Disappointed with 54 cal round ball.

[satx78247]

NICE BUCK!!!!

yours, satx

 

[Shifty]

I made a shot on a buck this saeson that did about the same to the heart as your pic shows, he went about 40yds but was downhill.I once helped a fellow bowhunter track a buck he shot, that deer traveled in a circle about 1/2 mile almost came back to the tree his stand was in,that was a heart shot also.

 

[wattlebuster]

Sounds like a successful hunt to me. I will take all of em I can get. Quit worrying and get to hunting again :slap:

 

[Sean Gadhar]

My 2013 cow elk took a centerfire round through & through went 70 yards & dropped dead, I never found one drop of blood...not one. 2010 cow had the same gun hit it within an inch or two of the same spot, ran 30 yards & left about 2 quarts on the snow :idunno: Hunting doesn't always make sense.

 

[satx78247]

For that SPOT ON comment, I award you both ears & the tail.
(My 1st cousin is the BEST deer hunter that I've ever met & in 2007 I helped him track a "little collie-dog-size spike" that he shot for "camp meat". = The little guy RAN over 300M after he took a .58 Minie ball through the chest. - When we dressed him out, we found that the Minie had "taken out" a lung & passed through the heart.)

The more that I learn about hunting big game after more than a half-century, the more that I learn that I don't know.

yours, satx

 

[jethro224]

That's amazing that the buck pictured made it as far as it did!

Just because you take out the pump doesn't mean the deer is going to just fall right over. The heart pumps blood and oxygen, whatever oxygen was already there is still there for a short time even after the heart stops pumping. How far a deer goes on that oxygen depends on what the deer does.
If it just stands there looking around it won't go far. If it flat out runs it might go quite a ways.
Add in the adrenalin that was or wasn't in the deers blood, whether the deer was calm or nervous, if it had been feeding or running around, the terrain, etc., etc., etc., and who knows? :idunno:
A dead deer will go as far as it goes until it falls over. I've had 'em drop right there and I've had 'em go up to 150 yards with a heart shot.

 

[hawk driver]

I shot a doe last year, .535 Speer over 90 grains of Grafs 2F. She came out with a yearling, feeding in one of the plots on our lease when I was in AL. I was hunting the afternoon, she came out just as it was getting almost too dark to see. See was feeding, head on to me. I kept waiting for her to turn, front blade was getting hard to see. She was feeding in the same spot, so I lasered her, 98 yards.

Finally, when I thought in a couple of minutes I wont be able to see the sights, she took a step to my right and exposed the shoulder. Put it there and shot. Out of the smoke cloud, I could see her running back into the woods where she came from, dragging her right leg. Waited to see if I could hear her go down. Nada. Waited for another long 10 minutes.

Got down, walked to where she was when I shot. No blood, no hair. Her tracks were easy to make out and I knew right where she went in the woods. No blood there either. After 3 or four steps into the woodline, I heard a loud crash in front of me. Followed the trail she was on, finally found her about 50 yards in.

When I dressed her out, saw that the ball had punched thru the right shoulder and I found it under the hide in front of the left hip. It had not flattened out at all. Her dragging the leg was the only indication of a hit, no hair or blood anywhere. I have had that Renegade since about '89 and have done a lot of shooting with it at 100 yards, so I was confident when I took the shot.

I havent shot a lot of deer with a ML, but that was the only round ball I have recovered. The fact that it hadnt flattened out was a surprise for me. A real surprise. It made me question using round balls at that distance.

Sorry for the long post.

 

[hawk driver]

I still had these in photobucket. You can see the ball didnt flatten out at all. The only distortion was probably where it went thru the shoulder blade. On the sides, I can still make out the indentations from the patch.

Sorry for the crappy deer pic. I have a dumb phone and the only light I had was my flashlight, and I was hunting solo.

 

[Arcturus]

First off, congratulations on taking a deer. I am in the camp with those who prefer complete penetration every time. I don't buy the "all the energy was expended in the deer" argument-- if it didn't exit it didn't have as much energy to begin with as a bullet that would have exited. Energy is simply the requirement to make the bullet punch a hole through flesh and bone; that hole is what kills. Yes, ending up on the opposite side just under the skin is OK when you recover the deer, but means that if more penetration was required due to bone or angle of shot you wouldn't have had it. And yes, sometimes pass-throughs don't leave a blood trail either, especially higher in the lungs, but they usually do. A single hole almost always means the blood stays inside the body cavity, making recovery in thick cover tougher if the animal goes any distance. I like the confidence of knowing I can completely penetrate a deer from any angle, not just broadside. It's why I like bigger caliber roundballs and hardcast bullets pushed by as much energy as possible. Better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it. Sometimes weird things happen and you still don't get a pass-through if you shoot enough animals, but it is always my goal. As others said, a .54 should get you through both sides on broadside shots most of the time. I'd bet a little harder ball or a little more velocity would have.

