PRB load for deer and hog 54 cal.

[mancill]

This may have already been discussed in length but I am unable to get the search to cooperate with this country boy. So my 54 cal should arrive today and I will start breaking it in and working up a deer and hog load. So in yalls expert options what is the min powder charge that I should stay north of ?

 

[gonpce]

my idea is shoot the most accurate load, with that said I would start at 70 gr. and work my way up to what shoots best. I've killed several deer with 70 to 75 gr.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

+1 for 70 grains, and I use regular GOEX 3F. No worries out to 100 yards on deer. Should do fine on hogs closer in.

LD

 

[paul54]

Excellent advice. This is what I do. Not all rifles of the same make, model and caliber like the same load. Play around with different load combinations. The rifle will tell you "what it likes to eat". :thumbsup:

 

[Spikebuck]

My .54's have always liked something in the neighborhood of 90 grains 2F. I'm sure it doesn't take that much to kill things, but it's what has worked. It also gives me a good 100 yard hunting gun in that I don't have to adjust POI to have a good hit on big whitetails. Shot all the way through breaking ribs on both sides at 115 yards on one, so it's plenty.

I shoot whatever load combination gives me the best group AND that I can load in the field at least three times without swabbing or pounding.

 

[nchawkeye]

When I built my .54 back in the '80s I started out with 120grs FF Goex...

After a few years I backed down to 100grs FF and maybe 15 years ago I went to 80grs FFF...I feel confident that within 50 yards 60grs FFF would be fine simply because I killed several deer with my .45 back in the 70s with that load...

I would say if you are shooting where you can get a 100 yard shot stay from 70-90 grs in either FF or FFF, whichever your gun preferred...

 

[longcruise]

This may have already been discussed in length . . . .

Yup, so much so that most of us could just save our reply to a macro and respond with the touch of one key! :haha:

So, in any case, I and my various hunting partners shoot .54 pretty much exclusivley because we are most often hunting mule deer and elk at the same time. We have found the .54 to be a good elk killer with the round ball. Elk have been killed with charges ranging from 80 grains up to 120 grains. The 80 works just as well as the 120!

So, something around 80 should be adequate. I would not hesitate to hunt deer only with my .54 and 65 or 70 grains. With hogs, there is such a range of sizes that I'm not sure.

 

[Swede50]

I have killed many Kansas deer with 80grs of Pyrodex RS in a 54cal rifle. None of the balls or boolits bounced off none were retrieved either.

I haven't had a chance with my TC Flintlock 50cal on a deer yet not that I haven't had it with me.

As for pigs the persons property we were to hunt on crawfished out.

 

[Rifleman1776]

All other replies so far are right on. Your target load will kill most of the pigs you will see. But, there are the occasional legends of a monster boar weighing north of 300 pounds and waiting to rip you a new one with his tusks. I would crank up the target load to about 90 grains for insurance. But, that's me.

 

[Roguedog]

I use 70 grains of 3F in my .54 and I shot clean through a nice buck last season. I feel pretty strongly that 70 grains will get the job done.

Jeff

 

[wattlebuster]

Let your rifle tell you what it wants to shoot and whatever it is be it 70 or 100 it will get er done :thumbsup:

 

[hanshi]

Most of my .54 shooting has been with 60 grains of 3F. It hits hard and is my most accurate load.

 

[nchawkeye]

A couple of points on trying to push velocities with muzzleloaders...

First, you really aren't going to push it much faster when only talking 10grs of powder, that's why they are so forgiving...

Second the faster you push a pure lead ball, the faster it flattens when it hits the target, this often causes it to fragment and hurts penetration...So, added velocity does not always add penetration...

Third, and this is really wild...The faster the velocity of a round ball, the faster it looses speed...That large frontal area of a ball offers a lot of resistance and aids in slowing it down...

 

[stinkyfeet]

Hogs are not really that tough to kill even the big ones. Just remember they smell great but are blind as hell. I hunted them all the time with a 45 flinter with 70 grains of 3f and a prb and had no issues. But I was still hunting palmetto's and swampy marshy areas, and all shots were under 50 yards. Biggest hog was a touch over 300 and he went 30-40 yards at best. A .54 and solid accurate load will work fine.

 

[William O.]

Start with a powder charge of 55 grains and work up an accurate load in 5 grain increments. My .54 only gives me decent accuracy using 2f but that may not be the case with yours. 55 grains, 3 shots, swab between shots, increase by 5 grains and repeat procedure until you get a nice tight group. Do not adjust your sights until after you've found the powder amount your rifle likes.

Also keep in mind that you don't want to shoot a hog in the same place you would a deer, they have different anatomies.

 

[nwtradegun]

for hogs you will need at least 90-100 gr.. they are practically bullet proof. range should be kept to 50 at max.

 

[FishDFly]

"for hogs you will need at least 90-100 gr.. they are practically bullet proof. range should be kept to 50 at max."

Mine must be wimps, they die very easily when shot.

We did breed the Cape Buffalo and Brown Bear genetics out of them, maybe that is why ours are not bullet proof.

 

[BrownBear]

We did breed the Cape Buffalo and Brown Bear genetics out of them, maybe that is why ours are not bullet proof.

:rotf:

Same for all the porkers I shot over the years. Never popped one with a muzzleloader, but shot them with almost everything else.

From what we saw the "bullet proof" stories come down one of two paths:

Guys don't know and understand pig anatomy and don't hit them right. And to compound it they make bum shots.

All this stuff about impenetrable gristle shields and bullets bouncing off is Hollywood.

Hit em right and they die. Hit em wrong, and spin up your gristle shield stories for cover.

 

[Bob J]

My .54 hunting load for deer and hogs is 90 grains 2f Goex. I see no reason to experiment with "minimal" loads for hogs. We hunt them at night, and one never knows what size hog one will come across, and I prefer to have full confidence in the load. Having had a seemingly dead "dropped in its tracks" boar get up and absorb several 44 mag hits before sending us up a tree, I do carry a back-up sidearm (heavily loaded 45 Ruger Blackhawk). So much for head shots! Approach downed hogs carefully and with caution. :shake:

 

[Rifleman1776]

Having had a seemingly dead "dropped in its tracks" boar get up and absorb several 44 mag hits before sending us up a tree, I do carry a back-up sidearm (heavily loaded 45 Ruger Blackhawk).

Read previous posts. That doesn't/can't happen. Yer story tellin'. :wink: :rotf: