PRB for Hunting

[Sperit de bois]

Then don't.If you can't shoot or hunt,, then don't,,, easy as that.

 

[Sperit de bois]

If you took the same game with cotton balls you would swear by them.
This has been beat to death,,,,,shoot what ever you are confident with...

 

[BE Wild Willy]

For me it's a matter of cost, and ease of loading after more than one shot.

 

[Sperit de bois]

You only need one shot and the cost is nothing compared to the rest of shooting/hunting/Rondy's,,just do it.\
If the deciding factor is cost,, better head for the grocery store,,no doubt you will "make 'meat.

 

[James Stella]

Before I found this forum I would have never even thought of shooting PRB. I bought the lyman with a fast twist so I could shoot conical.

Now that I am seeing all of the success from people on this forum I am going to see if I can work up a PRB load with my rifle. I know it is not the best rate of twist but I am going to try.

I guess now I see it as no different than bow hunting. If I pick my shots and get close I should be fine.

 

[Idaho Ron]

Well, I am probably going to get "well & truly flamed" for this, but except for the cost savings, tradition, plus the other benefits you mentioned, I see no reason to use a PRB on any game animal.
I have found that conicals, due to their shape and weight are simply a better choice for big game hunting.
I have taken deer, elk, moose, bear, boar, speedgoat, and sheep with a muzzleloader. All with conicals. Simply said, if your gun is accurate with them, the heavy for caliber conicals hit harder, penetrate better, and are quicker to re-load if needed.
Now, I'll sit with my fingers in my ears waiting for replies to this heresy on my part.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

[Yankee Doodle]

Understood. How I should have worded it was after taking a few deer with a PRB, I kind of gave up on them and switched to conicals. I was just not satisfied with the performance of PRBs. It was after the switch, about 40 years ago, that I took the balance of my animals. Have never looked back.
Sorry for any confusion I might have caused.

 

[roundball]

:thumbsup:

 

[Stumpkiller]

I am real hesitant to use PRB for hunting although I have heard many success stories on here. Has anyone noticed any benefits from switching from conicals to PRB other than not having to deal with lead fowling and reduced recoil?

Didn't know there were other choices for traditional muzzleloaders? :hmm: :idunno:

No lead fouling at all with a properly patched round ball. Zero. Zip. Nada.

The key is you have to launch a big enough one at a good velocity and keep it under 100 yards.

Conicals are better. A .338 Winchester Magnum probably better still. But then you're no longer talking traditional. It becomes a hunt and not a shoot with a flintlock and patched round ball. You have to decide for yourself why you are here and what you are willing to accept as a challenge. You may just have to pass on a LOT more shots. Some folks just can't accept that and probably are not good traditional candidates.

Much better you should stick to modern projectiles if you won't adhere to the limits a round ball forces you to adapt to.

 

[rkite]

I have hunted with the same group of guys all with patched round balls for 15+ years. I have seen loads of deer shot with 40, 50, 54, 58 and 62 caliber round balls at ranges out to 125 yards. I have never have seen one hit that ran more than 50 yards most don't go more than 20.

 

[jethro224]

I am real hesitant to use PRB for hunting although I have heard many success stories on here. Has anyone noticed any benefits from switching from conicals to PRB other than not having to deal with lead fowling and reduced recoil?

Why are you real hesitant to use a PRB for hunting? Sounds like you're reading too many magazine ads.
PRBs have been killing critters for hundreds of years and they still work today! I've shot lots of deer with .490 and .530 balls and one with a .600 and one with a .715 and they were all one shot kills. The only one that was not a pass-thru was the .715 which was at a quartering toward me angle thru the shoulder and clear back into the stomach. The rest were mostly broadside heart/lung shots from 30-150 yards. Some dropped right there, some ran a ways, up to 125 yards.
One big buck was hit quartering away just behind the ribs next to the spine and exited the offside armpit. 90 yard shot. Only got one lung. He dropped but got back up and went quite a ways.

You gotta be able to hit 'em thru the boiler room and you might hafta track 'em a bit. But shooting and tracking skills are just part of hunting no matter what you shoot 'em with.
Broadheads, shotgun slugs, or roundballs, deer are deer and some will drop right there and some will run even with identical shots. :idunno:

Other than the no lead fouling issue, reduced recoil, and tradition, cost is a major benefit. When it doesn't cost as much to shoot, you will shoot more often and become a better shot. Another thing, if you ever decide to get into competition/rondy shooting, many/most shoots require PRB. I like to shoot the same load I use to hunt with every time I shoot my rifles. Keeps me in tune with the gun.

Try 'em. I bet you'll like 'em.

 

[Eric M]

I am not worried about my accuracy, I can shoot well i.e. 2 inches or less out 75 yards with the round ball. My main concern is that the places I hunt are not big, 50 acres or less. Although I aim for the heart, if I end up hitting the lungs I do not want the deer to get onto a neighboring property that I already know I will not be able to access. I love the traditional aspect of muzzleloading or I would not even bother with it. As I just said I want to be able to recover the animal.

