Effective range

[OLDBRO]

Any notion of the killing range of a 54 cal prb?

If a horizontal shot at a Whitetail were to miss how far would it travel pushed by a 100 gr charge?

is it 100's of yards or over a mile? Want to know for safety reason in populated areas.Thanks

 

[rawhide]

I'd say it could travel 400+ yards I could be wrong. :hmm:

 

[cowpoke1955]

For a good, clean kill. I'd say between 100 to 125 yards.

 

[rafterob]

Someone here has a ballistics program and hopefully they will chime in. Lets start a pool. My guess is 230 yards. the Key word in the post was "Horizontal".

 

[Trench]

You can kill your deer out to 100yds + with a .530 ball behind 100gr.

I plugged some stuff in to my roundball calculator: If your rifle is horizontal and zeroed for 75yds and 5 feet above the ground and starting at 1650fps, the ball will travel approximately 210 yards before impacting the ground.

 

[OB OBrien]

Hi Lil guy; Where can I get one of those roundball calculators?
OB

 

[rafterob]

OOohh I was close!

 

[Richard Brinkman]

How many times will it skip of the ground and how far will it travel then? Once a long time ago I had the opportunity to shoot prairie dogs with my .45 flinter the thing that most amazed me was how many times it would skip across the prairie sort of looked like a rock skipping across water. Needless to say it went a long ways several hundred yards after the first contact with the ground.

 

[Zonie]

My roundball calculator also got 210 yards for the distance traveled before a .490 diameter ball with a muzzle velocity of 1720 fps would hit the ground.
(probably the same program).

Adding maybe 250 yards for additional bouncing it looks like anything beyond 500 yards would be pretty safe.

Of course, after the ball hits the ground it will loose a lot of its energy but no telling at what angle it might bounce, maybe at a 40 degree angle upwards? Anyway, I would stick with maybe a 500 yard danger zone.

 

[Stumpkiller]

We're mixing "effective range" up with "range" and "killing range"

I limit myself to just over 100 yards with a .54 roundball. 120 yards if the angels are singing. I could see someone with a scope or younger eyes getting to 150 or 175 yards, but I don't think a 200# deer is consistantly vulnerable to a 200 yard .530" round ball.

On the other hand, I'd much prefer to be at least 600 yards away from the muzzle end of a .54 if the guy on the other end was mad at me. I used to woodchuck hunt with muzzleloaders quite a lot and when we were bored we'd set up 'chuck sized rocks in a large abandoned quary site. You can "dope" them at 300 yards if you're not particular about where you hit them.

 

[Little Wattsy]

We're mixing "effective range" up with "range" and "killing range"

I limit myself to just over 100 yards with a .54 roundball. 120 yards if the angels are singing. I could see someone with a scope or younger eyes getting to 150 or 175 yards, but I don't think a 200# deer is consistantly vulnerable to a 200 yard .530" round ball.

On the other hand, I'd much prefer to be at least 600 yards away from the muzzle end of a .54 if the guy on the other end was mad at me. I used to woodchuck hunt with muzzleloaders quite a lot and when we were bored we'd set up 'chuck sized rocks in a large abandoned quary site. You can "dope" them at 300 yards if you're not particular about where you hit them.

Well said! :hatsoff:

 

[longshot one]

Here was my recent experence with the killing range of my .54. Two and a half weeks ago I shot my Antelope with my GPR .54 using 90 gr of Pyrodex and .18 patched .530 RB. The distance was judged to be between 100 and 105 yards. This buck had his front leg in a backward position and my shot went through the leg bone, through a rib into the chest, through the heart, between the ribs on the other side and stopped at the off side shoulder. Thanks guys for the info on how far my ball would have gone if I missed. Great info.

 

[hanshi]

Shucks! :cursing: I was about to post a range of about 200 yards but the calculator guys ruined it for me. But it was an honest figure I arrived at by knowing something about round ball drop. :hmm: I'll brag by saying I came up with my answer before reading the calculator results. :haha:

 

[Pete Gaimari]

I don't know about you guys, but 100yd shot with open sights is about my limit if i'm going for a good kill shot.

 

[Zonie]

Sounds like you've got the right idea there Capper.

When folks switch from High Power rifle hunting to archery they usually expect and accept the range limitations of the equipment.
They know their own limitations in accuracy with the bow and arrow and try to stay within those ranges for a shot.

When some folks switch from HP rifle hunting to Muzzleloaders they often expect the equipment to match their HP rifles and then loose interest when they find that iron sights and the necessary range limitations aren't as easy to live with.

Then there are those who disregard their own limitations and the limitations of Traditional Muzzleloading firearm and take long range shots that even they know are a matter of luck.

A wise man is one who knows the limits of his equipment and his abilities to use it.
He understands that he will have to get within a distance that he can accurately shoot at and he actually looks forward to the increased challenge of being successful with a "primitive" firearm like our traditional muzzleloaders.
:thumbsup:

 

[J.D.]

The max range of a 54 round ball is approximately 12oo yards. And it will kill at that range.

God bless

 

[Lonegun1894]

JD,
I was thinking 1000 maximum range, but that is good to know. Talk about a reason to continue being careful. It's also good to know It wasn't just paranioa and was at least close to an actual possibility in a worst case scenario.

 

[rafterob]

I will assume that is with maximum positive elevation. The key word here again is, "Horizontal".

 

[Bretwalda]

Zonie...your last paragraph sums up what hunting with black powder and a PRB it truly all about...no matter what the caliber or what the game animal is. :bow:

 

[wattlebuster]

I dont know all the ballistic #s of the .54 rb but i do know the limits of my 48 yr old eyes an that is 100 yrds or my prefered stand shots of 40 to 50 yrds :grin: