runnball said:
It solves the problem unless you are looking for the additional range and penetration that a conical offers. The bufflo were not nearly hunted to extiction with PBR guns it was the conical shooters with their additional power and range. I'm not saying a PBR gun can't do the job within its range it certainly can. It's just that its range is shorter because of the poor BC of RB. :v
If you do some research you will find that the conical is not the panacea the gun writers and manufacturers would have shooters believe. They make and sell conicals so the RB HAS to be bad. Editors of gun magazines will NOT do anything the alienate advertisers so the writers are going to produce "favorable" reports regardless is anything is printed.
Range is simply not there unless you are shooting heavy charges of faux powder. BP simply will not drive one fast enough to make a flat enough trajectory to warrant shots longer than a about 120-150 yards. Which is about as far as most people can hit a deer with open sights anyway.
Shooting heavy game with a slow twist ML (slower than about 40") will likely prove that they tend to veer off track even if they do not strike bone. People who have tried them on heavy game report the that TC Maxi-ball generally does not expand and veers badly.
The buffalo were shot with a wide variety of firearms but comparing the typical ML bullet to a 44 or 45 caliber Sharps or Remington shooting a 3 caliber long bullet is simply silly.
I would also point out that sometime before WW-II a veterinarian did research that indicates that both the Northern and Southern herds were decimated by diseases brought in with domestic cattle. The author of this article that was published first in the magazine published by the ND Historical Society and later is John Bairds BP Cartridge Rifle magazine.
He pointed out that, among other things, that the buffalo hides shipped from the west were insufficient to keep ahead of the calf crop.
Since 50-54 PRB will shoot through Mule Deer to near 150 yards (as far as I have every shot one) I see no reason to mess around with conicals. Reliable reports of the conicals performance on moose indicate they are not the answer for larger animals either.
This confirms problems found with these projectiles used on heavy game and people in the 1850s-60s.
If you REALLY think you need more power use a bigger ball. If of equal weight it will kill better than the conical anyway. A 440 gr RB is about .662 and will make 1600-1700 fps with only 120 gr of powder. Again this comes from contemporary reports and from hunters of the 1850s-60s.
Dan
