Anyone else here going to hunt with roundballs and real blackpowder this year? Me I'm taking up casting so that I can afford to feed my my Tulle Fusil de Chasse the .600 diameter balls it favors. May you all enjoy a strong shower of sparks when you need it most.

quote:

Originally posted by nordrseta:
Anyone else here going to hunt with roundballs and real blackpowder this year? Me I'm taking up casting so that I can afford to feed my my Tulle Fusil de Chasse the .600 diameter balls it favors. May you all enjoy a strong shower of sparks when you need it most.

Never considered using anything but round balls & black powder. Well once I did, but I got over it pretty quick . Looking forward to this year hunting, as always.

I use 60 gr. of 3F with a spit patch and .600 round ball in mine and it gives good accuracy out to about 55 yards. It is a fun gun to shoot. Works real good on grouse also.
Good luck.

quote:

Originally posted by nessmuk:
I use 60 gr. of 3F with a spit patch and .600 round ball in mine and it gives good accuracy out to about 55 yards. It is a fun gun to shoot. Works real good on grouse also.
Good luck.

I've used that same load in my 20 ga/.45 original cape gun, as a back up shot, and it's pretty deadly.. not that I often need a backup . Any idea how fast that ball is going? I never chrono'd it.

quote:

Originally posted by nordrseta:
Anyone else here going to hunt with roundballs and real blackpowder this year?

I often us a .54 flinter that I built. It has been my #1 deer rifle for years but lately I have been taking a .45 underhammer with an 18-twist barrel using 475-550 gr bullets. Also pretty effective.

The wife uses a .50 rb rifle and I also have a .635 cal (18 bore) double percussion rifle that shoots roundballs, but I am working on finding a short bullet load for it too.

Brent

84gr Goex FFg, .530 ball, and a lubed patch. My Hawken has been itching to knock over a deer for a couple years.

Nothing like the smell of burning powder in the morning!

I run 70 grains of 3f under the .600 in my 20 bore fusil and 90 grains under a .530 in my .54 GPR flintlock. Either lets the air out of whitetails quite nicely if I do my part.

Will try again for another nice hog with 150 grains of FFG and a 980 grain round ball, in my 8 bore, its a light load but serious fun.

90 gns.3f,a deadsoft 50 cal RB, greased patch...and the old Hawken takes'em down reliably out to 100 yds.

Been using the ball since I was a kid, see no reason to switch. I use 80gr. 2F in my .62 flint rifle and it punches one hole at 50 yards while doing very well on our bucks. Just got another smooth bore. Going to try a few balls this weekend. Good to see so many FL traditional shooters. I have all but given up my cartridge guns for hunting, other than a few handguns. By the way, busting doves is a ball with a flinter.

quote:

Originally posted by nordrseta:
Anyone else here going to hunt with roundballs and real blackpowder this year? Me I'm taking up casting so that I can afford to feed my my Tulle Fusil de Chasse the .600 diameter balls it favors. May you all enjoy a strong shower of sparks when you need it most.

I tend go back and forth between blackpowder and modern rifles as the mood hits me. With a Lyman Great Plains rifle, 50 cal and RB I've gotten 3 blacktailed deer and one black bear. After the bear I thought I should use something a bit bigger so I built ( with a lot of help from Dave Dolliver) a .54 with 36 inch barrel, full length maple stock, convertible from flintlock to percussion (once the rains start). With it I have only taken one deer, a 'possum and a head shot grouse so far. I have never gotten an elk with blackpowder but that is one of my goals. For fun there's nothing better than a traditional muzzleloader!

I do almost all my hunting with flintlocks I build..flintlocks are all I use spring gobbler hunting. However, I still like to use my modern rifles in some of the more long range type hunting I do.

I have killed ten or so whitetails with a muzzleloader, all of them with round balls, and all but one a one-shot kill. Three with a .50 and the rest with a .54. Modest loads (80-90 grains FFg) and at ranges from 15 to 70 yards. the .50 balls go through side to side 90% of the time, the .54 always does. Most of the time they drop in their tracks. Lewis and Clark made it to the Pacific and back using round balls, and there seems no reason to think that deer are any harder to kill now than in 1803. To read the catalogs you would think whitetails were armor plated and nothing shot of a 20mm anti-aircraft gun would work, but t'ain't so. Round balls work just fine.

