.50 or .54 for deer?

[AZ-Robert]

Meant to say that the difference in the trajectories of the .50 and .54 at BP trajectories was pretty small, but got timed out on editing that. Comparing, say, a .36 to a .54 would get you a difference worth measuring.

Looking at the .58 just for comparison...

0.570" ball
ballistic coefficient: 0.080
weight: 276 grains

... shot with 100 grains of 2F from a 32" barrel should get you about 1460 fps of muzzle velocity.

 

[Herb]

Boone- either the .50 or .54 loaded with full power loads as posted here will work well. I doubt there is much practical difference. I have killed mule deer and antelope with a .54, but have not hunted with a .50. Shot placement is very important. I have also hunted a lot of cattail marshes including in North Dakota, for deer and pheasants, but not with a muzzleloader. Wasn't into them then. But you want to be really careful of firing a ML in a dry cattail marsh, or switchgrass CRP, if it is dry and windy. I prescribe burned thousands of acres of cattail and seeded grasslands similar to CRP for habitat management during my career. You may have seen cattail or switchgrass burn, and if you have you know what I mean.

 

[barebackjack]

Amen to that. We do alot of burns in the fall for disease control on the crops.

A good thick cattail slough will get you 75 foot high flames.

Boone

 

[leadball]

dont know about a 54 but I have not had any trouble killing deer with a 50 prb. But thats all i hunt and an occasional black bear over bait.

 

i pass up all shots over 100 yds with my hawkins .50cal.most of bucks i killed for 40 years have been under 80[url] yards.in[/url] fact, in all those years i have only saw about, oh, 5 nice buck over 125 yards. bucks here in pa. dont stand out in a field unless you are hunting on private property.on state lands, they are wild deer and dont come into field until after dark..50cal is one i would own ONLY because you can get supplies at wal-mart etc. most stores dont carry .54 cal supplies.as for shooting to 125 yds, roundball would be better at that than me.if the .54 cal is heavier, i would use .50 cal. .45 to 58 cal will all take a[url] deer.in[/url] the depression here,many used just a .22cal to get deer to live.45 gr bullets .now we shoot a .50cal rb .only advantage i see between a flintlock and in-line is you can put scope on the in-line and see and shoot better. other than that, in-line and flintlock are same with open sights for deer.