Round Ball effective range?

[leadball]

iii.) Just before the pulled the triggers there were two "Blams!" from 400 yards to their right and two in-line shooters with Mega-Death-Badder long range conicals had taken the 250 yard shots to collect the deer. Neither Vern nor Elmer had noticed the ATV's parked under the treestand camo cabin where the other two "hunters" had been watching the game and cooking burgers prior to the motion detector going off on the game feeder disguised as a treestump and the red "Deer Active" light had gone off in the cabin, automatically lowering the shooting port covers for them.

:crackup: :crackup: :haha: :crackup:

I, personally, will not take a deer over 50 yards. I dont feel confident of my ability to shoot through the wisc jungle beyond that. Idaho is different of course. I am a stickler for scent control and wind direction. When I was switching to prbs from conicals, the local clerk at the local gun store tried to talk me out of buying and using prbs with lines like, "They are ok for small or medium deer out to 60 yards." :shake:

 

[wtilenw]

Idaho is a very diverse state. Southern Idaho, where I live is mostly seemingly open country with little or no cover. That is where you have to train yourself to look at terrain for cover, rather than vegetation. This is hard to get through your head if vegetation is your normal means of concealment but it works as well. I have created opportunitys on animals at less than 20 yards in seemingly barren landscape using this method. I'm sure that the hail mary's are more often taken out here than in a heavily wooded landscape but really, a hail mary with traditional equiptment could be a 100 yard shot at deer in a field or a powerline right of way anywhere in the country. I guess what I'm saying in a long winded way is we each have to know our personal limitations as well as our weapons capabilitys. Im really pleased that this post has drawn as much interest as it has and I have learned much from each person's point of view and personal experience. Thank You to everyone that has taken the time to contribute.
Idaho PRB :RO:

 

[Rat]

The FPE formula favors velocity, in order to make high velocity modern cartridges "look good", and sell rifles. It does not REALISTICALLY reflect the killing power of a projectile..it's only a weight times velocity formula, with the calculations set up to favor velocity.

Taylor's KO formula is more realistic as far as actually giving an idea of a projectile's ability to kill game.

I don't know what the formula is, but it takes into consideration, and gives greater weight to bore diameter, and bullet/projectile weight.

So don't put too much faith in the standard FPE formula. It's good for comparing a .340 Weatherby to a .338 Winchester Magnum....not muzzle loaders, round balls, or even BP cartridge rifles/cartridges.

RAT

 

[Hota]

Idaho PRB
At http://www.ctmuzzleloaders.com/mlexperiments/mlexpts.html there is a A Round Ball Ballistics Calculator that you can Down load and enter the info for your rifle and get FPS, fpe,Drop,Drift,TOF.
Hope this is some help.

Thanks for the link. I was looking for this kind of data.

 

[roundball]

I took a Mully doe at 63 yards the first Saturday of December using my Dickert Flintlock, loaded with 65 grains of 3fg Goex and a .445 PRB.

Let's see; that's about in the 450 FPE range. The ball went right through her lungs! She maybe staggard 15 feet on the stubble and went over.

Roundball, your shot would have been what??? In the "320" FPE neighborhood or there abouts???

Just goes to show folks you can throw out about 99% of what the experts get published :imo:... I'll give them 1% for spelling their name right, maybe? :hmm:

Exactly, which was my point..."theoretical energy levels" serve some general purpose I'm sure, but there are way too many variables to establish a single absolute.

Distance to the target is a significant one as energy bleeds off fast...but knowing what my .440 ball has done to deer in the past with hunting loads at longer ranges, I knew for sure this lightweight load would have enough energy to do the job at only 20-25yds...just had to put it in the right spot...she turned and showed me her front chest and that was that.

(which by the way is why I set up this .45cal with a strong squirrel load...I could have used as little as 25-30grns, but since the plan is to go for head shots anyway, I wanted a little extra juice if a deer did present itself)

 

[Riley/MN]

I know what it says Bill, but they aren't talking about YOUR effective range (I crack myself up).

 

[roundball]

Those type sights are illegal to hunt with in Oregon's traditional ML season, and can't be used at any of the shoots I go to. I took the wedding band my X gave me way back when, cut it up and soldered a gold post on the front sight, and that worked pretty good for a lot of years, but now I'm seening 2 and sometimes 3 leaning fuzzy posts for the front sight, and a undefined haze for the rear. I'm thinking the answer may well be a smooth bore, but I aint done yet.

I'll have to admit I went a little crazy with muzzleloading, particularly when I discovered flintlocks...starting to throttle back now and get the inventory pared back down from completely outrageous to just ridiculous...then work on those other areas the next several months

 

[WSmitty01]

I just posted this in the traditional section, about calibers and elk. I didn't have a choice with the shot, the bull was in the middle of a mountain pasture with his cows,,,so he wasn't goin nowhere. Again I was comfortable with the shot because I know in the area I was hunting, long shots would be the norm, and I had the gun shooting very well at 100 yards,,,don't know much about the energy levels but neither did the elk!

" In 1979 I took out a 6 X 5 Royal Elk in New Mexico, the measured distance was 120 yards with a .52 roundball and 120 grains of blackpowder (not pyrodex). The bull went about 20 yards and went down deader than a doornail. Granted the shot placement was excellant with a standing broadside. They indeed are magnificant animals that deserve to be shot with the very largest caliber you are comfortable with and the shot placement on them is critical. By the way, that roundball expansion on the elk was unbelieveable, almost 1" diameter with no exit, lodged in the opposite shoulder! Bottom line, go with the .54 and shoot what shoots best, my gun has a 1 in 66" so I don't ever do conicals!!!