.54 Power & Range?

[brewer12345]

The question wasn't "how far should you shoot a deer". The question actually was how far can the described rifle do it.

I thought it was an interesting question. We have discussed ad nauseam how far we can shoot or how we each limit our shots but this question asks us to separate the rifle from the shooter and only examine the capability of the rifle.

If the nut behind the trigger can't make the shot, it does not matter what the rifle can do.

 

[tenngun]

I am put in mind of the statement made about the kings musket inthe eighteenth century’ I say and can prove if called on that no man has ever been killed by the kings musket at one hundred and fifty yards by some one who aimed at him’
A fat ball could be lethal to a deer at velocities as low as 150- 200 fps, so maybe four to five hundred yards(?)

 

[Griz44Mag]

The question wasn't "how far should you shoot a deer". The question actually was how far can the described rifle do it.

I thought it was an interesting question. We have discussed ad nauseam how far we can shoot or how we each limit our shots but this question asks us to separate the rifle from the shooter and only examine the capability of the rifle.

Max is determined by shot placement. ALWAYS. How far is the gun actually lethal? SHOT PLACEMENT will determine that.
So ETHICAL shots are the maximum lethal distance THAT THE SHOOTER CAN ATTAIN. If you are good enough to hit a deer in the eyeball at 1000 yards, then that would be the answer. That would be lethal. Stupid, but lethal. That same 1000 yards in a body shot would probably not be.
The rifle and the shooter are one, you cannot separate the two issues. If you try - then you are not ethical, then the answer is 0 yards.
Ballistic charts are everywhere. Taylors index for lethal shots on game are readily available. AGAIN - even those indexes are predicated on the shooters ability to make ETHICAL and specific shots.

 

[Ben Meyer]

75yds is about as far as I'm gonna shoot at a deer with iron sighted guns. Could I hit it at 100? Absolutely. Would my shot result in a fast ethical kill? Maybe. If you find yourself saying "maybe" in regards to your kill shots, you need to dial back the yardage. That holds true for any hunting arm, with any caliber, optic, whatever. I got guns for longer distance hunting. I have a Blackpowder gun for longer distance hunting.

Iron sights=75 yds

 

[sawyer04]

Just what is the answer? And what range could you also hunt a yote with it?

As others say. I would say the big 50 is good from 70 to 100 yards, and polish your expertise will accomplish more yardage. Practice makes perfect.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Guys for whitetails, assuming a crack shot with a .54 caliber round ball slow twist rifle with a
large charge of powder, what’s the range you wood feel comfortable hunting the white tailed deer?

Have read to keep it at 50 yards or under, some say all the way up to 150 yards??

Just what is the answer? And what range could you also hunt a yote with it?

OK so IF you're asking what the rifle can probably do..., the answer is 150 yards with open iron sights, but probably better to be using a peep at that distance. Out to 120 though no worries. That's with a minimum of 70 grains of powder and a patched .530 round ball against white tail or even mule deer.

What you can do?....It's always a huge part of the question, what can the shooter see and do.
"Crack shot"? It's not a difficult shot IF the marksman can see the deer well enough. It's not a shooting contest so you as the shooter are allowed to use a rest to help sight the rifle at the target...in fact I very highly recommend it.

WHY do I know the range limits so well. My farthest shot, on a very large whitetail doe is 110 yards. I thought she was under 100 yards which is where my sights are set. Standing broadside to me the ball went right through both sides and she went about 20 yards. Ball went right were I aimed give or take about 2". The rifle has a 38" barrel and the rifle a single trigger. I used a tree upon which I placed my left hand, palm forward, and hung my left thumb open, resting the rifle in the crook of the thumb and hand. Standing with my legs a proper distance apart, I formed a tripod for the rifle.

On a 'yote... well IF you can get them to pause long enough to acquire them in the sights...out to 100 yards you'll hammer one....(well even out to 150 but using a peep I'm not sure of how fast you will be compared to how long they will pause) I don't know if you will be able to get that close. Where I'm at we are engaging them at more than 200 yards across a field and using optics to get on them before they disappear back into the brush.....and not with muzzleloaders...

