Flintlock's killing power

[B.Habermehl]

The .58 caliber ball I recovered from the big doe I killed three weeks ago traveled diagonally through the deer and came to rest under the hide at the top of the oposite ham. The ball almost looked reshootable The deer traveled 30 yds or less. Even though I hit her in the shoulder and the ball traveled as it did there was little meat damage and thankfully some how, no paunch mess as the ball basicly went the length of the body cavity. The fish(inside loin) looked a bit rough at first but cleaned up fine.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Well, you figure a .45 ACP slug weighs about the same and is going half as fast. I don't know anyone who wants to flag one of those down with his necktie.

You're preaching to the choir, here.

How about this one. Frontal took the aorta out of the deer and ended up lodged under the skin behind the right femur (it tunnelled around the bone). 32" penetration. Deer collapsed without moving it's hind legs (did rear up, though). Hard lead ball (solder contamination) but still deadly even though it only expanded from 0.490" to 0.520". It's the only ball I've every had not pass completely through a deer.

 

[B.Habermehl]

I suspect that the lead I was using was a bit on the hard side too. The ball looked a bit too good. A simple well placed round ball really will trash a deers day. :thumbsup:

 

[luieb45]

Does anyone know from experience if Hornady roundballs will flatten or expand?

 

[rr11]

The RB I hunt with are cast from wheel weights, do not expand like pure lead, flatted but not a compleat thin disk. The few I have found over the years kill deer as well as I could ask for. Remenber a .50 or .54 is already as big as a .30 cal at full mushroom.

 

[ebiggs1]

Those in my picture are Hornady pure lead round balls. The deer I shot last season isn't able to tell us because the ball went all the way through.

 

[nkbj]

When we were kids we went "head hunting". I was shooting a 45 Kentucky and my brother a Renegade. Didn't matter much what you shot but if you didn't hit the head there might not be very much to take home!

 

[longcruise]

Does anyone know from experience if Hornady roundballs will flatten or expand?

Luie, these are the front and back of a .530 Hornady ball that hit an elk at about 40 yards. Was started with 100 or 110 grains of ff (don't remember which :redface: )

The second pic is the impact side. The longitudinal striations are pieces of rib bone from impact. Went across the top of the heart and through both luns, between the ribs on the far side and stopped under the skin. This is the only ball I've ever recovered from any animal. Some have stopped under the skin on deer but were lost in the gut piles when they flowed back into the wound channel. Coulda found them with a metal detector I suppose, but when the temps are in the 70's to 90's, recovering the ball is a low priority! :shocked2:

 

[saber]

I have taken over 30 black tails with a 50cal longrifle and used Honadays and they will flatten well most shot went right on through but a few were head on shots so I got the ball back and they were all flattened well all one shot kills and non went any ferther then 20yards 80 grs of 3f same for pan and never have had any meat loss eat right up to the hole nothing like a 308 or 06 they are high vol rounds and do a reverse hydolice to a animal as far as killing power well there were a lot of english officers that never went back to england they kill well deer moose bear what ever you want just put the ball were it needs to go

 

[BrownBear]

I adjust "power" with the diameter of my round balls rather than larger doses of powder. In the last three days I've deer hunted with 50, 58 and 62 caliber, depending on where we were going and a trade-off between weight and my assessment of bear proximity.

Not a thing to do with which is more powerful for deer, because they all were plenty. But yesterday when headed for serious bear country the 62 was a lot more comforting than the 50. There's just something about trading in a 177 grain .490 ball for a .610 ball that weighs twice as much (342 grains) when "power" is needed.

 

[hoochiepapa]

The ball I pictured above is a .535 Hornady 235 gr. after penetrating both shoulders of a pronghorn.

 

[CoyoteJoe]

Recently there has been a lot of attention on people hunting deer and hogs with "big bore air guns". The high power air guns poop a .457" roundball out the muzzle at a piddly 900 fps and they think that is real power! A .45 muzzleloader could match that with about 25 grains of 3f. :haha:

 

[jbwilliams3]

It’s really something to chuckle at that anyone would question the killing power of things that have killed countless thousands of living beings over the past 500 years.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

power as in technical ft pounds is also not totally the only consideration. If I fired a needle through a deer, it likely would heal up and live. The larger the ball, the larger the hole and the more shock the animal will be subjected to. While I'm sure at some point a frontiersman killed a deer with a 28 cal round ball, it was an unusual feat. Robert Louis Stevenson had Long John Silver tell young Hawkins that the way to kill a man was with a wee bit of powder and a large ball. There certainly some truth to that. Even when penetration isn't all that deep. Even without penetration? ie will a bowling ball at 40 miles an hour kill a deer if struck broadside? A baseball at 250 miles per hour? Flintlocks with PRBs have been putting meat on the table for centuries before the modern gun writers decided it was impossible.

 

[Supercracker]

It’s really something to chuckle at that anyone would question the killing power of things that have killed countless thousands of living beings over the past 500 years.

You wouldn't believe the number of people who have told me that "a longbow won't kill a big boar"..... :shake:

 

[hanshi]

I have taken over 30 black tails with a 50cal longrifle and used Honadays and they will flatten well most shot went right on through but a few were head on shots so I got the ball back and they were all flattened well all one shot kills and non went any ferther then 20yards 80 grs of 3f same for pan and never have had any meat loss eat right up to the hole nothing like a 308 or 06 they are high vol rounds and do a reverse hydolice to a animal as far as killing power well there were a lot of english officers that never went back to england they kill well deer moose bear what ever you want just put the ball were it needs to go

:grin: I know a guy who eats "right up to the hole" on deer he kills. He is kind enough to always give me the hole when I don't get anything. :rotf:

 

[montanatim]

Of all the deer I've shot with my .54 balls, I've yet to have a pass through. Too much powder flattening the ball maybe?

It is my belief that the gun hacks and those who would trash the lowly round ball, are the same folks who embrace in-lines and 250 yd shots for their "muzzle loaders" which are as effective as a 30-06 in most average folks hands. Virtually all the guys I work with think a 250 yd. shot with their high power is a long shot.

These same folks (I find) are deer shooters not hunters and could not place themselves into round ball range, therefore have no time for the rotten round ball. They would just as soon nobody used it so their inadequacy would go unnoticed.

 

[luieb45]

Thanks guys. I had just heard somewhere that hornady roundballs don't work well for hunting because they aren't totally pure lead but it looks like they do fine. I killed 1 deer last year with a .50 hornady roundball but the hole was very tiny. But, I hit the deer under the spine and maybe or maybe not hit the shoulder. There was no blood on the ground but I assume this wasn't one of the best shots on a deer. But she dropped immediately. But if hit a deer in the lower lungs it will be a pretty decent size hole.

 

[roundball]

Hopefully the 19th i'll findout what a .62 ball will do on deer.

I use stout powder charges for hunting and have only recovered a couple balls as most are pass-throughs from broadside heart shots.
One I recovered is this .600” cast ball out of a .62cal Flintlock...was sitting down at ground level in a natural ground blind, shot the buck straight in the chest at 30-40yds, the ball traveled the full length of his body, broke through the right rear thigh bone, and stopped bulging under the hide on the back of the ham.

 

[roundball]

"...had just heard somewhere that hornady roundballs don't work well for hunting because they aren't totally pure lead but it looks like they do fine..."

Hornady pure lead balls have been my go-to hunting choice in all calibers they make them for, going on 20 years...excellent performers.

Speer balls are equally as good IMO...but they usually run a couple extra dollars a box so other than the occasional old box I'd stumble across at a gun show table at a great price, I didn't buy Speers over the counter.