.50cal round ball drop

[coloradoclyde]

Balls also shoot flatter and retain more velocity at high altitude than they do down on the flats....
If the elk is down hill you have another trajectory advantage.....

 

[tenngun]

Why would any body block seeing someone else's post? Are we not hear to share ideas? I don't agree with everything everybody says but I sure enjoy reading about it. We can't learn unless we expose our selfs to other ideas. I've read Gilgamesh the bible and the Koran. Left wingers and right wingers, Howard zinn and David Limbaugh.
If one ask a question about 150 yard hunting shots expect answers from people who have done it and people who look at energy decrease in a round ball at that range and think it a bad idea.

 

[FrontierMuzzleloading]

thats what blocking someone is supposed to do. Get rid of them seeing you and you from seeing them. Get rid of those that irritate you and add nothing to your experience. Then again, this place acts funky. On some posts, you hit go to page TWO and its still on page ONE :idunno:

But anyway, I was just trying to remember what that 50cal ball did at 150 yards as far as drop.

I got the .54cal and .58cal info down, just need to get back to the range with the .50 and work from there.

 

[tenngun]

Just saw a new story about how the university of Wisconsin is taking some paintings down from public viewing of the first French men comming to the Wisconsin territory, as just looking at those paintings can damage ones soul. Now those paintings can only be seen by appointment.
Just made me go hmmmm.

 

[coloradoclyde]

But anyway, I was just trying to remember what that 50cal ball did at 150 yards as far as drop.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=round+ball+ballistic+computer

When you block people you limit your ability to learn...

 

[BrownBear]

And another thread bites the dust. Talk about zombies and the living dead, this one may be setting a new record for foolishness.

 

[Katahdin]

Dalai Lama is credited with saying:
"When you talk, you are only repeating already know,
But when you listen you may learn something new..

Anyway enough time spent on this.

 

[Cowboy]

And another thread bites the dust. Talk about zombies and the living dead, this one may be setting a new record for foolishness.

I agree 100%!

One thing that comes to my mind is our new members. What do they think when they see the bashing, name calling, and pettiness that this topic has turned into?

We are all here to learn and share with one another. We are the greatest forum out there and we should set higher standards in our conduct for all to see.

We shouldn't belittle or talk down to one another. We are much better then that!

Our forum is a friendly place where all are welcome to learn and share.

This forum is the very best by far when it comes to Traditional Muzzleloading and BP shooting!

We are the forum!

Respectfully, Cowboy

 

[Rick Richard]

I am a rather new member and I will give you my opinion since it was sort of mentioned what a new guy would think.

I have already learned a lot from the various topics discussed on this forum and have been able to rectify some of the issues I have been confronted when shooting traditional rifles. I hope to continue to pick up bits of knowledge that folks are willing to share and to grow in this sport. However, there are too often threads that are less than a healthy debate and verge on down right disrespect. Another observation such as this response is that responses to threads seem to become tangents to someone else's response and get completely off the subject of the original post.

I belong to another GANG of traditional shooters that most of what I have seen on this forum would not have ever been tolerated and if it did happen it would not be for long.

I really like this forum and hope I am not chastised for voicing my opinion.

 

[mooman76]

Disagreements are bound to happen and sometimes get out of hand. I'm sure this thread is about to be locked which happens when they get out of hand or are counter productive.

 

[FrontierMuzzleloading]

simple questions are sometimes the hardest to get a SIMPLE answer to :haha: I didn't ask personal opinions on whats to far to shoot because of some numbers. I don't recall ever reading about fur trappers or woods runners of the east sitting down and say... Say jed, 'ye think we shootin these guns to far at dem thar critters? 'Sholy we shootins at least 1,800 feet per second. :rotf:

 

[Walks with fire]

I can't say how much drop it would be for sure but shooting an 8" pie plate with a .50 caliber .495 ball from a GM 1/70 twist barrel sighted dead on at 100 yards with 100 grain Goex 3f doesn't require me to hold up much of the front sight to get hits at 150 yards. I would shoot at a whitetail from a good rest without a second thought if it were wounded already. I love that dang barrel.

I don't know how fast it's going either but I would guess it's over 2000 fps. at the muzzle. It likes that load and it's not too hot either.

 

[tenngun]

:haha:
In all truth we are doing what they did back then. They lived with the guns and passed along experience. We have some hard science today. A few guys in Europe experimented with balistic pendulums but the info wasn't wildly disiminated to boys beyound the pale. No one guessed at the effect of air drag on a ball in transonic velocities. Concepts like a .490 with a .15 patch compared to a .495 and a .10 were nonexistent. A 6 inch group at a hunndred yards was more then plenty for a hunter, if that's the best you can do don't go to friendship.
On line it is easy to get huffy and say things you wouldn't face to face over a fire.
All of us have something to say, and something to add.
They did things that didn't work, but they did a lot that did, even if they did it for the wrong reasons. Most of the time science can only confirm rule of thumb, some times rule of thumb is just an old wife's tale.

 

[coloradoclyde]

However, there are too often threads that are less than a healthy debate and verge on down right disrespect. Another observation such as this response is that responses to threads seem to become tangents to someone else's response and get completely off the subject of the original post.

