A .530 ball and .018" denim patch is what my bro uses in his .54 rifle and loads 1 push, all the way down, 1st shot or 15th, but then it is a proper round ball cut rifled barrel. When my Brother and I started with .50 TCs, we both used a .495 balls and .018 Denim patches(compressed thickness) with no trouble loading, once we learned how. You need enough lubricant & have to use a short starter to seat the ball and patch level with the muzzle, then to start the ball down about 5" or 6", then choke up on the rod to prevent breakage when seating the ball down on the powder, 6" at a stroke. This type of loading was necessary to achieve our required accuracy with hunting level loads. Were we not concerned with accuracy, I suppose a thinner patched load might have done. Such wasn't the case. We learned to use a lot of lube, to keep the fouling soft - we knew we didn't have to clean between shots as that's what Roberts taught in his book concerning Kempart and the original Hawken rifle he tested. The first shot was as accurate as the last - without swabbing - that was our goal and we experimented until we found what worked & what didn't. Interestingly enough, what worked, worked in all ML guns we tried it in & it continues to work today in all the guns we try it in. Today, with proper deep rifling, loading snug combinations is easy comapared to what it was like with the button'd barrels, but we still achieved success with them.
: Kip, the American hunter shot a big bull Moose at 170yds. (lazered) 4 weeks ago, with a .54 TC Hawken with factory .54 barrel, virtually identical to yours. He used .535 cast or bought swaged pure lead balls and .015 OxYoke pre-lubed bore-butter patches. When practising, he shot without cleaning or swabbing, and the first shot loaded harder than any of the rest. He loaded it without trouble using the rifle's 3/8" hickory rod. He normally uses a GM slow twist barrel, but the Gunsmith who attempted to blue it for him, ruined it's interior, so he had to use the shallow rifling barrel for the hunt. Upon impact, the moose ran & collapsed 40 yds from where it was hit - dead. It took perhaps 2 1/2 seconds for the moose to drop as it only took that long to cover that distance.
: I now know, that the .54 RB has the power to kill big bull moose at that range, if 100gr. 2F(or more) is used. Most guys up here use 120 to 140gr. in their .54 Custom rfles. I know from experience that the .495 Round Ball, driven by 120gr. 2f can drop a bull moose in it's tracks at a range of 110yards., if shot properly. I also know that the .684" ball I shoot in my 14 bore rifle, has the POWER to kill big game at 300 meters due to the damage it makes in pine at that distance, and that James Forsyth one shot a Sambur Stag at 250yd. with a 14 bore rife, killing it with one shot, the ball exiting the far side. He used but 2 1/2 drams of #6 C&H powder. I know from experience that at 200yds. a .735 ball from a .75 cal rifle, will exit on a broadside shot on a moose, started by 200gr. 2F. (I know from reading that mountain men didn't restrict themselves to 100 yards on big game, but shot at long ranges at both game and Indians & that their rifles were effective at that range. I also know that accuracy contests were convened at ranges out to at least 150yds. from documentation in books. Round balls were the projectile.
: We know what the sectional density of balls are and what the ballistic coeficients of those balls are, and from that we can, figure what the downrange velocties and trajectories are and we can use tables of these same values to figure what the downrange energies are.
: See - given a certain weight, and a certain velocity, and identical ballistic coefficients (coefficient of friction) it matters not what shape the projectile, it will describe the same path (trajectory) and stike with the same ft. lbs. energy. It will NOT strike the same force on an animal, as the shape is VERY important to the blow stuck or felt. A needle of 300gr.weight strikes less of a blow than a ball of the same weight.
; The old Lyman BP handbook has downrange ballistics in it, all figured from formulae. All modern re-loading books have modern ballistics in them for downrange drop, energy, and wind-drift. Some have some BP data as well, such as the #25 Hogdon book. Hornady's site has some T7 and BP data.
: I have been shooting big game in British Columbia since 1972, but have yet to shoot beyond 100 yards at a big game animal with any rifle, antique period or modern. I know my rifles are capable of ranging further, and I know I am capable, but find that if a person actually hunts first, the shot will be closer than 100yards and most ML rifles have the power for that, using round balls.
: WOW - sorry it's so long.
