Flintlock's killing power

[ebiggs1]

Earlier there were a couple posts about killing power of round balls and low velocity. I happened to find these in the dirt behind a plastic milk jug I was shooting at yesterday.
Does anyone still think a round ball from a 50cal flintlock doesn't have killing power?
Load was 70 grs GOEX, cut patch with Bore Butter and a Hornady 490 round ball.

 

[hawk]

noticable expantion what do you figure the lead hardness is on those there old round balls?

 

[hoochiepapa]

I shot a Colorado pronghorn last year at about 75 yards with my .54 late Lancaster. I use 110 grains of Goex (elk load), pre-cut patch lubed with mink oil and the rifle is percussion. The ball went through both shoulders (bone) and stopped in the skin on the opposite side. I wish I knew how to post pics, I'd show you the ball. It's flat. Granted, pronghorn are small and so are their bones, but that's impressive performance in my book. I haven't killed an elk with it yet. Lots of health issues.
If I had any evidence that it would do that much damage, I would have shot for the heart or at least a little further back. Ruined a lot of meat.

 

[longrifle78]

I'v shot lots of deer with roundball from .45-.54 cal and can tell ya if you get a good hit your deer wont go far. The damage done by a roundball can be quite impresive. Hopefully the 19th i'll findout what a .62 ball will do on deer.

 

[wattlebuster]

Been shootin .54 balls for deer for 30 yrs and have never had a problem as long as I done MY job (get close put ball properly) most have been shoot thru an the ones i have recoverd have been flatend like a quarter :thumbsup:

 

[Trench]

I've never doubted it. Standing in front of lead orbs going faster than the speed of sound looks like a death sentence to me.

 

[saber]

how did it ruin the meat most times you can eat right up to the hole?

 

[Stubert]

I hit a small whitetail last year with a 62 cal ball.(341 grains), It went in thru a rib and exited thru the middle of the off shoulder. I lost about 6oz. of meat.

 

[hanshi]

I hit a small whitetail last year with a 62 cal ball.(341 grains), It went in thru a rib and exited thru the middle of the off shoulder. I lost about 6oz. of meat.

But you lost the BEST 6oz. :wink:

From what I've seen of deer that I shot, a .45 prb does about the same damage as a .308 or 30/06. A .50 is usually a little more. When you get to .54 and up it's like using a sledge hammer to drive a finishing nail. At the farther distances prb still drop them easily but the damage starts to lessen some.

 

[hoochiepapa]

Here's that pronghorn.

 

[hoochiepapa]

Lots of shattered bone in the shoulder meat-both shoulders. :idunno:

 

[Rhett Griffith]

I used self-cast .490 roundballs in front of 70 gr. of FFg in my flinlock this year to harvest the three deer I was allowed during our Muzzleloader Season. One ran about 70 yards, one ran about 40 yards, and the other went 10 yards before piling up. No follow-up shots were necessary and the internal damage was nothing short of spectacular. On the two deer where I hit the shoulders, the shoulder meat was destroyed to the point of being inedible.

So much for roundballs being ineffective and outdated, as claimed by some gun-writers! :hmm: I cannot tell the difference in "deadness" between deer shot with my flintlock and those shot with a centerfire rifle. Similar hits seem to produce similar results.

 

[texcl]

I've shot bear and deer with round balls and never had them go past 50 yards, now my mom hit a deer tonight with a 25-06 right in the shoulder and so far I've tracked it 200 yards, will have to go back in the morning to finish up the tracking job. Round balls are very under estimated.

 

[kevthebassman]

I think that people who have known nothing but copper jacketed, high velocity rounds tend to underestimate the damage that can be done by a dead soft lead round ball within the limitations of range.

Copper jacket and hard cast bullets need lots of velocity to expand and transfer all that velocity to the flesh and cause shock. We all know that that ain't how round balls work. There's no jacket, and the lead is softer, so you get your expansion at a much lower velocity than you can with a centerfire. Add to that the fact that a round ball is already bigger than most centerfires bullets expanded diameter and flattens out even bigger than that.

No, I don't think there's anything wrong with the lethality of the round ball as long as the shot is placed right and the range is inside a hundred yards or so.

 

[hoochiepapa]

Here's that ball. About a quarter inch thick.

 

[texcl]

you know I've never been able to recover a rb, but I mostly hunt with .58 and .62. Even at 150 yards the ball passes right through.

 

[Bon Sauvage]

Every milk jug I shot with a RB dropped straight in its tracks.

 

[hanshi]

Only recovered a few over the years and they were all very, very flat.

 

[C Barker]

I like neck shots on deer -- just the way I was taught a long time ago. How effective are .50 cal round balls taking neck shots? Centerfire neck shots drop deer instantly. Same for PRB? Thanks.

 

[hawk]

IMHO a heart and lung shot would be my choice over a neck shot.

never shot the neck before with roundball ,if it aint broke ...anyone?