Ballistics?

[sethb]

what kind of ballistics can you expect with a .49 ball n patch with 70 grs of black powder?
not terribly important, just curious. i dont plan on making long shots or hunting anything but deer and hogs.

 

[paulvallandigham]

A round ball has a very poor Ballistics Coefficient, which means that it is subject to drag in the air, and sheds velocity faster than any other projectile you can choose to shoot. That makes all RB guns short range weapons. Yes, you can hit a man-sized target out at 300 yds, and the ball will still have enough energy and weight to hurt and even kill a human at that distance. But the rainbow trajectory to get it there is huge! Consider a .50 caliber rifle with open sights to be a 100 yard and under gun. With a good scope, you can extend the distance to maybe 150 yards, but you are asking a lot from that bullet. As for loss of velocity, here are some numbers posted earlier for the .50 caliber.

Assume you are shooting a .50 caliber (.490") RB at 1900 fps Muzzle Velocity:

range in yds:
20----30----40----50----60----70----80----90
velocity in fps:
1695--1597--1501--1409--1320--1235--1155--1089

100---110---120

1041--999---949

I don't know many guns that are going to be firing any .50 cal. RB at that high a velocity, but those are the numbers.

For Energy, I won't bore you with the declining numbers, but ME is 1443 ft lbs.

At 50 yards, E= 793 ft. lbs.

At 100 yds., E= 433 ft. lbs.

At 120 yds., E= 367.

But, don't despair. A pure LEAD Round Ball will expand even at very low velocities, creating a much larger Primary Wound Channel than a bullet made of lead alloy fired from the same caliber gun. A .50 caliber PRB is a fine deer killer, because it does expand on impact, putting a much larger hole( a half inch hole is huge compared to what modern rifle cartridges do, so this is no " slouch as a hunting round, even if it were NOT to expand!) through the vital tissues of the deer. The shock to the organs, and the rapid loss of blood pressure insures that a deer well hit by a ball in the chest cavity will drop to the ground within 50 yards. Few .50 caliber RBs are recovered from the carcasses of deer, if they are shot at the deer as it stands broadside to the shooter.

If you question any of this, do your own penetration tests, using whatever testing medium you have. Just be sure to use apples vs. apples, and not apples vs. oranges. Use some modern deer rifle caliber to set a standard in the medium. Then shoot your .50 caliber rifle from the same distance at your test medium. Compare the two hits for depth, and amount of destruction of the medium.

I used pine boards, nominally 1" thick, spaced 1" apart. I fired a .30-06 180 grain jacketed soft point bullet into the "box", and found the bullet penetrated 7 boards and air spaces, and came to rest in the 8th board. The bullet mushroomed as advertised. My .50 caliber RB went through 6 boards and spaces, and came to rest on the surface of the 7th board. When I touched the flattened piece of lead, it fell off in my hand. The hole my .50 caliber RB left in that 6th board was almost twice the size of the .30-06 hole in the 7th board, by comparison. Of course, this test medium does not show the Secondary Wound channel, produced by the shock waves that accompany a high speed bullet, but to a much lesser extent by a Round Ball. So, the destruction of live tissue done by a .30-06 can be considerably more than my .50 caliber. Unless you have Ballistic's Gel for testing penetration and expansion, you are not likely going to see the secondary wound channel in other mediums.

Best Wishes. Paul

 

[Trench]

I actually took my first deer with a .490 PRB over 60gr of 2F. The shot was at 40 yds and it passed through the broadside of the deer. I went up to 70gr the next year.

The TC loading guide says their Hawken style rifles get 1643fps from 70gr of 2F.

 

[longcruise]

Depends on some variables. Barrel length, fit of the patched ball to the barrel (tighter is faster), smoothness of the bore (smoother is slower), and powder granulation. Could vary by as much as 300 feet per second. That's a lot of variation percentage wise when you are looking at max velocities of under 2000 fps.

OTOH, deer and elk seem to fall dead when hit by any "adequate" charge, so if it seems to be adequate, go hunting.