Patched round ball deer

A round ball doesnt touch the rifling itself, the patch does. What distance do you sight in and what grouping do you get with your chosen load. Out of a quality bore, a properly loaded patched round ball can prove deadly accurate at the ranges it was truly intended for and that is 25 to 50 yards. Shooting roundballs costs half as much as anything else. Barrel twist should be at least 148, 160 is better. A lyman great plains will be a 60 twist and like the same patch and ball unless its the gp hunter. Round balls are effective on close range big game animals. I chose to start with patched round balls to get a feel for the rifle before i decide if i want to experiment with conical bullets. My question is are round balls humane on deer when shot in the vitals at close range. Patched round ball gun and game the friendliest gun. Zouavemusketrb north american muzzleloader hunting. Ive seen conflicting infosome say 6070 grains for a. I do believe that larger calibers such as 5462 are more suited to larger game, such as elk or moose. I harvested a black bear a couple seasons back with a 54 cal flintlock.

Spend some time at the range and i think you will be surprised at how well your rigle will perform with a little less powder. I dont think i need to mention the bc of a round ball is horrid. Tight patched round ball over the heavy powder charge is still the best shooter at 100 yards in my tc hawken. The future of traditional muzzleloader hunting mule deer, elk. That ball isnt made for big game all the typical brain washed fubar where some think you need plastic, ss, scoped and high priced pretty shaped bullets in order to down game. More shooting means more confidence and less flinching. Ball, patch, powder combination to start deer hunting forums. Will 1 50 grain pellet kill deer out to 50 yards in a. I shoot a lot plan old lead balls in my hawken rifle.

Black powder deer hunting using a patched round ball from the ground. A kit with all the high quality components needed to fire 10 traditional round balls with your favorite. The patched round ball challenge hunt page 2 hunt talk. For deer hunting i still prefer the patched round ball in a. Hawkins loaded with 83 grains fff goex and a patched round ball.

My deer rifle is a hawken woodsman percussion rifle from traditions. If you buy a tradional style hawken that has a slow twist barrel 148 or slower then a 490 patched round ball with about 85gr of 2f will make a nice hunting load that will be good out to a 100 yards. The first deer i ever shot with a muzzle loader was with a. First deer with a patched round ball hornady manufacturing, inc.

But in the little 45 the maxi at 220 grains is no heavier than the larger round balls. It was by far the most accurate load in that gun, and while labeled light by a lot of guys, it killed with alacrity. Work up a good accurate load somewhere between 5070 gr. Truth is i have never needed to take a shot at a deer any further than that. This evening i skinned and quartered the carcass of the. Minimum deerkilling muzzleloading loads for young and. Bullet weight is one thing you might consider though. The wide range of round ball loads for plinking and small game hunting make the rifle versatile. I have since switched most of my ml deer hunting to a. The patch round ball challenge long range hunting forum.

Personally, i have achieved passthrough of large deer standing broadside to me at 100 yards with only 70 grains of 3fg and a. I was really satisfied with how the round ball performed. Those are 32 inch twist and are for sabots or conicals. View profile view forum posts private message senior member. Traditionalmldata1 north american muzzleloader hunting. While thats not exactly 100 percent correct, the number of shooters and hunters who still do has been in a serious. The deer took two shots to get on the ground and neither exited. The lightest projectile in this caliber is a patched round ball.

My first muzzleloader deer came in ny back when only a patched round ball was legal. Serious target competitors commonly load with a ball thats just. Have a hawken style rifle that i want to use a patched round ball in. I am shooting 60 grains 3f goex and a patched round ball in my. It seems i am the only one who doesnt believe round balls to be the an efficient way to harvest deer. I just bought a nice, used lyman great plains rifle with the 1. I have been hunting with muzzleloaders for four decades and can tell you from experience that patched round balls can and will kill quickly and efficiently. Your rifle will either like a 490 gr ball or a 495 depending on the bore tightness.

I shot my first traditional muzzleloader deer tonight and have now harvested a deer. Im happy with the way it is shootingis this an adequate load for deer, or do i need to try to increase the charge. Also, traditional muzzleloader only shooting orgnizations generally require the use of patched round ball only during official muzzleloading target competition. Pyrodex powder, i forget what i bought last time but it. I have a very good idea of what kinds of shoots i can make with it. It might be helpful to know what rifling twist your rifle has, to determine whether a prb patched round ball or a conical would work best in your rifle. Patched round balls punched 2inch groups at 75 yards with 70 grains of goex ffg blackpowder and goex ffffg primer. The newer hawkens like those by tc were designed to shoot the maxi ball that is a bullet style projectile.

If i get 3 inch groups at 50 yards i consider that good for deer hunting. Ff powder, pillow ticking patch bore butter, from a deer. Poking a long hole in any animal smaller than a fullgrown holstein will put it on the ground. In the typical lightweight rifles that a young hunter can handle 67 lbs. That 148 grain bullet sat over the top of 60 grains of fff. If i had a larger bore mz rifle id not hesitate to use a round ball for deer. Accuracy is more important than power, and different combinations are required for each gun. For me, round ball guns are best considered 100 yard guns for deer. And the smoother, rounder surface assures better rotation and consistency. Includes 1200 grains of extra fine black powder, 10 flawless. I am feeling really good after 9 days of hunting in southern. If you have a really loose bore a 495 ball may be needed. Traditions hawken woodsman muzzleloader deer hunt youtube.

Are you considering ragged hole accuracy for target shooting, squirrel hunting, what is it. A cheap 12 gauge single shot shooting a slug is the very worst choice to introduce a person to deer hunting based on the recoil energy. A 50 round ball and 80 to 90grs of powder is plenty for black bear. No pointsense in magnumizing a ml firing a patched round ball. Now im not sure if the patch gets spun off the ball or if patch and ball just skims the rifling but either way a round ball wont shoot for squat out of a fast twist barrel unless you cut the powder down to an absolute minimum which makes it impractical for most purposes. I know we got people here that use muzzle loading firearms, but i am curious as to how many here used patched round ball to fill their tag. I shoot mainly patched round balls for deer, but for bear i like the added energy of the maxi ball. Theyre cold swaged from pure lead which eliminates air pockets and voids common to cast balls. I have been fortunate enough to have taken a deer with a rifle, compound bow, longbow, shotgun, single action pistol and now a traditional muzzleloader. Ff powder, pillow ticking patchbore butter, from a deer. Of the deer ive personally taken with round balls only two went as much as 50 feet from the point where they were shot. Im not suggesting that shot but that tells me it has adequate penetration to at least 200 yards.