LD

 

[Tom A Hawk]

Sometimes it depends on the wind. The rear sight on my .54 caplock Hawken has a stepped elevation bar and just for fun one day I tried hitting a rock at about 300 yards. There was a bit of a cross wind and I was shocked to see how far off the mark the balls were hitting.

 

[Coot]

The question wasn't "how far should you shoot a deer". The question actually was how far can the described rifle do it.

I thought it was an interesting question. We have discussed ad nauseam how far we can shoot or how we each limit our shots but this question asks us to separate the rifle from the shooter and only examine the capability of the rifle.

Actually, the OP's question was "whats the range you would feel comfortable hunting the white tailed deer?" This doesn't sound like an "only the rifle" question to me. I see it as being able to be addressed as a three part question:

1) At what range does the ball still retain enough energy to make a lethal hit? - I don't know the answer but it is for sure much further that we can safely or ethically shoot with iron sights and under hunting conditions.
2) At what range can we see well enough with iron or peep sights to correctly place a shot. An additional issue is the rapid drop of the ball at longer ranges - if we cannot know the correct distance we cannot adjust the sights or use the right amount of hold over to ensure a hit.
3) What is our personal limit on being able to consistently hit the oft mentioned paper plate under hunting conditions (limited time to sight, no or improvised support, wind, visibility, buck fever, heavy winter clothes, light conditions, etc.).

 

[Griz44Mag]

Sometimes it depends on the wind. The rear sight on my .54 caplock Hawken has a stepped elevation bar and just for fun one day I tried hitting a rock at about 300 yards. There was a bit of a cross wind and I was shocked to see how far off the mark the balls were hitting.

An EXCELLENT point. Adjusting for factors at longer distance is part of a hunters skill. Uphill, downhill, wind, mirage, temperature, humidity, the spin of the earth and the direction of the shot in relationship to the axis of the earth. EVERY shot is impacted by these factors, how much it is impacted is dependant the distance. Only the shooters skill at determining these factors, correcting for them and achieving a shot placement in a vital area will determine if the shot is lethal or not.

 

[longcruise]

Actually, the OP's question was "whats the range you would feel comfortable hunting the white tailed deer?" This doesn't sound like an "only the rifle" question to me. I see it as being able to be addressed as a three part question:

1) At what range does the ball still retain enough energy to make a lethal hit? - I don't know the answer but it is for sure much further that we can safely or ethically shoot with iron sights and under hunting conditions.
2) At what range can we see well enough with iron or peep sights to correctly place a shot. An additional issue is the rapid drop of the ball at longer ranges - if we cannot know the correct distance we cannot adjust the sights or use the right amount of hold over to ensure a hit.
3) What is our personal limit on being able to consistently hit the oft mentioned paper plate under hunting conditions (limited time to sight, no or improvised support, wind, visibility, buck fever, heavy winter clothes, light conditions, etc.).

That's not how I read it but anything can be debated.

Our OP could clarify but is MIA.

So carry on just in case we haven't achieved the couple thousand topics on this subject that I suspect.

 

[hanshi]

True, the shooter and the gun cannot be separated in any discussion of "how far". But let's just assume we do that very thing. A rifle has the ability to hit and kill deer far beyond the ability of any shooter to hit it. Variables cannot be controlled; so wind and other factors do play a part in the "shooting" but not so much in the rifles ability to hit and kill.

 

[Ben Meyer]

If I had a wide open broadside shot with a good rest at a motionless deer in the middle of a sunny day, yeah, I'd probably shoot out to 100yds. But if you have my kind of hunting luck, my shots are usually within the last 30 minutes of shooting light in fairly thick woods, where black traditional iron sights get fuzzy. Not only is a quick, ethical kill always paramount in my mind, but a non lengthy blood trail and drag out in the dark are also factors as to why I dont take anything but "sure thing" shots at deer.

