Cap and Ball Velocity

thealchemist said:
I’ll bet one of those would fetch a pretty penny! I agree with you about the caliber over velocity. Seems like they really cared more about firing a big heavy projectile from the early medieval handgonnes up into the civil war era muzzleloaders. Small fast projectiles seem to be a more modern fascination
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Small fast projectiles weren’t really possible until the invention of self contained cartridges and smokeless powders.
 
I kinda like lobbing bowling balls at things far away. Billy Dixon at the second battle of Adobe Walls lobbed one at a Comanche and hit him from over 1600 yards. I can barely make out the target at that range let alone hit it with open sights. I like the challenge of making a shot like that. That bowling ball might not be going very fast but it still packs a good punch when it gets there.
 
Jackrabbit1957 said:
I kinda like lobbing bowling balls at things far away. Billy Dixon at the second battle of Adobe Walls lobbed one at a Comanche and hit him from over 1600 yards. I can barely make out the target at that range let alone hit it with open sights. I like the challenge of making a shot like that. That bowling ball might not be going very fast but it still packs a good punch when it gets there.
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This article by Mike Venturino has been posted and re-posted many times, but I always grin when I read it again!

https://khall6548.wixsite.com/quigleyshootingassoc/how-far-will-a-sharps-rifle-shoot-m
 
hawg said:
Big slow projectiles work. Have you ever seen a deer hit by an 18 wheeler?:D
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I’m a believer; especially after reading about the Taylor Knockout Factor (momentum energy) vs kinetic energy. High velocity (greater kinetic energy) is popular because it has allowed hunters to become lazier and less proficient.
 
hawg said:
Low velocity ball ammo works too. I use a measly load of 90 grains in my .54 Hawken. I have yet to have a deer walk away from one let alone run.
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I’ve killed elk with the same load and even a bit less, in a Renegade I used to have. Gave that one to my son and he still uses ball in it. One day I looked around and realized I had no ball shooting .54’s so I started looking around for rifles or barrels and now I have a 32” Sharon .54 mounted in a TC White Mountain Carbine stock. Lord that’s a fine shooting barrel.
 
We don't have elk here. Well we have an elk farm down south but I'm not paying 1,500.00 to shoot an elk in a pasture. I used a .50 for years with that charge but I didn't always get an exit wound. Also deer didn't always fall and die where they were shot. Granted they didn't go far and were easy to find but there was very little blood. My barrel is a 31 inch Douglas in a scratch built Hawken stock. When I was working up loads for it I started at 90 grains and as it turned out it was the most accurate load. I was hesitant to shoot a deer the first time but I figured it couldn't be any worse than the .50. It was a lot better. I always got an exit wound and every deer I shot with it fell right there and didn't get back up. Some of them tried a couple of times but I never had one get back up on it's feet.
 
hawg said:
Low velocity ball ammo works too. I use a measly load of 90 grains in my .54 Hawken. I have yet to have a deer walk away from one let alone run.
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Well that's not too measly, I only run 110 grains in my .62", and it will shear a steel fence post in two. And it goes right through every animal I've shot...which is no surprise. I tried recently to up that to 120 grains with Mr.Grizz in mind, but yeah good accuracy went away. Anyhow, 90 grains ain't bad.
 
hawg said:
We don't have elk here. Well we have an elk farm down south but I'm not paying 1,500.00 to shoot an elk in a pasture. I used a .50 for years with that charge but I didn't always get an exit wound. Also deer didn't always fall and die where they were shot. Granted they didn't go far and were easy to find but there was very little blood. My barrel is a 31 inch Douglas in a scratch built Hawken stock. When I was working up loads for it I started at 90 grains and as it turned out it was the most accurate load. I was hesitant to shoot a deer the first time but I figured it couldn't be any worse than the .50. It was a lot better. I always got an exit wound and every deer I shot with it fell right there and didn't get back up. Some of them tried a couple of times but I never had one get back up on it's feet.
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I’ve given away tags (depredation tags) so people could shoot elk in the pasture… chases them off the haystacks, at least for a while.
 
woodnbow said:
I’ve given away tags (depredation tags) so people could shoot elk in the pasture… chases them off the haystacks, at least for a while.
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They're not natural here. A man down south brought some in and built up a herd. Now he has canned hunts. My ex BIL did some work for him and he let him shoot some of the culls. I got some antlers and elk jerky out of the deal.
 
hawg said:
They're not natural here. A man down south brought some in and built up a herd. Now he has canned hunts. Mt ex BIL did some work for him and he let him shoot some of the culls. I got some antlers and elk jerky out of the deal.
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Yep, I see that Kentucky has a growing herd, Pennsylvania too. I don’t know if they allow public hunting yet. I know a gent who has a 10,000 acre place (north of here up near Wyoming border) and he sells trophy bulls. It’s arguably fair chase since you can’t practically fence that much ground in this kind of terrain. But if they’re born there and fed there 10 months out of 12 and there’s really no practical way to get at them but through the ranch, well, you make the call… he’s made a boatload of money off the practice.
 
We have true Russian boars and white deer around here. A hunting club brought them in and a lot of them got loose. Now we have a lot of big crossbred boars and white and piebald deer. The white deer are not albinos, they're just white. A male boar averages 250 pounds and 500 pounds isn't uncommon.
 
hawg said:
We have true Russian boars and white deer around here. A hunting club brought them in and a lot of them got loose. Now we have a lot of big crossbred boars and white and piebald deer. The white deer are not albinos, they're just white. A male boar averages 250 pounds and 500 pounds isn't uncommon.
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There’s a test subject for your .54! I’ve only killed two hogs a ~200# sow with a Snuffer out of a Super Shrew drawing 65# @ 30”, and a 150# boar (mas y menos) I shot with a .45 Colt. The sow painted the brush for 30 yards and the boar was DRT. Exit wounds both times.

Hi-vis deer, what’ll they think of next?
 
I've never killed a boar. I've heard them when deer hunting but they're always in undergrowth so thick you'd have to crawl through.
 
I was getting 800-900 in my 1858 New Model Army .44 with 25grs GOEX FFFg powder and a .451 round ball. I should chrono the Pyrodex FFFg equivalent powder I bought.
 
Switup said:
I was getting 800-900 in my 1858 New Model Army .44 with 25grs GOEX FFFg powder and a .451 round ball. I should chrono the Pyrodex FFFg equivalent powder I bought.
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That's decent velocity for 25 gains. You should be able to get 35 grains under a ball easily in a 1863 Remington New Model Army, I'd be interested to know what velocity that produces, as I use 37-38 grains of 4fg under a ball in my 1860 Colt, and 30 grains of the same under a 200 grain bullet.

Blackie Thomas was claiming to get 50 grains under a ball in a R&S replica, but he was working off a measure, not weight, and I think his measure was way off. Regardless, he was getting 1100fps+, and I don't doubt his chronograph readings. That is some serious velocity from a cap-n-ball revolver.
 
walker45bpm said:
Anybody ever do this
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Al Georg used to put scopes on Everything. Used rifle scopes back then -1960s because there were no Long Eye Relief numbers. He scoped an 1858 remington and shot a black bear with it. Had to step to the side of the smoke cloud to confirm it was down. He also took to turning remington Rolling Blocks into scope-sighted pistols in various rifle calibers. Wrote articles about them until the ATF came and took them all away from him
 
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