Don't read too much into peoples disagreements
At the end of the day, most of us are still friends. Sometimes I learn more from the tangents than I do from the topics...Remember, this isn't television.... :haha: :v

 

[Onojutta]

answer to the drop at 150yds,,excessive,and very little energy left...

Yes, that's the company line, and most people base their shooting practices on it. Same people who sight their guns in for 50 yards because "you never get shots further than that east of the Mississippi." Some people who really dig in and find out the actual conditions, though, understand that's not correct. A .490 ball fired at 1700 fps MV will drop only 10+ inches below POA at 150 yards when sighted at 100 yards, and will still be traveling almost 1000 fps when it gets there. That will do the job if put in the right spot. In the right conditions a good shooter can put it in the right spot, especially if he understands what his rifle is doing, and has taught himself to shoot beyond 50 yards.

Spence

That phrase is key. What is the starting angle of the trajectory? I can shoot a PRB to have zero drop at 150 yards or 500 yards or any range for that matter up to its maximum distance if I aim the gun up at the right angle- this is what we are doing when we zero in a gun at a particular yardage.

 

[George]

It's not possible to shoot a round ball or any other bullet without drop. Every bullet begins to drop the instant it leaves the muzzle and continues to drop at a constant rate as long as it's in the air. When you say you can shoot at any distance without drop, what is really happening is that you are compensating for the drop, canceling it out.

Two different ways of describing drop, true drop and perceived drop. True drop is what I described above. Perceived drop is what appears to our eye...if we aim directly at a spot, shoot and hit it, we can say there is no drop. We understand that's not really so, it's a convenient way of saying the gun is sighted in for that distance.

In these discussions, we sometimes have confusion because not everyone is using the same definition of drop.

Spence

 

[Onojutta]

I'm not sure you understood my post.

The statement was made that a .50 PRB will drop 10 inches at 150 yards if it is sighted at 100 yards. [which I take to mean "zeroed" at 100 yards]

Well that little piece of information about what distance the rifle is sighted for makes a big difference. Drop at a certain distance is relative to the initial angle of trajectory.

To answer what I think the OP was asking, we need to consider the PRB fired from a gun that is level, or has an initial angle of 0 degrees. In this case you get a much greater "drop" than the case where the rifle is angled upward to be zeroed or sighted in at 100 yards.

 

[George]

To answer what I think the OP was asking, we need to consider the PRB fired from a gun that is level, or has an initial angle of 0 degrees. In this case you get a much greater "drop" than the case where the rifle is angled upward to be zeroed or sighted in at 100 yards.

Yes, a gun fired with a zero angle will hit below the target an amount equal to true drop.

A gun sighted in for 100 yard is not level when it is fired. It's angled upward enough to cancel the true drop at 100 yards. What the OP was asking is how far below POA the ball would fall if fired from that same angle and with the same sight picture.

If he wanted to 'sight in' the gun so that it hit exactly where it is aimed at 150 yards, It would have to be tilted up a little more. In neither case will the angle be zero.

Spence

 

[JustACountryBoy]

I agree 100%!

One thing that comes to my mind is our new members. What do they think when they see the bashing, name calling, and pettiness that this topic has turned into?

We are all here to learn and share with one another. We are the greatest forum out there and we should set higher standards in our conduct for all to see.

We shouldn't belittle or talk down to one another. We are much better then that!

Our forum is a friendly place where all are welcome to learn and share.

This forum is the very best by far when it comes to Traditional Muzzleloading and BP shooting!

We are the forum!

Respectfully, Cowboy

This is a very old thread, yes, but this is the exact reason I stopped perusing and posting on Quora.

 

[Dave Grindle]

I assume that since you are on this forum, you are shooting a traditional muzzleloading rifle and not one of those modern scoped abominations. Those devices are not discussed here.

You didn't say if you were planning to shoot at an animal at distances greater than 100 yards or if you were just punching paper but for hunting purposes when an animal is involved as the target, a traditional muzzleloading rifle is a 100 yard weapon. The reason is quite simple, a round ball, because of its shape, looses momentum very quickly after 100 yards regardless of the amount of powder you put in the bore. As it looses momentum it looses energy and as it looses energy, it looses killing power. All taken together, after about 100 yards, the probability of wounding rather than killing an animal greatly increases. :nono: Any ethical hunter with a traditional muzzleloader will limit his shots at animals to 100 yards or less.

On the other hand, if you are shooting paper and no animal's life is at stake, the sky is the limit at which you can attempt to hit a target. For those purposes, just use a good round ball ballistics calculator along with a chronograph to find out where your ball will be at these long ranges and have fun. Attempting to hit a paper or metallic target at long ranges with a traditional muzzleloader can be a lot of fun. Here is a round ball ballistics calculator: http://www.ctmuzzleloaders.com/ctml_experiments/rbballistics/rbballistics.html If you don't want to download it into your computor, you don't have to. Just scroll down to the bottom where it says "CLICK HERE to open a web application without having to download anything!"

HELLO, Just a thought,
Black powder, basic rifle, no scope, 50 cal ball. ..one shot.
There is a satisfaction of perfecting the shot...the form.
The shooting of my 1858 New Army 44, again, a personal satisfaction. You don't need anybody else's approval or condemnation....Just a good feeling you could.
Now , if you are hunting, remember, you got 1 chance...make it a good one.
That is skill that You have developed...none other.
Have a good one.