A wise man and great hunter once told me, when the sights or scope reticle lines get fuzzy, it's time to call it quits for the day. Usually, that's @ 5 minutes before official legal shooting time ends. It's never been after.

 

[Sun City]

Just how good are you with iron sights? Most rifles iron sights cover a whole deer at 100 yds. See how that affects your question?

"Most rifles iron sights cover a whole deer at 100 yds"

No!

 

[poker]

What I meant was not the whole animal but the whole vital area that we aim at.

 

[hanshi]

The last deer I killed in the 100 yard range was just as dusk was falling. No way would I attempt that now.

 

[Spikebuck]

Guys for whitetails, assuming a crack shot with a .54 caliber round ball slow twist rifle with a large charge of powder, what’s the range you wood feel comfortable hunting the white tailed deer?
-Smokey

I agree with Longcruise....it's a hypothetical question assuming a CRACK SHOT...so let's assume that this is what a load in a .54 could do unrelated to one's ability to actually make the shot.

I will just add this. On a large northern whitetailed doe with a .54 percussion Cabela's Blue Ridge and 90 grs of Triple Seven and .530 Roundball I shot through ribs on both sides and holes on both sides at 115 yards. So ball in and out and gone. I would imagine that ASSUMING one could ethically make the shot on a broadside deer in the chest (and perhaps avoiding the heaviest shoulder bone area) 200+ yards would not be out of the question, in my opinion. I don't know what a LARGE charge of powder is in Smokey's mind, but I'm thinking perhaps something over 100 grains?

Before someone jumps all over me...my eyes were a little better back then in my early 40's and I was seated with a very solid rest for the gun on a log when I made that shot in the wide open with plenty of daylight. I also practiced that far out and was confident to make it. There was no significant wind to deal with either, though it was below zero on the afternoon of the last day of the late muzzleloader season.

A yote....just how far can that crack shot shoot well considering the arc of a roundball at extremely long range???

 

[Ben Meyer]

I can consistently put 5 in a paper plate at 200 yds with a black powder gun....a scoped inline shooting sabots pushed by 150 grains of Pyrodex pellets(3). I'm happy to hit a steel plate 1 out of 5x at 200 yds with my iron sighted flintlock. I know I know PRACTICE makes perfect. But I've been shooting and hunting for decades.

That said, my furthest deer shot in the last 10 years was 88 yards. This season was an archery buck at 20yds and a doe with my Hawken at 42yds. I dont even practice with my traditional BP guns past 100yds because I have no inclination to take those shots with them.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Guys for whitetails, assuming a crack shot with a .54 caliber round ball slow twist rifle with a
large charge of powder, what’s the range you wood feel comfortable hunting the white tailed deer?

Have read to keep it at 50 yards or under, some say all the way up to 150 yards??

Depends on you, the conditions, deer alertness or angle, your rest and where you have practiced to be comfortable.

My furthest shot with a .54 was a deer that came in and bedded (or at least tucked up to chew cud), and I had the chance to rest the rifle over a log and take a LOT of time for the shot; Maybe 15 minutes of getting everything just so. 120 yards. Never got to its feet.

Anymore I limit myself to about 85 yards just because of my eyesight.

 

[Big Rviers]

True, the shooter and the gun cannot be separated in any discussion of "how far". But let's just assume we do that very thing. A rifle has the ability to hit and kill deer far beyond the ability of any shooter to hit it. Variables cannot be controlled; so wind and other factors do play a part in the "shooting" but not so much in the rifles ability to hit and kill.

Well said. I get days that my groups at a 100 yards can be covered with a silver dollar, and others when the groups look like I'm using a scatter gun. t's not the gun it's me. Know your rifle, know your limits and practice like the next target gets to shoot back if you miss.

 

[Pukka Bundook]

Taking a lean, the furthest I ever shot a mule deer with a .54 was 127 yards, and it felled him on the spot.
It was a 32" barrel and I used to load 120 grains. My measure threw 60 grains for targets, and a double throw for hunting. .
V tight weave linen patch and a .530" ball.