Dusty, the .50 round ball will knock pigs dead. I shot pigs that were 150 pounds or smaller. I made the classic lung shot, never had one go more than 50 yards. Between the Hawken and my Tennessee Mtn Rifle, I have killed 6 wild hogs with the .490 round ball. It is really good to avoid the shoulder, because the shoulder is much more substantial than the deer shoulder, meaning, it might slow the bullet down too much, and you would mess up some very good meat with a shoulder shot, whereas, the meat on a deer shoulder is tough, just a few pounds of burger there.
Jgreg: I was getting 3 inch groups at 100 yards with my TC Hawken. The farthest shot I ever took was 80 yards. I had decided not to take a shot over 100, I just didn't think I would be that accurate with iron sights at that range. Plus, the round ball slows down rapidly, much more so than an elongated slug, and past 100 has lost quite a bit of energy.
This was no drawback where I hunted, in the thick forests and swamps of central Georgia, as the average shot distance was 45 yards, this even when I hunted so often with a 30-06 with a scope.
The round ball is an unbelievably efficient killer. I was getting much better kills with it, than with a 30-06. On paper, the 30-06 has twice the power of the round ball, why the round ball works better I don't know. Fortunately, the wild game doesn't read those ballistic charts.
You can read some interesting info on the round ball in use by Civil War troopers, the smart ones much preferred it to the elongated slugs they were issued, and they would set their issued ammo aside to go into battle with their revolvers loaded with the round ball. If a .45 round ball and 30 grains of powder will turn out the lights on a tough cavalry trooper, imagine a .50 round ball with 80 grains of powder!
Go over to the cap and ball forum, and read "Proper care and use of the cap and ball revolver" by Gatofeo, for the info on the round ball in the Civil War.
