Low Key
Member
There has been a lot of debate over the stopping power of cap and ball revolvers, whether they actually have any or not, and comparison with modern smokeless loads and projectiles. And the answer is…it depends!
There are a lot of variables involved in “stopping power” such as the weight, speed, and shape of the projectile as well as its composition. You could also consider the wound channel created by a given projectile and the amount of tissue and nerve damage done by that projectile and how deeply the projectile penetrated the target. You could consider the kinetic energy dumped into the target by the projectile and how effective was that energy in doing the job, stopping the target? You could also consider the mental state of the target as a variable, because in some instances it greatly affects the “stopping power” of a given projectile.
I’d like to think about the pure lead round ball and its terminal ballistics. Gatofeo writes…
I happen to agree with Gatofeo and Mr. Keith based on my own limited experience. I’ve taken several balls back out of my targets and, in general, they are semi-flattened and sometimes rather jagged on the flat edge. Upon impact with a target, the soft lead of a round ball deforms and flattens and brings around 50% of the total surface area of the ball in contact with the target. This wouldn’t really cut through flesh as much as it crushes and tears its way through and dumps a large amount of its kinetic energy into the target.
Looking at kinetic energy figures can be deceptive though. If we were to judge only from some of the ft/lb figures we see, we could expect that if we were to shoot some small critter with some of these bullets we would blow the little squeaker into the next county. But there is a lot more going on than just kinetic energy figures, though they can be an indicator of a bullets performance.
I found the following article on the net and although it does not mention cap and ball revolvers, it does give some very interesting information about what is really going on when a bullet strikes a target and we can make some inferences to the performance of the round ball and conicals we like to shoot. Its 2 pages and well worth taking a few minutes to read the entire article.
http://www.steyrscout.org/terminal.htm
Here is what I conclude after reading the article, and keep in mind that these are my personal opinions, you may happen to agree or you may not. There is not any one single factor that you can use as the ultimate judge of stopping power. I think that stopping power is a combination of many things all happening at the same time. You would take into consideration the speed of the bullet, its shape, its weight, its diameter, how it behaves after impact on the target, the mental state of the target, where you hit the target, and how often.
The pure lead round ball would be an effective stopper. It’s large enough to poke a good sized hole in you and with 40gr of pyrodex p pushing it; it’s moving along at a pretty good pace. Though the weight of a .454 caliber ball is 143 grains, the speed at which it is moving and the way it behaves after impact make it a deadly projectile. For the average opponent, not the guy with the one and a half inch hole ALL THE WAY THROUGH HIS CHEST AND SHOWING DAYLIGHT THROUGH IT who continued to run and pump lead downrange at the cops for several long seconds, the 44 caliber round ball would most likely put most opponenets on the ground fairly quickly.
There will always be those at the far ends of the spectrum as far as opponents go. Some would go down for the count with a flesh wound from a 22 caliber pistol, and there are others who won’t go down unless the entire head is removed from the neck with the first shot. Cap and Ball revolvers put a lot of men into a pine box in their hayday of the 1850’s-1890’s, and most men were tougher then than they are now.
We also have the witness of several members on this forum and it’s sister site The Firing Line, who tell that they have effectively taken deer with the 1858 Remington loaded with a round ball over 40 grains of powder and have had a humane kill from that load. Also, these revolvers have been used to kill hogs; both domesticated and wild with humane kills as well. Anyone who has been around pigs knows that they are pretty tough animals, and anything other than a good solid hit won’t put one on the ground, it will only make him mad at you!
These guns are definitely worthy of our respect, and are not the toys that some would proclaim them to be.
There are a lot of variables involved in “stopping power” such as the weight, speed, and shape of the projectile as well as its composition. You could also consider the wound channel created by a given projectile and the amount of tissue and nerve damage done by that projectile and how deeply the projectile penetrated the target. You could consider the kinetic energy dumped into the target by the projectile and how effective was that energy in doing the job, stopping the target? You could also consider the mental state of the target as a variable, because in some instances it greatly affects the “stopping power” of a given projectile.
I’d like to think about the pure lead round ball and its terminal ballistics. Gatofeo writes…
I happen to agree with Gatofeo and Mr. Keith based on my own limited experience. I’ve taken several balls back out of my targets and, in general, they are semi-flattened and sometimes rather jagged on the flat edge. Upon impact with a target, the soft lead of a round ball deforms and flattens and brings around 50% of the total surface area of the ball in contact with the target. This wouldn’t really cut through flesh as much as it crushes and tears its way through and dumps a large amount of its kinetic energy into the target.
Looking at kinetic energy figures can be deceptive though. If we were to judge only from some of the ft/lb figures we see, we could expect that if we were to shoot some small critter with some of these bullets we would blow the little squeaker into the next county. But there is a lot more going on than just kinetic energy figures, though they can be an indicator of a bullets performance.
I found the following article on the net and although it does not mention cap and ball revolvers, it does give some very interesting information about what is really going on when a bullet strikes a target and we can make some inferences to the performance of the round ball and conicals we like to shoot. Its 2 pages and well worth taking a few minutes to read the entire article.
http://www.steyrscout.org/terminal.htm
Here is what I conclude after reading the article, and keep in mind that these are my personal opinions, you may happen to agree or you may not. There is not any one single factor that you can use as the ultimate judge of stopping power. I think that stopping power is a combination of many things all happening at the same time. You would take into consideration the speed of the bullet, its shape, its weight, its diameter, how it behaves after impact on the target, the mental state of the target, where you hit the target, and how often.
The pure lead round ball would be an effective stopper. It’s large enough to poke a good sized hole in you and with 40gr of pyrodex p pushing it; it’s moving along at a pretty good pace. Though the weight of a .454 caliber ball is 143 grains, the speed at which it is moving and the way it behaves after impact make it a deadly projectile. For the average opponent, not the guy with the one and a half inch hole ALL THE WAY THROUGH HIS CHEST AND SHOWING DAYLIGHT THROUGH IT who continued to run and pump lead downrange at the cops for several long seconds, the 44 caliber round ball would most likely put most opponenets on the ground fairly quickly.
There will always be those at the far ends of the spectrum as far as opponents go. Some would go down for the count with a flesh wound from a 22 caliber pistol, and there are others who won’t go down unless the entire head is removed from the neck with the first shot. Cap and Ball revolvers put a lot of men into a pine box in their hayday of the 1850’s-1890’s, and most men were tougher then than they are now.
We also have the witness of several members on this forum and it’s sister site The Firing Line, who tell that they have effectively taken deer with the 1858 Remington loaded with a round ball over 40 grains of powder and have had a humane kill from that load. Also, these revolvers have been used to kill hogs; both domesticated and wild with humane kills as well. Anyone who has been around pigs knows that they are pretty tough animals, and anything other than a good solid hit won’t put one on the ground, it will only make him mad at you!
These guns are definitely worthy of our respect, and are not the toys that some would proclaim them to be.
