.54 Caliber Round Ball Drop?

[Seeking Trad Deer]

Any idea how much a roundball would drop or lift from 10 yards out to 75 yards if shot out of a Lyman DeerStalker .530 Hornady Ball pushed by a .20 prelubed patch and 75 grains +/- Swiss 2F.

:bow:

 

[Wes/Tex]

Hard to say without knowing the actual velocity but assuming a velocity in the 1800 to 2000 fps. range the trajectory would run about on the order of...

1 inch high @ 50 yds.; 1 inch low @ 100 yds; 6 inches low @ 125 yds.

You'll have to fine-tune from there. Good luck. :thumbsup:

 

[paulvallandigham]

The barrel length controls how much velocity that 75 grain charge will generate, but even if the muzzle velocity is 1500 fps. by the time the ball reaches 75 yards it will have slowed to about 1100-1200 fps.

Trajectory is still fairly flat because the ball is still traveling above the speed of sound.

Rather than worry about ball drop, think of the bead on that front sight. It is most likely a 6 to 8 inch bead, meaning that at 100 yards, it will cover a bullseye that is 6 to 8 inches in diameter. At 75 yards, that is at least 4 inches. The drop in that ball with that load is going to be less than the diameter of that front sight bead, and you are not going to be able to hold fine enough for the drop of the ball to make any difference, when hunting.

 

[Todd Rickard]

About 6.5 to 7 inches of true drop, if your ball left the muzzle at 1800 fps. Remember the trajectory of the ball is an arc that will intersect the line of sight twice, once on the way to the peak of the arc (near the muzzle) and once as it drops back through. In reality your gun will shoot on target at 75yrds if the ball drops through the line of sight at that range.

 

[JiminTexas]

I keep seeing this same posting and people still don't undewrstand the basic physics behind it all. In a vaccuum a .54 cal round ball will "drop" at the same rate as a 30/06 round or a 12Lb. cannon ball round or a brick. They will all fall at 33 ft/sec/sec. (at sea level on Earth)That's 33 feet per second, per second. In air we have to add the drag coefficient to the formula. From the instant of drop the object will begin falling and at the end of one second the object will be falling at 33 feet per second (minus the drag coefficient). At the end of two seconds it will be dropping at 66 feet per second and after three seconds at 99 feet per second until it reaches terminal velocity (again both minus the drag coefficients). The terminal velocity of any one object can be computed using a somewhat complicated mathematical formula, but the end result is that for our purposes the "drop will never reach terminal velocity because we aren't going to have the projectile in the air for that long of a time, unless we are shooting something at 10,000 yards away or more. Now the drag coefficient is important to us because it will determine how quickly the bullet slows down after it leaves the barrel. It also affects the terminal velocity of the object (that's how a parachute works) The muzzle velocity is important because it will tell us how long it will take the bullet to reach the target. Considering that the "drop" is a non-linear function (it will show on a graph of drop speed Vs. time as a curve, not as a straight line), the computation of the drop over a distance becomes pretty complicated. It is much easier to just shoot a round into a target at 50 yards and then using the same point of aim, shoot one into a target at 100 yards and measure the diference in impact points.

Now what is the point of all this? Stop wasting your time with trying to guess or calculate the "drop" and go out there and shoot the dad blamed gun and see what it does!

 

[Walks with fire]

If I am thinking right; the Deerstalker is a 24" barrel and 75 grains pushing a 230 grain ball should get you about 1500-1550 fps. Dead on at 10 yards should put you about 2" low at 75 yards. Sighted in at 2" high at 50 yards should put you on at 100. I can't believe the 24" barrel and 75 grains of powder will get you 1800 fps. but I have never had a .54 cal. so I can't say for sure what it would do.

My 50 caliber carbine (21" barrel) with .495 ball (182 grain) sighted on at 50 with 80 grains of Goex 2f will be a little less than 2" low at 75 yards. Your .54 will have a bit more thump at the target and a very similar trajectory. My 50 does get around 1800 at the muzzle with 80 grains and .495 ball but would only do about 1475 fps. with a 240 grain ball-et.

I would not be too concerned with the drop or the power level for targets or even whitetails at 75 yards. I have found 80-90 grains of 2f about ideal for a carbine barrel. Yours is a 1/48 twist I think so your load sounds good for accuracy. Try it at the range going from 50-90 grains in 10 grain increments and fine tune it from there.

 

[FishDFly]

JiminTexas,

How did people figure where their rifle shot before the computer and the internet.

Maybe, just may be, people could do as you suggest, shot their gun. You just maybe on the cutting edge of technology on ball drop and how to calculate where the ball where will fall.

RDE

 

[playfarmers]

I have the Deerstalker in .50 cal, and with 80g of Pyrodex RS I get about 1750 fps with a .495 ball. I sight my rifle in for about 2" high at 50 yards and it hits bang on at 80. I agree with the idea of just shooting the rifle, a LOT. The first year I had my Deerstalker, I took it out gopher shooting several times, and shot it almost every weekend all year. I have no problem taking a whitetail as far off as 100 yards with this rifle, because of all the practice with it.

 

[Seeking Trad Deer]

Stop wasting your time with trying to guess or calculate the "drop" and go out there and shoot the dad blamed gun and see what it does!

I agree that shooting the gun is best. However, with three kids and a busy job I can only get to the range to shoot my gun about once each month right now. Thus, my post here.

I thank everyone for their posts thus far. I learn a great amount on this site and it has helped me become a better hunter.