How low can I go?

[sawyer04]

Tough squirrels.

I actually have seen this happen only it was on a rabbit. My friend had built a Kentucky cap lock pistol and was a crack shot. He pulled down on a rabbit and shot. The ball bounced off the rabbits head. Now, the rabbit was goofy afterwards and was captured and disposed off. Often wondered if that rabbit would have came too, but didn't want to wait, for fear of torturing it.

 

[Eterry]

I think we all use much stronger loads than our ancestors. Better metals, more disposable cash, ease of obtaining power are a few reasons. This is just a hobby for most of us, the pioneers very life depending on not running out of powder, so i think they used it, like everything else, sparingly.

My best friend uses a 54cal and 50grs ffg to take whitetail. He's killed 2 recently with no problem.

If you think back to the beginning of the metallic cartridges, remember the 44WCF, aka 44-40?
This cartridge was considered the best thing Before sliced bread and took game up to moose with the "hump" shot, and was popular thru the 1950s.

This well respected round used 40 grains of fine powder and a 200gr lead bullet, for around 1200fps.

I believe it's in Ned Roberts book where an old possibles bag is shown with several different powder measures... do you think the hunter of old owned several different rifles?

IIRC, Roberts talks about a small game load, a large game load, and a "Bear" load.
Maybe that's where the phrase "loaded for Bear " comes from.

 

[Eterry]

I actually have seen this happen only it was on a rabbit. My friend had built a Kentucky cap lock pistol and was a crack shot. He pulled down on a rabbit and shot. The ball bounced off the rabbits head. Now, the rabbit was goofy afterwards and was captured and disposed off. Often wondered if that rabbit would have came too, but didn't want to wait, for fear of torturing it.

Often when bird hunting I've accused the birds of wearing Kevlar... cause no way I'd miss that many.

 

[Many Klatch]

The powder measure for my .54 rifle is double ended with different measures on both ends. One is 75 grains and the other is 55 grains. My rifle shoots to the same point of aim at 25 yards with either charge. I load with the smaller charge to save powder.

 

[dlidster]

Mt T/C Hawken .50 delivers its tightest groups with 70 gr of Black MZ, .490" ball, and .012" red mattress ticking from JoAnn's with a light swipe of 5:4 olive oil/bees wax. I no longer hunt, but I would trust this as an adequate load for whitetail deer.

I do most of my BP shooting right behind my house where I can bang away at steel plates up to about 60 yards away. For this I load just 35 gr of Black MZ. While I've never shot a group (nor chronographed) this load, it's more than accurate enough to wack the 6" and 8" plates every time . . . when I'm doing my part. Recoil is about the same as one of my 10/22s. It's a lot of fun.