Ballistics for 50 cal

[Misfit-45]

Hello Folks,
Is there a book or website at or in which I might find a ballistics chart for a 50 cal muzzle loader (mine's a Lyman) to show powder charges, muzzle velocity, but more important, bullet drop at various ranges? Only have one rifle, and one bullet size; 32 inch barrel,1-32 twist, 395 grn Lyman conical. Thanks
Marv

 

[tenngun]

lymans blackpowder ballistic,,should be able to get it on line or through a ml supply house like track of the wolf or the log cabin shop :wink:

 

[Zonie]

The Lyman BLACK POWDER HANDBOOK & LOADING MANUAL shows the loads and velocities their testing obtained for a number of different calibers, twists and barrel lengths when shot with a number of different powders.

It also shows the velocity and energy at 100 yards but it does not show the drop in trajectory.

For your barrel and bullet it gives the following velocities and energy at the muzzle for a Lyman #508656, 395 grain bullet:

With GOEX 2Fg powder
60gr = 1235 fps/1338 ft/lb
70gr = 1312 fps/1510 ft/lb
80gr = 1389 fps/1693 ft/lb
90gr = 1444 fps/1829 ft/lb
100gr = 1500 fps/1974 ft/lb
120gr = 1624 fps/2314 ft/lb

With Pyrodex RS powder
60gr = 1251 fps/1373 ft/lb
70gr = 1325 fps/1540 ft/lb
80gr = 1399 fps/1717 ft/lb
90gr = 1456 fps/1860 ft/lb
100gr = 1513 fps/2008 ft/lb
110gr = 1562 fps/2141 ft/lb
120gr = 1612 fps/2280 ft/lb

Note: The breech pressures shown at loads over 90 grains all exceed 20,100 PSI and some reach pressures over 24,000 PSI with the 120 grain loads.

When shooting heavy slugs do not use 3Fg powder.
The faster burning 3Fg powder could easily create breech pressures that could cause the barrel to explode.

 

[George]

Hornady has a good ballistics calculator which will give you drop if you know the velocity, &c.
http://www.hornady.com/ballistics-resource/ballistics-calculator

Spence

 

[rodwha]

"When shooting heavy slugs do not use 3Fg powder.
The faster burning 3Fg powder could easily create breech pressures that could cause the barrel to explode."

I had not heard this before.

I have a .50 cal Deerstalker, and figured if I had an opportunity to hunt something really big I'd likely move to a conical. My intentions have been to stock up on one powder for my ROA and rifle, which would be 3F.

If loads are kept at say 60-70 grns vs the max of 80, would it still potentially create pressures that could be too high? Lyman's states that 80 grns of 3F and a heavy conical is the max load.

 

[Herb]

You need the Ballistic Coefficient (C), and from Lyman's book it is .160 for a Lyman 395 grain bullet. I put it in at 1500 fps (100 grains of Goex 2F) and the trajectory is 2" high at 50 yards and zero at 100. Thanks for that reference, George.

 

[tenngun]

I only shoot prb so I can't speak from experince.However I recall from the 70s the TC handbook listed powder charges for the TC hawkin listed charges for thier maxie ball at about 10-20 % less then the RB charges :wink:

 

[Zonie]

You are correct.
The Lyman owners manual does give loads using 3Fg powder with some heavy conicals so they have tested their rifles and deemed them safe with the amounts of powder listed.

It's interesting that their BLACK POWDER HANDBOOK & LOADING MANUAL (2nd Ed) shows many loads for patched roundballs using both 3Fg and Pyrodex P but none at all for slugs.

For other guns I'll stick with my recommendation that 3F powder shouldn't be used with heavy slugs.

IMO, based on the powders and loads used in Black Powder Cartridge Rifles (BPCR) the 2Fg powder (or Cartridge powder) works best with heavy bullets for the best accuracy and the safest pressures.

 

[Misfit-45]

Thanks for the responses.
I have the Lyman book, so I have the stats given there. That Hornady ballistic calculator is great. At first, I just glanced at it because it says that the bullet weight only goes up to 300 grains. After reading the Herb's post I realized it takes my 395 grain. I've been playing with it ever since. Great tool. Just what I needed. Thanks.
BTW I use Goex 2f powder.
Marv

 

[longcruise]

Is there a book or website at or in which I might find a ballistics chart for a 50 cal muzzle loader (mine's a Lyman) to show powder charges, muzzle velocity, but more important, bullet drop at various ranges? Only have one rifle, and one bullet size; 32 inch barrel,1-32 twist, 395 grn Lyman conical. Thanks

Better yet, download the point blank program from the following link. It will allow you to enter some important variables, such as the sight height, elevation, etc. Plus you can save it or print it for verification at the range.
Point blank software

If you have a chronograph to work with you can come up with your own data that will be much more accurate than that from books and charts.

A big takeaway from the data Zonie gave you is that past 80 or 90 grains of powder will not get you that much more speed and more importantly, getting to 1300 to 1400 fps is going to give you plenty of power for just about anything that you might hunt in North America!

FWIW, back in my "conical days" I did some chrongraphing with my .50 caliber TC. Even with 100 grains of goex 2f I could never broke 1400 fps with a 370 grain Maxi Ball.

The other thing I found out over the chrono, and it shows clearly in Zonie's data, is that the difference between pyrodex RS and goex 2f is almost nonexistent.

All that said, you really need to confirm your drop and trajectories for yourself so it's just as easy to forego all the techno stuff and load up what shoots accurately for you and measure the trajectory over various distances.