S Tx Buck with my 1841 and round ball. Some graphic pics...

[brazosland]

I could not agree more! I'm glad to have mine. My dad had an original when I was a youngster. It was in excellent condition, but had been reamed smooth. I remember shooting it a few times with shot. Somehow, that one got away from us and it is no longer in the family.

It is a heavy rifle, yet well designed and pretty well balanced.


If it's not too much trouble, I would like to see some close-up pictures of those sights. I would not consider modifying my original, but if a nice repro comes along at the right price, I might just consider it.

Much obliged,

Notchy Bob

Pics of sights below. The barrel came to me with no rear sight. The original dovetail was there, but so was the taped hole for the 1855 HF sight. So I decided to get one of those to mount. The skirmisher front sight was on there and it actually zeroed right up at 75 yards with a little bit of filing.

The bore is the original .54 and is very clean. 75 grns of 3F is the load (I think, don’t have the log book handy) but it does prefer a .535 instead of a .530 like my all my other .54s. Shoots into my palm at 100 which is more than good enough considering its age. Love this rifle.

 

[Jamie from Alberta]

First off. Congratulations on that fine looking beast!
I love seeing the terminal ballistics or aftermath of the projectiles. That chunk of lead did a fine job.
Enjoy the tasty venison and thank you for sharing a great write up on your Texas adventure

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Very Very Nice
LD

 

[Okie Hog]

Congrats. Good shot on the buck.

 

[appalichian hunter]

Big slugs, soft lead, short tracking = deer in the freezer, nice buck way to go.

 

[bud in pa]

When I saw where the ball hit when I walked up to the buck I immediately regretted that the meat in both shoulders was likely ruined.

That was really the biggest surprise. Almost no meat lost. This hit with any modern rifle pulps both shoulders and pretty much makes them unusable.

In the pic below you can see my thumb in the hole through the left shoulder. That’s the entrance wound my thumb is poking through, the ball came from the direction of the camera. Amazingly the meat even right around that clean, round hole is not blood shot at all.

The ball pushed through, busted hard stuff that it hit and kept going. Bones were shattered but almost no meat was “destroyed.” Really surprising.

I may start using this shot to anchor deer. It also sort of explains how folks shot with lead balls and bullets from black powder weapons had a survival rate that seems higher than expected given no modern drugs. The balls just don’t do the same sort of mass trauma that modern projectiles do.

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Elmer Kieth ues to say you could eat right up to the hole!