Buffalo Ball-et questions

[Rachen]

I know many people who used the Ruger Old Army for home and self defense and it was more than excellent.

Some questions about projectiles though. Bauffalo Bullet Company offers one of their trademark Ball-ets in .45 caliber. Ball-ets are supposed to be half-conical and half-roundball and swaged from pure lead. How are the ballistics of the Buffalo Ball-et, overall expansion rate, stopping power, etc...
Judging from the fact that the Ball-et is a great hunting round, a 250 gr. .45 seated above 40 gr. of Hodgdon 777 should be a real stopper for any medium sized game, and of course, the winner in any defense situation.

 

[Mark whiz]

I know the Buffalo Bullets they make for these pistols (180gr I believe) work very well on game. With 30gr of Goex black behind it, my son took down a 130lb boar with no problems - blew down thru his chest cavity, exited, passed thru the opposite leg and continued on into the ground.

Accuracy-wise they are about the same as the .454 round balls I use otherwise in my 1858 - maybe just a tad larger groups.

 

[Rachen]

Your son's bullet traveled completely through the boar.

How was the expansion on that bullet when you recovered it? Surely, if the bullet traveled completely through the creature, it would be that the expansion of the projectile is not so even, and the power distribution of the Buffalo conical slugs less than most other hunting bullets.

Does anybody make hollow-point muzzleloading bullets in pistol caliber .45? If not, you can probably make a profit creating and marketing your own mold and bullet to the muzzleloading community.

 

[Mark whiz]

Unfortunately, we never recovered the bullet. By the looks of the wounds, there probably wasn't a whole lot of expansion. The penetration was a lot more than I had originally expected, and you have to figure that cutting holes of about 1/2 an inch through a critter's vitals is going to get the job done pretty good, whether or not it expands any further.

 

[Pulp]

The only real advantage of a ball-et over a round ball is the extra 40 or so grains of lead they're packin'. When loaded over 50 grains of FFg in my Walkers, the targets will beg for mercy.

FWIW, ( I know you didn't ask, and slap me if you want for adding the following) as much as I love my percussion revolvers I would not recommend any cap and ball as a personal defense weapon. Better than nothing, but there's just too many better choices out there. Having said that, there was a time I kept my '60 loaded by the bed. Because I had nothing else, except a .22 auto that jammed way too often.