Disgusted-lost a deer!

[roundball]

True...I assume it's the intensity of the light...makes the blood drops almost glow...I added one of those half-circle stainless reflectors on mine and it really throws intense light forward while not blinding yourself on the back side

 

[sniper68]

Don't know for sure, but the lantern will cast a totaly different light showing the disturded leaves were a flashlight dosen't. I said coleman cause that is all I have ever tryed. probably any lantern will work :hmm:

 

[Herb]

Ironsights- whatever happened, your rifle and load are not inadequate. It had to have been where the deer was hit. There is no need to go to conicals or a .54. I agree with Leadball, don't give up on the .50 with prbs. Chad, a Utah game warden and very skilled gunner, told me he likes a .50 over a .54 for big game hunting, that there isn't that much gain. A very experienced gun writer, Layne Simpson, wrote in the Jul-Aug 1980 Rifle Magazine about the .50 cal Jonathan Browning mountain rifle. He said 'I find that I get much quicker kills on deer-size game with the ball and the 250-grain Lee (REAL) bullet than with the heavier weights. I attribute this to the higher velocities that can be safely attained with these two projectiles and the fact that most of my big game taken with the muzzleloader have been less than a hundred yards away, with many at half that distance or less'. He's talking about up to 120 grains of Pyrodex RS with the .490 ball, velocity verified by Hodgdon at 2160 fps and pressure at 9200 LUP. This is a really good article. I enjoy Cowhand's comments very much, but he wrote "with roundballs, a neck or spine shot puts him down on the spot." Let me tell you, it ain't necessarily so. See Stumpkiller's 10/22/04 post and link to "Tips on round balls and finding wounded deer- earlier forum topic". Go there and read my post of 5/13/04. I should have said that Doc White shot that ram in the neck, first shot. So Stumpkiller's 10/27 post with comments on head and neck shots is really good, as TexasMLer agreed on 10/29. Now, deer can be killed with neck shots with ML rifles, but I'll never try it again. My friend Carl also had a neck shot failure with a round ball. Friend Ron has killed about 23 deer with round balls, "always shoots 'em in the boiler room." Oh, I did kill a deer once with a neck shot, a .257 Roberts and an 8 point white tail in North Dakota, the butcher told me "you ruined 10 pounds of chops with that shot." And for those concerned about the .45 cal round ball for killing deer- It is entirely adequate with correct shot placement.