 

[Walks with fire]

Well; I have used the plastic/bullet, the conical (bare and paper patched) and patched round ball for deer and I won't go into which one kills the fastest,shoots the flatest, hits the hardest or any of that.

I like round ball and I would be willing to bet that unless your hunting open terrain and shooting long distance the ball will work better for you. Patched ball came back to me as a favorite load and I accept what they do and how they do it. I won't shoot a compound bow either for pretty much the same reasons.

Try what you like but if you hunt woods deer you will be back to ball before long.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

having said all that, the conical IS more effective. there is a reason we no longer use balls as projectiles for our modern guns.

The reason the conical was invented was to increase the speed of loading a military musket while adding the accuracy of a rifle. :wink:

The modern, jacketed, spitzer bullet is the grandson of the conical projectile, and the modern, jacket projectile, spitzer or not, did not supplant the round ball until smokeless powder (and smokeless powder velocities) became the norm for shooting big game. We are not approaching modern, smokeless velocities in this discussion. Round ball 12 bore cartridge guns were very successful in Africa for hunting large, dangerous game. :wink:

Now as far as "effective" goes..., a hole is a hole is a hole..., a round ball that transverses the entire animal is equally effective as the conical that does the same. The velocities at impact for either are insufficient to even begin discussing hydrostatic shock. As to the degree of mushrooming, yes a conical might mushroom to a larger diameter as it has more material to do so. The operative word is might.

At maximum effective range for a round ball, the conical will have more inertia due to higher mass and so will be more likely to penetrate through the animal and so do more damage, but since most deer are not taken at the maximum effective range of the round ball..., that point for general discussion is moot.

Once that conical exits the deer, the fact that it had say 1409 foot pounds of energy at the muzzle compared to the patched round ball's 1313 foot pounds of energy [source: TC manual], is not a factor. You only gain in "effectiveness" as you near the maximum, effective range for the PRB. At such a range the round ball might not sufficiently penetrate the deer to make a quick, humane kill, while the conical projectile, if it impacted the deer in the exact same spot at the exact same distance from the hunter, would have a much better chance of making a quick, humane kill..., all other variables being equal.

Simply put, don't shoot the round ball at maximum, effective range. Few if any folks do. So then the question is simply, which shoots the most accurate from your chosen rifle or gun? THAT is what should count.

You could launch a conical projectile that was made to be 10x as effective as the little ol' all lead, patched round ball, but if it doesn't shoot straight from your gun.... :shake:

To answer the orginal poster's concerns..., at under 100 yards blowing a hole through both sides of whitetail deer and hitting the heart & lungs or just the lungs with a PRB or conical..., no difference.

LD

 

[roundball]

Shot a buck straight in the chest with this .600" ball at 40-50 yards...traversed the entire length of his body, stopping bulging the hide on the back side of his right ham, dropped in his tracks.

 

[roundball]

Assuming a hunter is able to use a big enough caliber / ball for the game being hunted, nothing else is needed at typical muzzleloader distances.
I think the biggest attraction of a conical to the occasional hunter who might only have a small-ish to medium caliber rifle available, is the obvious increase in weight / penetration for bigger game than the existing caliber ball might be best suited for.

 

[elkslayer]

I would say that at ranges that traditional muzzleloaders are used there is no difference between a conical and a PRB. I say that even though I have never used conicals. I got into the traditional game because I wanted to use PRB.

In the debate about which kills better I think we all got left behind about the time that centerfire rifles came to be. I'm certain that my 30-06 will out perform any muzzleloader conical or PRB, but that is not the point is it?

The fact remains that with open sights my max range is 100 yds and the deer I killed with a PRB inside that range were just as dead as every deer I ever killed with a centerfire rifle inside that range.

I say use what you want but you can't go wrong with PRB, conicals don't have any advantage at distances under 100 yards.

 

[VTdeerhunter]

The important thing is that we owe it to the animal to give it a swift and humane death. In order to do that we need to be confident is what we carry in the field. Your opening words answer this question for you.....

"I am real hesitant to use PRB for hunting"

With that said you should use what you do feel confident with, no judgement from me as long as you respect that I do feel confident with a PRB and choose to use it to fill my freezer.

 

[hoochiepapa]

.
.54 cal., 100 grs 2F about 70 yards my late Lancaster. Went through both shoulders and under the skin on the opposite shoulder. Pronghorn dropped in his tracks.

 

[roundball]

A small PRB example:
.45 caliber .440”/128grn Hornady ball, 90grns Goex 3F, 60 yard shot, broadside 6 pointer (whitetail).
Smashed through a rib going in, across through the heart, and stopped bulging the hide on the far side against his leg...probably would have popped on through had the leg not been there. He swapped ends, sprinted 15-20yds and piled up in sight.