Huntin' with the 40

[Rebel]

I find it hard to believe, and it did happen to you. :grin: Just kidding. Strange things happen a lot when hunting.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Herb: I know what you mean. I had a shot go off sounding funny one afternoon after spending the whole day in a treestand. It just wasn't loud enough, and I later found a lot of unburned powder in the barrel. The ball hit the front shoulder of a little buck that came by, at about 15 yds. The hit knocked him down, but he got back up and walked away, then trotted, just to add insult to injury. He didn't even limp! I tracked him until he dropped down into a ravine leading to the river, wwhere is was already too dark to see tracks without a flashlight. No sign of injury to him at all in his gait. Moisture obviously got to my powder, but I don't know how. I ran a couple of dry patches down the barrel that morning to begin the loading, as taking a gun from a warm house into a car in Movember is going to give some condensation. The second patch went down hard, and came out bone dry. It was foggy that morning, so the only thing I can think may have happened was that the heavy moisture in the air affected the powder as I poured it down the barrel. Then, sitting there all day long while the fog burned off probably didn't help matters either. That little buck surely would have tasted good.

 

[Herb]

My shot was with a full power normal load.

 

[paulvallandigham]

/from what you have described the wound to be, I have no doubt it was full power. That is one reason why people are recommending that a larger caliber gun be used. Maybe at 15 yds, and under that small ball would break the neck bones, but it just runs out of gas at much distance. A .54 cal round ball still has a lot of powder to it at 100 yds, and at 230 grains, it can easily break a neck on an Elk. Jum Bridger used two measures of powder from his antler powder measure, which survives at his museum in Wyoming. It measures 50 grains, of FFFg, so he was shooting 100 grains of powder under a .54 PRB to use on Elk, and Black Bear. For Grizzly Bears, he preferred to use three measures, or 150 grains of powder. That is a substantially larger powder charge and heavier ball than you are shooting out of your .40 cal. rifle.