 

[Fran W.]

Beautiful weapon, may I ask what is the barrel twist rate in your 54?

 

[Bougalee]

Most of what needed to be said, has already been said, but I'll add my two cents. I shoot a .54 flinter with patched round ball, hornadys to be exact with 90grns of 3f. I'd say I have had about 50% pass throughs but I admit I've have taken quite a few quartering shots. I have not lost an animal and have had only one animal give me some trouble with tracking using the prb. Again just my two cents.

 

[Rat Trapper]

Blood trails are always a crap shoot. Lots of little things go into wether or not you have lots of blood to follow. A hole on both sides is a good place to start. when shooting from the ground a hit that is in the middle of the deer will leak less blood on to the ground than a lower hit. A deer shot at from up in a tree will result in a exit hole that is much lower and may result in more of a blood trail. The key word here is may, as each animal is different as is the shot placement. Once you have shot a lot of game (plus of 100) you will know you can never depend on a blood trail. Learn to wait for the best shot your going to get, and learn how to place the bullet properly. Every animal will not present itself broad side. Learn how to thread the bullet properly into the vitals.

 

[Rokon]

A couple of thoughts.

The typical pattern for a deer heart shot is for it to dash off in a wild run and pile up within 100 yards.

I used to hunt deer with engraver and ML historian, Lynton McKenzie. We typically shot original English "express" rifles--50-62 caliber. Lynton insisted that the perfect shot with a PRB was to breakdown the shoulders and forget the classic heart/lung shot. It worked for us.

 

[Grimord]

I have taken many deer with PRB in 50's and 54's. I have yet to recover a ball. Most of my shots are within 60 yds. It is truly amazing the stamina a white tail has. Most of the time they are dead on their feet, but the adrenalin keeps them going. I had one deer run from a heart shot and skewer herself on a downed tree stub. I'm sure she was dead on her feet and just running on adrenalin in her system.
Where I hunt on public land I do not want a deer to run far after my shot, because someone else may tag it or shoot it again. I try to take out both shoulder now, as the deer generally drops in place from such a hit. Some meat is ruined, but I would rather loose some meat than have someone else tag my deer.
Fyrstyk

 

[daniel collums]

i lost a doe to another hunter within site, my ball took out the back of both lungs and he shot it with a scoped .270 through the back bone and wasted both loins. i walked up to him and said great shot and walked away. that was the last time i ever hunted public land.

 

[Grimord]

I wish I could find some private land to hunt, but here in Connectitax, people are reluctant to give permission to hunt. Sometimes when I tell them i only hunt with a muzzle loader I can get permission, but there are too many bambi lovers around here, except when they total out their BMW.

Fyrstyk

 

[Curt]

blackelm the problem with shootin and breakin the shoulders is all of the blood shot and damaged meat,at least in my exspirence. Curt

 

[Rokon]

Good thinking if you're shooting a modern, expanding soft point or monolithic copper pill at 2800-3000 fps, but we don't see that degree of tissue damage with a PRB.

The concept is because we don't have violent expansion and a lot of 2nd'dary pieces of lead and jacket material ripping about, the soundest shot is through the upper shoulder bones which are supported only by muscles and ligaments.

Have you butchered a big game animal and observed how fragile that part of the bone structure is?

 

[Curt]

blackelm I havent used a cf rifle in over 35 years,black powder in my veins i guess .I have shot a few deer in the shoulder by accsiedent but I like a lung shot best.The blood shot meat is strange as sometimes it is and sometimes its not.and i realize the upper shoulder bone is the thinnest part.

I have hunted deer for 40 years and have allways done my own butcherin,too fussy I guess plus I want my meat not someone elses.Our garage looks more like a butcher shop that time of the year.I say do what works best for you .JMHO Curt

 

[BrownBear]

We're really partial to shoulder roasts, and we use the thin meat on the upper blade for carne asada. So no shoulder shots for me. No penalty for taking low lung shots instead.