Effectiveness

[BrownBear]

I have to pass this along for anyone wondering about the abilities of a traditional muzzleloader.

My hunting pardner popped a nice 3-point at a measured 55 yards on Kodiak Island today using his 50 cal TC Hawken with 90 grains Pyrodex P and a Maxiball. Hit it head-on just off center in the brisket. The Maxi passed through the top of the heart, clipped both lungs, shattered the liver, passed through the stomach and intestines, entered the front of the right ham, passed all the way through that while missing the bone, then lodged under the hide. It staggered back when hit, then traveled about 15 feet before piling up.

No wonder I haven't recovered any bullets or RB's from deer! Conservative estimate is that the Maxi passed through 4 feet of animal before stopping. No major bones after the brisket, but judging by the state of the liver, it had lots of jeewhiz going for it.

I'd have no qualms using his combo on lots bigger game.

 

[renovato]

Conicals do penetrate very well. I've never recovered one from deer or elk other than the one time I tried a hollow point. I think it was a Maxihunter. I'm still undecided whether to keep using them for elk, or switch to PRB, but I know they penetrate way more than necessary on deer for sure.

 

[rabbit03]

My old hunting buddy and I, who has passed on to his reward now, shot a large hog here several years back. I shot him at 100 paces and it went through the plate, ribs, heart then through the ribs again and logged into the plate on the other side.

For those who have hunted wild hogs you know that the plate is like armor on these animals and this one was about 3/4 inch thick. I think I was using about 100 grn of 3F if I recall behind the 50 cal roundball out of my old Hawken Rifle. The hog traveled about 20 ft and fell over dead.

The rest of the story if yall care to hear it was that both Rusty and I shot at the same time, he was shooting my old 45 cal TC Hawken. Once we discovered that there was only one hole in this critter Rusty announced that he must have been the one to hit it and that I must have missed. Well upon revovrey of the roundball I announced that we could tell who had hit it pretty easily. The ball, I told Rusty, could have lost weight but could not have gained any. Then I said, if it is mine then there was a good chance that it would weigh more than his started out weighing.

End result was it was heavier than his 45 ball and my shot was the one to bring the hog down. I have to admit though I cheated and knelt down for the shot!

If I had have known that Rusy would not have been here today I would have told him he had killed em'.

rabbit03

 

[Vaino]

Who gutted that mess? Being a meat hunter, I never would have taken that "head on" shot....I like my venison seasoned only w/ salt, pepper and garlic. Talk about "wild tasting" deer.....Fred

 

[BrownBear]

You must have been looking over our shoulder flehto!

It was the only shot he had, so he took it. When I got there and we looked it over before gutting, we were both kind of queezy, knowing what to expect.

But both of us were surprised that there wasn't a mess. We pawed through the gut pile looking for the bullet, but couldn't find it right then. We discovered it while skinning back home. Still can't figure out how that bullet got through the gut without making a mess. For one thing the stomach was pretty empty.

Sweet smelling deer, so we're looking forward to good eats, but also feeling really lucky.