Recovered Roundball

[rancher]

Here is the .54 Hornady .530 roundball I recovered from the doe I shot on Saturday. 80 grains of FFg Goex under a pillow ticking patch lubed with Stumpkiller's moose juice. 20-25 yard broadside shot that broke the shoulder, passed through the heart and broke a rib on the far side. Lots of blood and a short 40 yard recovery.

 

[rabjr]

Rancher, pull your camera back slowly until it focuses. Believe me a focused pic a little further away will show much more than a close up blurred pic.

If you have Macro setting, us it.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Good work! :thumbsup:

 

[rancher]

These were taken with my phone and it takes terrible pics. Forgot to grab the ball to get better pics. Thanks for the tip!

 

[longcruise]

Looks dang near exactly like the one I removed from a cow elk a few years back. I have always wonderd if a ball continued to track face forward after a hit like that or if they tended to tumble. Being that yours broke bone on both sides, I'm thinking it continued face forward all the way through. A bit blurry, but the pics tell a story!

 

[rancher]

Looks dang near exactly like the one I removed from a cow elk a few years back. I have always wonderd if a ball continued to track face forward after a hit like that or if they tended to tumble. Being that yours broke bone on both sides, I'm thinking it continued face forward all the way through. A bit blurry, but the pics tell a story!

I would guess that it continued face forward as well because the back side had no apparent damage on it.

 

[dave n]

Can't beat a round ball ! Makes for some good hunting medicine .

 

[BrownBear]

Good score, both on the deer and the ball recovery!

Recovered balls are really scarce in my experience, so I'm always interested in details of the shot and the load, just as you provided.

Thanks! :thumbsup:

Here's my "trophy" round ball, the one and only I've ever recovered. It too was a .530 RB, launched with 90 grains of 3f Goex from the 32" barrel of a GPR. The deer was facing me at 55 yards and I put it in the white patch of its throat. The ball passed completely through the spine front to back and stopped under the hide.

 

[hoochiepapa]

I know, you've all seen this before...
.54 cal, 110 grs. 2F, pre-made patch with mink oil. Broke both shoulders and lodged in the skin on the opposite shoulder. About 70 yards. The only big game animal I've ever killed with a roundball.

 

[longcruise]

Here's both sides of a .530 ball that hit an elk at about 40 yards fired with 110 grains of ff if memory serves. Hit a rib goin in and went between ribs on the far side stopping under the skin. Note the similarity to Rancher's ball!

The front side had bone striations embedde in it.

Kinda fun when we can all show our balls like this. :redface:

 

[hoochiepapa]

The top photo almost shows a rifling mark and patch weave. Ball tumbled?

 

[Stumpkiller]

I've only ever recovered one rifle ball from a deer. This one passed through lengthwise from a 14 yard frontal (clipped the heart) and was just under the skin behind the thighbone. Deer reared back and dropped without taking a step. :thumbsup:

Not much deformation at all . . . but some of my lead has tin & solder in it. :redface: I have recovered smoothbore/musket balls from deer but recast those. Can't waste an ounce of good lead. :nono:

I am always impressed that cotton leaves marks in the lead. Obviously it resists compression.

 

[rancher]

It does look very similar marmotslayer. I'm thinking about drilling a hole through it and attaching it to my bag with a piece of rawhide.

 

[longcruise]

The top photo almost shows a rifling mark and patch weave.

No rifling marks to be found, but the weave of the patch is quite clear. It may have flattened enough to roll back past any rifling marks that were there.

Not sure what you mean by tumbled?

 

[longcruise]

Attaching to the bag sounds like a good idea.

Apparently neighter of us are as frugal as Stumpkiller. :haha:

 

[hoochiepapa]

I mean what you are viewing may not be the back of the ball as it entered. Could it be the side showing? And then turned after it hit a rib?

 

[hoochiepapa]

If you drill it, save the chips!! Right Stumpy?

 

[Bill Hall]

If you drill it, save the chips!! Right Stumpy?

:rotf: :rotf: :rotf: Gray gold, eh Mike?

 

[Maestro]

This (ball on right... duh!) was a broadside rib shot on a whitetail buck recovered just under the opposite skin. (Hornady .490)

 

[longcruise]

Mike, ok, I see what you mean now. The side of the bullet with the weave showing has weave over the entire side. The opposite side that hit the rib has the bone striations in it (the actual ball after banging around in my shooting box for years no longer has the bone it it).

It may have tumbled, but there is no way of knowing since the flesh portion of the penetration does not seem to have imparted any particular marks. It crossed over the top part of the heart and the plumbing connections there as well as penetrating both lungs. Heart and lungs were both incapcitated, but that did not stop her from running about 100 yards! :shocked2: She covered that in about five seconds, so if she had stood still at the hit she would have qualified for DRT but she had her own ideas!

Rancher's ball hit bone on both sides of the animal but still showed weave on one side and ragged disruption on the other. That led me to believe that his ball did not tumble. But still, how would one be sure if it did not tumble and then just happen to hit the bone on the far side with the same surface as the bone on the impact side?

To me, the idea that it would tumble always made intuitive sense. I suppose some shooting into gelatin might give a clue.

Now I'm hijacking Rancher's thread so it's time to for me to get back on topic.