.40cal Experiment

[roundball]

All loaded and ready to go...but winds are kicking up to 18mph this afternoon...may just wait until tomorrow.

 

[Greenmtnboy]

[/quote]

I think in CO we have a single projectile restriction for our big game seasons.

[/quote]
ya that is true and we can't use a 45 cal R.B.at all because it does not meet the weight requirement.

 

[Skychief]

All loaded and ready to go...but winds are kicking up to 18mph this afternoon...may just wait until tomorrow.

Ahhh...get out there Roundball! I want something interesting to read tonight! :haha:

Good luck, Skychief.

 

[gmww]

Actually it would be interesting to see how the wind would effect two projectiles launched at the same time.

 

[longcruise]

All loaded and ready to go...but winds are kicking up to 18mph this afternoon...may just wait until tomorrow.

Sissy! :haha:

Winds at my house have calmed down to 30 mph from 90 mph on Sat. :shocked2: When this happens in North Carolina they call it a Hurricane. Where I live we just call it a bad day for hanging the wash.

Good decision though. Eighteen mph wind could throw your results way off.

 

[roundball]

Actually, the place I'm going is down in a little sheltered ravine so there would be no effect on the PRBs...it just seems from past experince that deer move less when the trees are swaying, and blowing a lot of the fall leaves off the trees here now, the woods are in a constant state of motion...and they lose one of their senses (sight) to detect motion...tend to move more after the wind dies some, normally after dark on a day like this.

All that said, the forcast has softened and its now predicted to only be 10-11mph winds so I'm leaving in a few minutes

 

[roundball]

All loaded and ready to go...but winds are kicking up to 18mph this afternoon...may just wait until tomorrow.

Sissy! :haha:

Winds at my house have calmed down to 30 mph from 90 mph on Sat. :shocked2: When this happens in North Carolina they call it a Hurricane. Where I live we just call it a bad day for hanging the wash.

Good decision though. Eighteen mph wind could throw your results way off.

Yeah, but your dumb mule deer haven't got sense to come in out of the rain...LOL

 

[BrownBear]

...it just seems from past experince that deer move less when the trees are swaying, and blowing a lot of the fall leaves off the trees here now, the woods are in a constant state of motion...and they lose one of their senses (sight) to detect motion...tend to move more after the wind dies some, normally after dark on a day like this.

Interesting insight about eastern whitetails. It's certainly true for the Columbia blacktail, Sitka blacktail, mule deer and Coues whitetail I have hunted over the years.

But it's the first time I've seen anyone mention it as a factor in their eastern whitetail hunts.

Deer are deer, I guess, no matter where you find them. :wink:

 

[hanshi]

Single projectile restriction here, too.

 

[SgtSchutzen]

No projectile or caliber restrictions here in Michigan. All the rulebook says is that all muzzleloading rifles, shotguns, and handguns must be loaded with either black powder or a commercially available black powder substitute.

 

[Tumblernotch]

No projectile or caliber restrictions here in Michigan. All the rulebook says is that all muzzleloading rifles, shotguns, and handguns must be loaded with either black powder or a commercially available black powder substitute.

In WV the smallest ML you can use is .38 cal. Also, you can't use a swivel barrel or any other double and you can't use a converted ML such as a cartridge type single barrel shotgun that has been converted to ML. (Huh, kinda sounds like an in&%^$ don't it? :hmm: )

 

[roundball]

I was reminded late this afternoon why I don't take small game calibers deer hunting.

I hunted overlooking a wide 'bottom' adjacant to a clear-cut and just before dark 2 Does came poking slowly alongside a drainage ditch about 50-60 yards away.
I had zero confidence in the little .40cal at that distance and just sat there watching in hopes they'd change course but they stayed on the other side of that big ditch and just walked on past.

The realization hit me that I still have 3 Does tags left, that was an opportunity missed, and the days are ticking off...if I'd had any of my other Flintlocks, I'd have delivered a Doe tonight.

So the .40cal experiment is going on the back burner...the sooner I get after the other Does, the sooner I can drag my .40cal squirrel rifle back out for squirrels...

 

[Skychief]

:hmm:

 

[BrownBear]

Works for me. When trying something new and maybe marginal, maybe not, it pays to be conservative. If you'd already had good luck at 40 or something like that, you'd have lots more info before taking the shot.

 

[123.DieselBenz]

Are you allowed to take two guns?

 

[roundball]

Works for me. When trying something new and maybe marginal, maybe not, it pays to be conservative. If you'd already had good luck at 40 or something like that, you'd have lots more info before taking the shot.

Correct...and distance was more of a mitigating factor than just terminal ballistics...it would exaggerate any POI problems there might have been with the 80grn charge/double ball load which I'd never shot on paper...had no idea where it would print.

I did feel that it would at least be minute of deer at the 25yds the rifle was zeroed at with the 40grn squirrel load and is why I set a modest limit...but an unknown load at 50-60yds would have been a crap-shoot...could have been off a paper plate at that distance, etc...

 

[Tumblernotch]

Roundball, I know that others may have had different results with the .40 on deer, but I'll relate 2 experiences I had with one on deer. First time was when I shot a doe at no more than 15 yards with her facing me. I was using a 70 gr. charge. I must have pulled off enough to miss the heart (I wasn't expecting her and it was a snap shot), but I did hit her in the chest area. She didn't even flinch and in fact walked past me close enough that I could have touched her with my barrel if I would've extended my arm out. I reloaded and waited then tracked the blood trail for a while and it petered out. The second time, I shot a doe at about 10 yards just behind the shoulder. This time she jumped a little then trotted down the hill and across a draw. She stopped about 75 yds away and watched as I reloaded. Then she turned and went out of sight. I saw the ball hit her and actually found a small plug of flesh on the ground where it exited. Anyway, after a reasonable time I went to tracking. Where she had stopped the first time I found a pool of blood over a foot in diameter. Another 100 yds farther on I found another. After that the blood drops got fewer and there were no more pools. I eventually lost her trail amongst a bunch of other deer tracks. I can't be sure about the first shot, but I know that the second should have put the deer on the ground. I decided then that I would never use a .40 for deer again. A 90 gr. ball just doesn't deliver enough shock. I know that it should and can damage a heart enough to kill one, but anyone who has killed a deer knows that they can do amazing things even with their heart blown apart in some cases. I killed a buck once with a Whitworth slug that weighed 560 grs. It blew the heart up as well as a lung and that deer ran over 100 yds before dying. I did later kill another buck with my .40, but that was after loading it with a 172 gr. .41 conical that had been hollowpointed with a ball screw. If it's legal to do so in your state, 2 balls might do the trick though I don't know how it will affect your accuracy. Guess you'll just have to try it. If I was ever to try to hunt deer again with a .40 roundball, I would probably limit myself to a head shot.

 

[Herb]

Click on "Search" in the blue bar at top. When that comes up, choose "advanced search". Type in "double ball", use the quotes. Don't put in a name, but choose "on any date". I got 282 hits. Bound to be some info in there. Here is one: http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showpost.php?post/652845/

 

[necchi]

Page copies from a T/C’s owner’s manual, .45/.50cal double ball load data:

This isn't really from a TC manual is it.?
Which one?

 

[roundball]

http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showpost.php?post/652845/

Wow, that was a trip back down memory lane...2008...I guess the reality is if a .40cal was all I happened to have and I needed the extra 'ummph', a double ball load would potentially offer some sort of an alternative.
But...the risk of the bore obstruction is a nagging one...and unlike in my days of an easily replaced drop in T/C or GM barrel, damaging a custom fitted barrel puts a whole rifle out of commission until the costly replacement has been taken care of.
My .40cal Lancaster is an excellent target and small game gun...I may just return to my 2008 thinking and leave well enough alone