Buck and Ball for Bear???

[VTdeerhunter]

Shot my first black bear this year, a 325lb brute...used a "gulp" modern gun, but plan on going back this year and using the .50 cal flintlock that I'm building as we speak.

Its a heavy 1" barrel x 44" long and will handle a big load of powder.

Any experience out there with buck and ball loads? Or what do y'all knock down bears wit??

 

[necchi]

A 50 cal ball will do the job just fine.
I'd prefer the accuracy of a single ball put in the boiler room aiming at/for the far shoulder than the mess of buck-n-ball.

We've harvested more than just a few MN Black Bear with just that.

 

[rabjr]

A well placed shot using a ball will put a bear down no problemo. I built my uncle a .58 flinter for bear hunting as he hunts New Brunswick every year, usually with bow. After a couple years of trying he finally took a 150 lber with it. Shot through the shoulders it dropped right there...

 

[Black Hand]

Buck and Ball was a defensive load when going into places not knowing what to expect. I agree with the others in that ONE well-placed ball will be far more effective than the "spray & pray" approach.

 

[Bill Hall]

Agreed. I think it's more responsible and ethical to be proficient with a single ball, than to "hope" the ball and buckshot hit somewhere lethal on the animal. Also, may be illegal, it is here. "Firearm firing a single projectile" can only be used for big game in my state. Bill

 

[Flint311]

A .50 is plenty of bear medicine. Like others said, put it where it counts and it won't go far at all.

 

[Dan Hogue]

Buck and ball is for smoothbore, if put in rifle the spiral effect will cause the "buck" to be thrown outward and useless, and probly also through off your main ball.

 

[VTdeerhunter]

Glad I asked, Sounds like B&B is out...makes things much more simple, less to carry and quicker to load. I believe in the .50 cal. flintlock, hands down as it has worked for me on countless deer, some elk and pronghorns, but this will be my first time hunting things that bite back with it...lol...
thanks for the input all

 

[spudnut]

I agree with Blackhand,Though a B&B load will kill,It was also meant to maim an enemy figuring it would take two more men to carry out the victim.

 

[paulvallandigham]

YOU can do a couple of things to get more penetration on Bear:

1. Use lead balls cast from alloy lead- that is, lead that contains tin and antimony. This makes the lead harder, and it keeps its shape and penetrates further, to reach vita organs, even after hitting bones.

2. Use a larger caliber rifle-- .58, .62 etc. to get a larger ball that weights more and penetrates further.

3. Where its legal, use two PRBs in that .50 caliber heavy barrel rifle in front of one powder charge. Out to 50 yards, which is a long shot at most bears, the two balls strike very close together, and both penetrate well. Recoil is increased, of course, but hitting a black bear with two such balls from one shot fired is a lot of energy transmitted to the bear's organs, and two holes create more blood loss at the same time, along with greater shock to the nervous system.

Its believed that this is what the Mountain men, and the earlier, "longhunters" did when they confronted a bear, instead of a deer. The gun was carried with whatever PRB load the hunter felt he needed to kill a deer, so that on seeing a bear, all he had to do was seat another PRB down on top of the first.

None of us were there, and I have only pieced this together from some biographies and histories of the period where old men were interviewed about how they did things. I Have tried this load- ONCE-- in my gun, and was surprised at how close the balls strike on target. I was using 75 grains of FFg powder in the gun.

 

[VTdeerhunter]

I will try this out at the range and let you know how my results are on paper....oh, guess I gotta finish the gun first..lol, she's coming, down to carving and sanding. Thanks for the thoughts :hatsoff:

Maybe I will try this load sooner in one of my other guns, just out of curiosity...

 

[tg]

A Buck&Ball load would be suitable for Bear but only at a very limited range as to not really be a practical choice. I did lot of testing for B&B Deer load and found it to be doable but only in the 10-15 yd rage or even closer depending on how a particular gun may pattern wrapping the shot in a cloth will keep it closer and just off the ball a bit depending on distance. This would likley more useful in a .62 cal and larger or the "buck" becomes rather small for and significant energy transfer. a double ball would probably be a better choice and extend the range considerably over B&B

 

[gjr902]

If you keep the powder charge the same, and add the 2nd ball, what would be the loss? Or would there be a loss? Wouldn't the velocity of the balls or the energy at impact/penatration suffer from the extra ball?

I like the 2nd ball idea. I am curious about adjusting the powder charge

 

[Joel/Calgary]

If you keep the powder charge the same, and add the 2nd ball, what would be the loss? Or would there be a loss? Wouldn't the velocity of the balls or the energy at impact/penatration suffer from the extra ball?

I like the 2nd ball idea. I am curious about adjusting the powder charge

There have been discussions of this before. Herb posted some chrono results for double ball loads, and the interesting thing was that although the individual balls are slower than the single, there appears to be an increase in powder efficiency, with the combined energy of the two balls running something like 10-20% higher than the single (like most things, it varied with the specifics). I don't have the time to search right now, but try a search for posts by me or by Herb with a keyword of "double".

Regards,
Joel