Minnie Ball Hunting

[bearhunter]

Anybody think a minne ball (58cal) would be good for hunting? Shure it'll kill something, but would it be a bang flop, or mile long blood trail?

 

[paulvallandigham]

The minie in .58 is a sizable chunk of lead. If you are hunting white tail deer, and hit it in the lung/heart area, the deer should be done very quickly. If you hit it further back, you will be trailing it for some distance. With that large a hole, however, its going to bleed out fairly fast.

Why not simply hunt with a PRB in that caliber? It will weigh less, but recoil will be much less likely to interfere with your aim, and accuracy. Like the minie, you can expect that big round ball to pass completely through a deer sized animal, leaving even a bigger hole in the animal than the minie, believe it or not. :hmm: :thumbsup:

 

[John Wasmuth]

.58 minnie will whistle clean thru a buffalo, deer, elk, moose, all kindsa critters. Of course as with any caliber, shot placement is everything. Know the anatomy of the animal, keep your distances realistic and have a ball!

 

[poordevil]

So far, The only animals I have taken are with minnie balls in my Parker-Hale Musketoon. I took a buffalo in 2007 with it and 70gr of 3FFFg.

One thing I notice with the enterance wound, is it looks dry, as if the hollow base sucks the juice from there and the exit is very jucy and alot of the inside is now on the outside. Very dramatic blood loss. Much more so than my .30-06

 

[bearhunter]

That's what I would do. I don't accually own a 58. I'm asking this question for a friend.

 

[rabjr]

I grew up reading Ross Sigfried. not sure I spelled his name right but he was famous for hunting big game with handguns a lot of dangerous game. He recounted a story once where he hunted with an old gun and mini ball type bullet. He was less than impressed with it's performance. He did not like it's shape for hunting and was a big advocate for as wide a meplat as possible when hunting with lead bullets.

I think your better off with a round ball than a mini type bullet.

 

[BrownBear]

I don't like the small meplat on traditional minies, but the LEE improved minie has a much larger one, plus a heavier skirt to allow larger powder charges. Haven't popped any game with one yet, but would have a lot more confidence in it. The 58 cal RB is certainly plenty for deer, and I probably wouldn't switch to a conical of any sort unless I was shooting bigger animals. And the RB has worked for those too. I will say though, that the minies are sure fun to shoot! They've been really accurate in all my 58's.

 

[Bearbait2]

Mr. bearhunter,
We have used the .58cal std minie on Caribou and the .58cal Lee Improved minie on Moose and Caribou. We prefer the Lee Improved with the larger/wider meplat.
As with most projectiles, shot placement is of utmost importance.
Best Wishes

 

[rabjr]

Yep, think meplat and you can kill anything that walks, crawls or talks. The wider the better. :thumbsup:

 

[Idaho Ron]

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: