Hunting with round ball?

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If a 50 cal round ball is zeroed at 50 yards in a T/C Hawken with 80 grains of FF,what would be the approximate rise at 25 yards and drop at 100 yards. It has been many years since I have fired a muzzle loader and now I have time again. Thanks, Byron
 
I'm always amazed at the "eastern" hunters who will warn against round ball shots over 70 to 100 yards and go into ballistic jargon against it, when the 50 plus caliber Hawken was the mountain man's and mountain hunters choice for a heavy, hard shooting hunting and defense gun. Very few shots at game in the Rockies or the plains can be, nor are taken, at 100 yards or less.
 
I wonder if the Mountain Man was as ethical as we are today. If he shot one and it went over the hill but was never recovered, did the Consevation Police arrest him for wanton waste? Did he loose any sleep over it? Did he just loose several hundreds of dollars and a week long vacation? He may have lost his dinner, but he didn't have one deer tag. It is a possabillity to kill somthing with a .50 RB at 500 yards, not easy, not probable but possible. I would try to keep shots at 125 yards or under because iron sights are dificult for most people (myself included) to hit stuff at 125 yards under field conditions, and the .490 ball has about 500 ft/lbs at 125 yards, which is minimum for most handgun hunting of deer.
 
Making fun of "Eastern" hunters is so 1930. :p

If I go any further west I'm in the Pacific ocean. My opinion is that anyone who can't get to within 100 yards of game on the open plains needs more practice, or is just lazy. :neener:
 
Coyote Hunter makes a very big mistake in liking today's hunter to the sociopaths that lived a hermit's existence in the 1800's Rocky Mountains. There was no concern about taking a wounding shot that resulted in a prolonged, agonizing death. It was sufficient to partially disable the animal and track it to exhaustion, often waiting until wolves or other predators finished the job for them. None of the hunters I know would stand for that. But then, today's hunters are sportsmen, not hermits who found for various reasons they couldn't live in peaceful society.

Justifying a barbaric practice as acceptable because 'they did it back then' doesn't work.

The ballistic data on round balls is just that - measured, physical data. Learning how to use it in order to be a better hunter is the right thing to do.
 
For the folks who think you can't take short range shots in the mountains and such, please go tell it to all the successful bowhunters. I'm sure they'll appreciate hearing their shots are impossible.
 
You decide. A couple of years ago I hit a good sized doe,150 lbs. field dressed, broad side , double lung with a 50 cal.270gn, ball-et which is heavier than a ball, 100gn pyrodex Shot was no more than 75 yards. She jumped 3 feet in the air and came down on her feet. She stood and not wanting to spook her it took me a good 3 minutes to reload. For the next 2 minutes I didn’t shoot because I thought she would drop. She took one step and I hit her again in the neck and dropped her. When I dressed her a massive amount of blood came out. I prefer a quicker kill and have been using the 350gn conical ever since.
 
I'm making an "Easterner" comment to make a point. And I want to ask MyKeal if he has ever hunted up there in Michigan. I have hunted all my life and there have been bad shots, unfortunatly, and great shots. It just seems "throwing out the baby with the bath water" with "stats" sounds a little elitist. I'm sorry, but I've seen some with the newest and best toys blow a shot and gut shoot a deer, or worse. And let's be real here, it is a lot more humane to not shoot an animal at all, unless it is severly injured. But I like to hunt, I like to blackpowder hunt, and I admit I may unwillingly not drop a deer or whatever on the spot without a movement. But, it is more of what the spirit of what the hunt was supposed to be, getting in close without being seen, and making it more primitive. I'd dare say, it doesn't seem much like hunting using a super duper high powered rifle with a low "drag coefficient" bullet from that permanent heated blind overlooking a deer feeder and shooting a deer that's half tame...seems more like just killing to me..humane?

I also dove hunt, squirrel hunt, rabbit hunt, coyote hunt, etc...
 
I think you need to go back and read what I actually said. You're inferring points I don't believe I made.
 
For me, at least, a big part of the fun of blackpowder is getting close. If I want to snipe at game from the next county, I'll buy a sniper rifle, I guess. Blackpowder -- especially traditional blackpowder -- is an intentional handicap, much as is a handgun, a bow, or even a spear or knife, for the intrepid gentlemen who choose that route. Intentionally handicapping yourself and then ignoring those handicaps doesn't make any sense to me.

I personally think that trying to push the limits of your choice of weapons is a poor practice, whether it's a 500 yard rifle shot, a 150 yard revolver shot, or a 50 yard bow shot. Few if any of us are subsistence hunters, and placing game animals at significant risk of lingering, painful death simply to satisfy our egos or need for entertainment is, well, a bad thing.

</sermon>
 
Smokin gun has a valid point, though... Texian rifles at the Alamo and elsewhere were considered effective well beyond 200 yards, and that is from verified sources. They shot mostly squirrel rifles, though, which would have been anywhere from .32 - .36 caliber I suppose. That little roundball with "totally spent energy" went trough heavy napoleonic-era wool coats, undercoats, leather straps and other articles of thick clothing and killed many a Mexican soldier.

Not just the Texians used rifles, either... a handful of Mexican sharpshooters had surplus Baker rifles from Britain. The Texian leader Ben Milam was shot in the head from some distance by a Mexican sharpshooter in a tree along the San Antonio River. If that's not close to a sniper, I don't know what is. The shooter's name was Felix de la Garza, and the Baker rifle shot a .64 caliber round ball, so trajectory wasn't that limited with a heavier projectile. He got shot out of this tree:

MilamCypressTree.jpg



There is also an account of a British rifleman shooting a French General and his aid from800 yards with a Baker Rifle... maybe exaggeration but it gets the point across.
 
Yup that's a fence, there's where they raise Buffalo jus' outside the City of Palmdale limits.
It's a Buffalo Ranch /Horse Ranch. they have fences.
Where I'm goin' Hunting is a Range Ranch near Calvin OK.
;)
 
I know someone who won a raffle for a Montana buffalo hunt and he described it as being easy enough that he let his teenage daughter do the shooting. It was mostly just a matter of selecting one that was desirable out of the herd and then making the shot which wasn't taken at long range.
Good luck with yours! :)
 
Well from what I know this ain't gonna be corralled and close ...average is 100-300yds... for a shot. You probly don't have to take a 300yd shot.
But for a chance that I may get once in a lifetime and knowing I have mortality, I'll go drop a Buff now and have about 400/lbs of selected cuts for about $3.00 per pound ... not counting the kill shot and lodging. Plus have the Robe sent to me...
I think everybody should be allowed to one thing they have always wanted to. And enjoy it!
Well, I will anyway...
 
I have shot several deer using round balls, including one with my Old Army and had one shot kills in every case.
All of my hunting is from treestands and the shots are 30 yards or less.
Personally, I think 100 yards is a bit much for round ball deer hunting.
 
I notice most of the comments are related to hunting deer...im actually starting to get more interested in predator hunting such as coyote, bobcat, etc.

I assume the .50 round ball and 70-80 grains of ffg would have more than enough power to drop coyote sized game at 50 yards or less?
 
It's good to read that some shooters know their limitations.
Dead is Dead it's all killin' and all shots hurt like hell till they kill ya.
No Such Thing As Humane Killin'!!!
IMHO
 
A man has got to know his limitations...

I shoot a Double .50 Cal since I Bear Hunt, my range in into a pie plate at 50 to 75 yards... That's about as close as I want to get to a Blackie...

DoubleGun3.jpg

Happy Hunting!

Ron
 
mykeal i take great offense to you calling mountain men hermits. my dads dads dads dad was Jebediah smith, and his uncle was Paul bunnyon, even Jack Dempsey,spent a good portion of his life in the mountains at logging camps, the mountain man was and still is a great part of American history. it was the mountain man stories told to teddy Roosevelt when he was a child that sparked his appetite. teddy even thought that they encountered a big foot on one of their hunts in the mountains. just kidding about my dads dads dad. were from Yugoslavia= boat ride 1898
 
iv never shot a dear with one but a gong at 150 i have and it still had a lot of wallop left
 
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