Need reassurance and range report too

[Little Wattsy]

Over the last few days I have been to the range doing the final touch ups in preperation for the hunt. (11 days and counting)....
I found that my .50 connical barrel (all of these on a Renegade Stock) is MOST accurate out 100 yards IF the Hornady GP's are tight enough....SOME seem a little smaller in diamater and accuracy suffers :hmm:
I am finding that the .54 RB barrel is showing more consistancy at 100 yards (both are dead on at 50 yrds and closer)

The question is (I feel like I know the awnser but NEED conformation) Is 80grs of Pyrodex RS pushing a .54 RB enough to ETHICALLY take a deer at 100 yards?....Yah I know you can do it with a .22 BUT Im talking ETHICALLY. Would you get complete penatration on a mature deer flat broad side at 100 yards? Hope this make sense.

Please and Thank You....

 

[BrownBear]

The question is (I feel like I know the awnser but NEED conformation) Is 80grs of Pyrodex RS pushing a .54 RB enough to ETHICALLY take a deer at 100 yards?....Yah I know you can do it with a .22 BUT Im talking ETHICALLY. Would you get complete penatration on a mature deer flat broad side at 100 yards? Hope this make sense.

Compare the 100 yard ballistics of your 80 grain load and 100 grains, which most folks consider plenty. Not enough to worry about, for sure.

Now hitting the right spot at 100 yards? That's a bigger and very personal ethical question. I'm not man enough to do it anymore and I know it. I guess that makes me a pretty ethical hunter, don't it. :thumbsup:

 

[Trench]

It probably will do just fine with only 80gr. Do you have a lot of opportunity for 100yd shots? My .50 load was a .490 ball in front of 70gr of 2F. I was comfortable with that out to 75yds.
It all depends on what YOU'RE comfortable with, though.

 

[Idaho Ron]

I found that my .50 connical barrel (all of these on a Renegade Stock) is MOST accurate out 100 yards IF the Hornady GP's are tight enough....SOME seem a little smaller in diamater and accuracy suffers :hmm:
..

That doesn’t make sense. Hornady GP bullets are swaged, they should be the same. I have never had any that were different. Ron

 

[Little Wattsy]

I found that my .50 connical barrel (all of these on a Renegade Stock) is MOST accurate out 100 yards IF the Hornady GP's are tight enough....SOME seem a little smaller in diamater and accuracy suffers :hmm:
..

That doesn’t make sense. Hornady GP bullets are swaged, they should be the same. I have never had any that were different. Ron

I say different based ONLY on how "hard" they are to start...Some go down easy to the 4th and last band, some firm up at the 3rd band THATS what I like!)...pretty unscientific I know and MAYBE the differance I see is a mental hang up on my part manifesting itsself in preformance????

 

[Little Wattsy]

It probably will do just fine with only 80gr. Do you have a lot of opportunity for 100yd shots? My .50 load was a .490 ball in front of 70gr of 2F. I was comfortable with that out to 75yds.
It all depends on what YOU'RE comfortable with, though.

Do you have a lot of opportunity for 100yd shots? Not alot but enough. We have a mixture of open medows where you COULD shoot to 100's of yards, to open pines that Could offer 100 yards easy enough, to thicker stuff. Honestly even w/ my 7 Mag or .270 Ive kilt far more deer at UNDER 100 yards then over BUT I like to be comfortable with the preformance of the equipment AS WELL AS myself; As this is my 1st year I just dont have ANY experiance to compare these "pop guns" to (that IS a joke :wink: )

It all depends on what YOU'RE comfortable with, though. Im comfortable enough with a rest out to 100 yards as far as hitting em goes I just dont want a long chase due to poor penetration; Again lets say on a flat broad side shot,,,I know that various degrees of quartering will change EVERYTHING.

 

[Trench]

I ran some numbers through my roundball ballistic calculator. Being conservative, you'll get between 1400 and 1500 fps with 80gr of black depending on barrel length, components, yaddah yaddah. On the high side at 100 yds you end up with 947fps/447ft-lbs. Low side you get 921fps/422ft-lbs.
If I knew I could get a broadside shot and could put that ball right where I want it, I'd take the shot...but only for a broadside.

 

[longcruise]

Is 80grs of Pyrodex RS pushing a .54 RB enough to ETHICALLY take a deer at 100 yards?....

Not to worry! I've personally seen that load take a full size mulie doe at 180 yards. Was ffg goex rather than pyro rs, but I've chronoed those two side by side and found them to be only single digits apart in velocity.

Same year that same load took a five point bull at about 50 yards.

You seem to be a hunter who is concerned with ethics so I doubt if you will take an iffy shot. All should be well!

 

[Stumpkiller]

Over the last few days I have been to the range doing the final touch ups in preperation for the hunt. (11 days and counting)....
I found that my .50 connical barrel (all of these on a Renegade Stock) is MOST accurate out 100 yards IF the Hornady GP's are tight enough....SOME seem a little smaller in diamater and accuracy suffers :hmm:
I am finding that the .54 RB barrel is showing more consistancy at 100 yards (both are dead on at 50 yrds and closer)

The question is (I feel like I know the awnser but NEED conformation) Is 80grs of Pyrodex RS pushing a .54 RB enough to ETHICALLY take a deer at 100 yards?....Yah I know you can do it with a .22 BUT Im talking ETHICALLY. Would you get complete penatration on a mature deer flat broad side at 100 yards? Hope this make sense.

Please and Thank You....

Yes. There is nothing actually immoral about using Pyrodex.

I hit a bedded buck at 120 yards with a patched round ball and it never got up. I was in a ground blind and he walked up and bedded down to my right and I took all of 15 minutes to ooze into a shooting position and rest the back of my left hand on a log with a good, seated hold for the shot. That was with a .54 T/C Renegade with a .530 round ball, 0.018" patch and 90 gr of FFg. Lately I use 85 gr +/- of FFg or FFFg (depends on the rifle).

If it's accurate - use it.

 

[Kentuckywindage]

80gr pyrodex RS and a .530 ball is my ELK load :haha: Your load will be just fine for deer.