Doss is indeed a deer rich area. On that ranch I could likely tag 5 deer in a weekend if I wanted to do that much work, which I don’t.
I figured a ball was more than plenty for about anything I can come across here in TX. On paper, as long as it’s not breezy, a ball can easily do 125 yds if the rifle and shooter are accurate and steady. Figured I’d sight it in at 100 yds even if I can’t shoot further as it is still fairly flat shooting and would help with any inaccurate distance estimates. And then of course it’s easy to do with no shooting high at 50 or low at 100. Just spot on.
So far all I’ve done is break my barrel in with crappy Pyrodex P/RS my father gave me with .015” and .016” pillow ticking with grape seed oil and a home cast .490” ball shooting at 50 yds. It’s ready for a proper lube and working on an accurate load. As is the arbitrary (figured 70 grns made it a 50-70 of sorts) charge I used, along with 20/50 vision without glasses was producing 3-5” groups at 50 yds. There’s certainly work to be done!
But that load and the 320 grn REAL shows great promise without much more work giving me about 1” group at 50, though I can’t hardy state such as it was just a few trial shots wanting to see what a conical was like as so many have said they hammer them. My Deerstalker has a recoil pad and the recoil wasn’t something all that noticeable like the .270 I typically used. It may well be this barrel will shoot REALs much better. I still need to try some of the 250 grn version also.
When I first became interested in a muzzleloader I settled on .50 cal figuring it plenty for things here with a ball and had the option of conicals were I ever able to go on an elk hunt (sooo tasty!), along with seeing so much more available for that cal and thinking I may need sabots and modern bullets when I ran these projectiles through a calculator. Now, knowing more, I see a ball outperforms what the numbers say, but I think I would have gone for a .54 cal and have considered a Deerstalker barrel in it for bigger game. In America bigger is better anyway, right?
I like the idea that Lyman barrels drop in and are relatively inexpensive. I see it being the muzzleloader version of a T/C Contender. But I’ve also eyed the heavy GPH with the shallow grooved 1:32” barrel and wondered if REALs even worked being oversized for a bore designed like that. I assumed it would really need to be hammered down. If so I’d likely drop the idea, although IdahoRon shoots paper patched Lee .500 bullets nicely from his.
I’m not really new per se, but can’t hardly call myself well experienced either. I’m much more familiar with my two revolvers than my rifle. I’ve searched online for answers and am a member of several forums. I also have Lyman’s 2nd edition, Cumpston’s and Bates’ Percussion Revolvers, as well as Sixguns. I’m lacking Ned Robert’s book on percussion rifles in which many of my long distance rifle questions are addressed as I’m told.
Thanks for your responses!
