.54 cal round ball on deer

[azmntman]

Nope. Learned somthing new :thumbsup:

 

[hanshi]

I'm married to a former English teacher who has now written a couple of books. She is brutally straight forward with her critiques.

 

[Danny Ross]

There was a thread on here last fall of a guy's father shooting a whitetail buck at 164yds with a 50cal, using 70grs 3f powder using a roundball. Complete pass through with the ball, deer only went 60yds. I have all the confidence in the world you using 70-80grs of powder whether 2f or 3f and a round ball, will more than do the job you need it to do with your 54cal out to 100yds. You just need to find your most accurate load. DANNY

 

[tenngun]

The short barreled military rifles like the Remington Zouave was loaded with 60-65 grains, a Minnie uses energy better and keeps velocity longer then a ball can, but it was deadly at ranges we wouldn't take a ball today.

 

[Stumpkiller]

And most likely also wouldn't mention it on a thread about .54 round balls. ;-)

 

[hanshi]

One needs to watch out around those .54 prb; I've seen them kill a deer! :shocked2:

 

[tenngun]

Yes we are talking about ball, only added that to show effectiveness of 60-80 grain powder charges. I have noted a range of similar fr pound energy results at muzzle.
Before the advent of minnies that same 60-80 charge was used in some recorded testing on the .54.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I shoot a .530 round ball over top of 70 grains of 3Fg. I've killed a bunch of deer with it. My farthest shot was 110 yards, broadside, passed right through the doe.

LD

 

[irishtoo]

my standard .54 load is 80 gr goex 3f , .526 ball. quite a few deer have been taken and no balls have been recovered. all have been pass thru. im thinking of dropping that charge to 60grs. pa whitetails are not huge creatures. irishtoo.

 

[Sean Gadhar]

Don't feel bad "fater" is a 4 letter word in my house, especially now that I'm in my 50s and getting fater gets ezer & ezer :rotf:

 

[tenngun]

:haha:

 

[pab1]

Fater charges, huh.
?????

Fater charges, huh.
Still wondering, "what is Fater charges"?
Wife says poor typing skills???????????

Among other misspelled words, mosquito was spelled around 20 different ways in the journals of Lewis and Clark. I'm sure some in the east felt superior and scoffed at this. I doubt they stopped to ponder that they hadn't accomplished a fraction of what Lewis and Clark did in just two years over their entire lifetimes.

 

[Elkeater]

She is brutally straight forward with her critiques.

That is one of a wife's many duties. :grin:

 

[hanshi]

:rotf: :surrender:

 

[Snow on the Roof]

Back to the matters at hand. I've killed more than a dozen mid-western whitetails with a .530 round ball. Usually with 82 grains of FF but 70 grains of FFF worked equally. All, but one heart shot doe which went 200 yards, dropped within 50 yards. However, I believe 60 yards was my longest shot.

 

[Billnpatti]

Ok I got a good old cva st.louis hawken in 54. I used to hunt elk with it. The load I used was 90 grains of rs and a cast 380 grain real bullet.do to bad neck and back I can no longer shoot this load. So I was thinking using it on deer with a round ball. Most shots at black tail deer here or under 100 yards. Was thinking like 70-80 grains of FFg a .015 pillow ticking patch and a .530 cast ball should be good. Or should I go with a hotter load?

70 to 80 grains of powder with a .54 cal. round ball will be plenty potent medicine for a deer out to 100 yards. According to the Lyman Black Powder Manual, a 70 grain load will give you 469 ft. pounds of energy at 100 yards and an 80 grain load will give you 495 foot pounds of energy at 100 yards. Here is a handy calculator to give you all of the data for various loads for your rifle.
http://www.ctmuzzleloaders.com/ctml_experiments/rbballistics/rbballistics.html

Scroll down to where it says:

"NEW - A Web Application For Direct Calculations!!

CLICK HERE to open a web application without having to download anything!"

 

[Sean Gadhar]

Took my Hawken .54 out yesterday she liked 80gr FFg Hornady .535 ball & a .015 patch well enough.

Three strings of 3 shots only Swabbed & cooled after the 3rd shot. 50 yard target.



There was enough wind I didn't change anything but she shot like this out to 90 yards then started to drop quite a bit between 90 & 102

 

[jrmflintlock]

I also have killed many Mule deer and elk with 80 grains of FFFg and .530 patched Round ball, its effectiveness at putting down game IMHO is unquestionable.

Don't worry about getting the hottest load your body can handle, The trick is to find a powder load that your rifle shoots accurately and then shot placement after that. You might find 50 or 60 grains shoots better. And to quote another member of the Forum that is still plenty of "whompabilty" on deer out to 50 yards.

:2

 

[BrownBear]

You might find 50 or 60 grains shoots better. And to quote another member of the Forum that is still plenty of "whompabilty" on deer out to 50 yards.

You bring up an important point for deer loads. My wife shoots a 54 most of the time, but HATES the recoil of loads at the heavier end of the scale. She's settled on 60 grains of 3f. It's accurate as a snakebite, and she holds her shots to 50 yards.

All these years later I don't recall any of her deer moving any further than my preferred 90 grain 2f load, and most of them drop virtually in their tracks. Most telling of all, we've never recovered one of her .530 soft lead balls from a deer. They just zip on through, and the deer is fooled into thinking it was whapped with a really hot load. :wink:

Only reason I'm using 90 grains is to flatten the trajectory. I sight in at 75 yards, putting the ball around an inch high at 50 and 4-5 low at 100. Hers is sighted in dead on at 50, and she could give a flying nun what it's doing further out.

 

[cynthialee]

One of the three deer I have shot with a muzzle loader was with a patched .530 ball pushed by 80 grains of 3f
It planted the deer on the spot. She got hit, dropped on the spot, bleated one time and by the time I walked up to where she was she was expired.

Out of all the deer I have eaten she was the most tender. Every other deer I have shot or been there when the deer was shot, they usually go some amount of yards in a run then it is over. I think that run makes the meat a little tougher and not as yummy.

Same when I used to hunt rabbits. Rabbits that die on the spot were much better tasting than the ones who got in a short run before death.

I love the .530 roundball. It has a lot of whompability which is what I want when I shoot a deer. I don't like blood tracking or going too far into brush as my health isn't up to large challenges.