Anyone hunt with 54 cal round ball?

[elbow]

Shot my 54 New EnglAnder today love it! I think il use it during regular rifle season instead of my 308. Anyone else hunt with a 54 round ball for deer?

 

[SamTex1949]

Have hunted with .45cal RB, .50 RB, and .54cal RB all did the job expected to do. The 50 and 54 both blew out pieces of rib bone from both sides.

Do it !!

 

[Dave K]

Do a search and you will find many, many people using a 54cal.

 

[nkbj]

.54 round ball? Nah, it caint kill nothing.

OK, I'm just kidding. In the past I've used .445 and .495 round ball hunting and they laid everything down, with kinda excessive damage when I pulled my shots. But, that depends on how close in I was. A round ball at close range is like shooting magnum pre-expanded dum-dums. If you have any problems with a .54 just sneak better.
I'm trying to get a "long range" (whatever that means) round ball rifle to my satisfaction. Some have suggested a .54 for good reason. That bore size is right at the break over point where physics has just about caught up how much acceleration, flat trajectory and down range velocity retention we can get. Kinda like cling peaches in heavy syrup, you're gonna have a hard time beating it.
I can't imagine getting hit with two hundred and twenty grain dum-dum.

 

[longcruise]

.54 RB goooooood!! :thumbsup:

 

[cynthialee]

I am torn between a .50 or a .54 for this years hunt. I figure either will do the job rather well from all the pictures I have seen in the hunting section of this very forum.

 

[stinkyfeet]

Shot my 54 New EnglAnder today love it! I think il use it during regular rifle season instead of my 308. Anyone else hunt with a 54 round ball for deer?

Asking if anyone hunts with a 54 round ball in here is like asking if kids love cotton candy.. YES and we love them too

 

[Roguedog]

Having only hunted with .50 cal and .58 cal rifles, I will also be hunting with a .54 cal round ball this fall. Like others have said, I have no doubt that with a good shot, the ball should put a deer down with authority. I like big holes and lots of blood.

Jeff

 

[Spikebuck]

Absolutely! :thumbsup:

 

[George T.]

I killed several Texas deer with the .395 ball in a 40 and a couple with a .495 in a 50. This year I'll be using a 54 and 58. I guess those deer were not dead enough to suit me! :grin:

At least I got to buy two new rifles! Geo. T.

 

[necchi]

Asking if anyone hunts with a 54 round ball in here is like asking if kids love cotton candy.. YES and we love them too

Best answer yet!!
I Love my 54,, :thumbsup:

 

[nchawkeye]

Made this one in the late '80s, hoping to be able to get a few more years out of her... :grin:

 

[Stumpkiller]

I have had success with both .50 and .54, but I prefer the .54

My New Englander is a .50 and I'm hanging on to it. Handy little hunting rifle.

I haven't used a centerfire on deer since 2005 - and that was only because they opened CF rifle for the first time in a neighboring county I used to hunt heavily and I took two in the first two days . . . with an iron sighted Mosin-Nagant 7.62X54R M39 at 10 and 11 yards from the same ground seat. :haha:

I've been pretty much hunting using round balls with flintlocks and cap guns since 2000 in both the regular and m/l seasons. We used to only get seven days for m/l special season. By then I had used up my vacation and only had one weekend . . . and Sunday hunting wasn't allowed for big game.

 

[Lonegun1894]

It isn't weather I will hunt with a .54 this year, rather will I hunt with the rifled .54 or the smooth-bored .54. Decisions, decisions...

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I have taken many deer with my .54. I love it. I have also taken three squirrels and two rabbits a groundhog and a fox. :shocked2: Head shots on the small critters, of course.


LD

 

[Elkeater]

Am currently getting ready for cow elk hunt with 54 New Englander w/rb. Will be my first animal taken with muzzle loader. Am anxious as all get out.

This forum has given me full confidence with the rb. Have learned to lower my charge to 90 gr ff goex. Thanks!

 

Nearly every outing for about the last five or six years. Can't remember the last time I killed a deer with a cartridge gun. This year, my GPR gets to stay home while I use my new Pedersoli Rocky Mountain Hawken. :thumbsup:

I do still like to use a levergun every once in a while though.

 

[M38]

I've been using a .54 for the last two years. I've only had one deer come in my sights with it - the little button buck below (I thought it was a doe).

 

[S.Kenton]

:thumbsup:

 

[Renegade Dan]

I hunt with a 54 cal and a 45 cal. using patched ball. :thumbsup: