enjoy shooting my T/C renegade a lot. I've gotten the blackpowder bug so bad that I packed it all through centerfire deer season this year.
Mine shoots 75grns Goex under a .530 RB with a .015" patch with either Hoppes for blackpowder liquid lube (my target and rendevous choice) or wonderlube (deer hunting load).
It shoots a Hornady GPB in 425 grns over 100 gr of Goex the best for my elk load.
I didn't even shoot any of my centerfires this year, other than my
7mm/08 to verify zero for my girlfriend to use.

It will, however, be quite a while before I try to take any game with a hawk or knife, lol. I'm happy just to get them to stick. Black powder shoots sure are fun to go to though, my local club has one a month.

Yeah. I wouldn't try killing big game with the hawk and knife. :biggrin:

Love me or hate me... that's NOT gonna happen!

BPS

Right , because that might indicate you realize the stupidity of your asinine statement . A flintlock hunter is a real ...Edited by Champlain islander... compared to a real hunter that uses a matchlock .

Ok, i'm using a spear from now on.

What you use does not make you a good sportsman or a better man, your conduct is the measure of both. I personally get the biggest thrill from a bow so I hunt a lot with a bow letting the fawns grow up and the old doe that has 3 every year walk by is as much common sense as sportsman ship so is letting the spikes and forks walk. Knocking the other fellows fun is dog in the manger stuff.

BPS is passionate about using flintlocks. Nothing wrong with that.

Don't be so sensitive if he thinks everybody should use one. It's his right, and his opinion.

I sort of agree that scoped long shots don't belong in the muzzy season, but that's just me. I'd never try to stop someone from doing it.

I agree , scoped long shots belong in the rifle season not the muzzy season . Peep sight long shots belong in the muzzy season :)

So if someone is passionate about custom inlines shooting blackhorn then it's ok to consider BPS ...edited by Champlain Islander... , after all thats their opinion and their right . I got it now . Thanks Muley

Some do think that way. So what? Who cares what others think?

Just do what makes you happy. Even if that means calling them ...edited by Champlain Islander.... :D

120 grs of FFF is a hot load in a .54...

I love hunting with flintlocks, started in the '70s, used a custom made .45 until bears started getting pretty thick in eastern NC, then I made a .54, it took me 2 years...I've given talks on the American Revolution since the early '80s and simply love the look on students faces when I touch off a flinter...

The .45 I started with??? I had her rebarreled and made her a .40...I now use her for small game hunting...

The neat think about muzzleloading is you can get as deeply into it as you want, it can grow on you...It adds something to the hunt, if you aren't careful, you may learn a little history along the way as well... ;)

The older i get, the more i pray for this result!!!

No kidding as long as it's level.

Wow beautiful pictures nchawkeye that brought my imagination to a time well before my birth. It must have been something during that era. Thanks

How old are you! That's the 18th century.