Round Balls Effect on Game??

[Scout]

How many of you all have taken game (deer and bigger) with a patched round ball?  What caliber and charge weight?  tell me alittle about the "end game" too. Quick or not?  

Reason I'm asking is that I have a Lyman Trade Rifle in 50 and my first season with it I used big heavy conical types.  They are busters , but I just could not get any real accuracy out of them.  I read up alot about patched balls, picking th eright thicknees of patch and make my own  moose milk patch lube.  Once I tinkered alittle with patch thickness I have settled on a very accurate (usu. all holes touching at 50yds ) combo.  

But I am a big heavy bullet kind of shooter, and I wonder about the effectiveness of the Patched Round Ball (PRB - Hmm just made that up) on deer sized game - Been trying to get the critters to cooperate, but no luck this year - next year I guess.       Oh yeah I use 90g of Pyrodex RS with Hornady .490 balls.  My patch is a soft cotton ticking ~ .017" compressed thickness.  

Thanks - Looking forward to your stories!!

[bubba]

Hey Scout,
I own a T/C 50 caliber Hawken.  I have owned it for 25 years and it shoots very well. I have taken whitetail deer with it with 80 grains of goex ffg powder and a .010 patch with a 490 round ball.  Within 50 to 75 yards they are deadly. Most harvests, the deer did not go more than 40 yards.  I cringe when I see that people will not use round balls due to their inneffectiveness.  I try to put it into perspective like this.  This country won its independence with round balls shot out of a slow twist flint lock rifle. Trappers pioneers and settlers fed themselves and their families with a slow twist round ball thrower. If it worked so well for them why is it all of a sudden they will not  work anymore. I do not see the need for a great big heavy bullet to harvest game if the bullet is placed well and the animal is in an effective range. Yes I hear all the stories of killing deer at 200 yards with s muzzleloader but I would have to ask why. Too many have the idea they do not have a muzzleloader, they have  a high powered long range rifle in their hands. The truth is it is just not that way. How did people ever hunt and harvest game with a muzzleloader before the days of power belts, sabots and jacketed bullets? My answer verywell?

[Birddog6]

I shot a nice buck about 8 am yesterday morning & he field dressed at 160#. He had the ugliest dang rack I ever saw, I was even embarassed for him !! ha ha ! Big ol gnarly mess & had bout 28 lil nubs on it. He really should have been a 8 or 10 point had it been right, but since I don't eat points it is of no real concern. ha ha ! Think he had a heart attack as we know them round balls won't kill'em... right ? I shot him at about 50-60 yards & he whirled & to 3 drastic hops (bout 30') & piked up in a heap deader than a makeral. The Round Ball blew out a rib going in, blew the entire top off his heart & tore both lungs loose, took a small piece of rib going out & the ball went thru the muscle on the far side & then went down the hide about 6" was just under the hide. And he bled like a stuck hog. Used a .54 cal Hornady RB, 75 gr of FFF Goex, .018 Pillow Ticking & lubed with homemade patch grease. The ball is now flat on one side & lost only 3 grains from original weight. ALL of the energy expired in the deer.  You will have no trouble with the RB if you put it in the right place & if you know & stay within your limitations....   :-)

[Coastey]

I've taken deer with a Western Arms Hawken using a .527 patched ball and 80 grains of FF.  Also used a Dixie Tennessee Mountain Rifle  with a .490 ball and 75 grains of FF.  The ranges were always under 100 yards ... usually around 75 yards.  My kills were clean with the deer not going more than 25 yards.  The only thing I would caution about when using a patched ball is not to get your patches too wet as to affect the powder charge.  One of my hunting partners had a "poof" happen to him instead of a "bang" which he blamed on a wet patch.  He went to a dry patched ball for his first shot after that.

[Birddog6]

Lehigh Lube will cure the wet patch problem. If you put it in wet in 5 min it will be dry & no powder contamination. Used it for about 5 years now & have shot probably a dozen bottles of the stuff & it is simply great. :-)
You can get it at  http://cap-n-ball.com/thunder/

[simonkenton]

Lock and load with your PRB and go forth to hunt. Listen I had killed about 20 deer with a 30-06 when I decided to try black powder. I got a TC Hawken and figured, if the round ball was good enough for Davy Crockett I would give it a try. If it did not kill well, I would try some maxiball and if that didn't work, I would just go back to the Mauser. There was no BP season in Ga at that time so I was just doing bp cause I wanted to. I was amazed at the killing power of the round ball. On a lung shot it kills better than a 30-06. I use a .490 ball with .015 pillow ticking and Old Zip patch grease from Dixie, it is a combo of mutton tallow and beeswax. On a 150 lb Ga. deer at 70 yards on a lung shot I expect the deer to go 75 or 100 yards when hit with the 30-06. With the round ball I never saw one go over 50 yards. I shot 7 deer and 5 more hogs with round ball. I liked the work of the TC so much I bought a Tenn. Mtn Rifle from Dixie, I used the same load. Also, 80 or 90 gr FF Goex, both charges work ok in both rifles. When hit with the round ball all 12 balls exited the animal. The blood trail was phenomenal, better than I ever saw with a 30-06. Often, with the round ball, it looked like you had a 9 year old boy, and you handed him a gallon of red paint to hold in each hand , with the lid off, and told him to run find the deer, and you followed him. Easy blood trail to track and you know there is a dead deer at the end of that trail. I made a blanket from 4 deer hides and it is warmer than any rayon.  I built a log cabin with dovetail notch logs. It is warm and snug. Davy Crockett wasn't so dumb.
ps I have never had the powder get wet from this patch lube. I have left my rifle loaded for 2 weeks, no problem. Don't know what Davy used, probably bear grease. If I were buying patch lube today I would get Lehigh Valley, it is very good.

[simonkenton]

Hey Scout, you got a long winter ahead of you nothing to do, go to the library and get "Courage Undaunted" the story of Lewis and Clark by Stephen Ambrose. These guys used the round ball in .54 and smaller calibers. They reported one shot kills on antelope, elk, and buffalo. The only animal that they couldn't drop with one shot was the grizzly. Half the book is stories of these guys hunting with the patched round ball.