Only thing I use is Goex blackpowder and patched round ball from my .50 caliber Lyman Great Plains...works great!!

Wow, what a wonderful thread to find here amongst all the X&%#@ inline chaff.
I have a smith in Washington state assembling my .62 Tulle Fusile de Chasse kit from Pecatonica, and hope to have it for the fall bird season. I shot a friend's Jackie Brown flinter in this caliber and it was wonderfully accurate with a round ball, too.

quote:

Originally posted by nordrseta:
Anyone else here going to hunt with roundballs and real blackpowder this year?

Real black powder...yes...roundballs...no.

A ROUND BALL??? Do you mean there is something else? Oh, I forgot, shot in a smooth bore.

I got my 14 YO son a New Englander .50 cal, he was shooting all manner of sabots & such. He's now down to prelubed patches and round balls with Pyrodex. He won't be complete until the powder is gone and he can start shooting real black powder. He's loving it.

I only hunt muzzle loaders with round ball and real black. I have taken every thing from hogs black bear deer fox and a few others with it. I currently have a 50 Jim Bridger’s Hawkins, but I am getting started on a 40 cal here soon. I would like to get a 72 double one day as well. Not much of a fan for the inline, I believe that it is not a muzzle loader. It takes the sport out of it. When you can kill with a primitive weapon, then you have accomplished something. Using an inline is cheating in my book. You should just grab a center fire rifle with a scope.

I have hunted deer in Iowa now for 50 years, I began hunting in 1963. We used to have to hunt with smooth bored shotguns only, but as soon as they allowed muzzleloaders I got on board. I have used my .45 flint Southern Mountain rifle to shoot litterly pickup loads of deer. I also used .58 and .62 caliber Hawken rifles but they got to be too heavy to pack.
I just got a 45 flinter made by Ray Miller of Kansas City that I am going to try out on our late doe season.

Pure Lead Round Balls + real black powder + good shot placment = dead deer everytime

I hunt only with real black powder and round balls that I cast myself.

If you hunt with a muzzleloader, you are cheating yourself if you use anything BUT a patched round ball and real black powder. Nothing, and I mean nothing, puts deer on the ground quicker than a .570 round ball ahead of 100 grains of 2f.

Haven't hunted in several years with "BP", but have been invited to go hunt hogs this year, will take my under hammer 8 bore, and use the light load 900 grain round ball and 175 grain FFG

I suppose I'm still a bit new at it. I'm just barely up to 40 years of using holy black and home cast PRB's. Lots of deer and more squirrels, rabbits and dove than I can remember have fallen to the dinner table from a shot of black powder and round balls or shot. I'm mostly a flint shooter but I do still own one custom Hawken in 54 cal. I believe my all time favorite is squirrel hunting with my 36 cal. Southern Mountain rifle. Lordy the number of squirrels that rifle has killed.

I don't use anything but roundballs and black powder in my two .50 cal muzzleloaders (one flint and one percussion). I tried conicals a few times, but they don't seem to kill deer any better than PRB.

Next on my list of BP guns to acquire is a 20 or 24 ga smoothbore, probably a trade gun.

53 YEARS USING TC HAWKINS .50 CAL USING ROUNDBALL/PATCH..

.490 RB
.018 PATCH
70 GRS OF 3FGEOX
BORE BUTTON
CLEAN AFTER EVERY SHOT WITH SPIT PATCH
CLOVERLEAF AT 50 YARDS WITH PEEP SIGHT WHICH IS HARD TO DO WITH OPEN PEEP VRS DOVETAIL SIGHT.

quote:

Originally posted by sproulman:
53 YEARS USING TC HAWKINS .50 CAL USING ROUNDBALL/PATCH..

.490 RB
.018 PATCH
70 GRS OF 3FGEOX
BORE BUTTON
CLEAN AFTER EVERY SHOT WITH SPIT PATCH
CLOVERLEAF AT 50 YARDS WITH PEEP SIGHT WHICH IS HARD TO DO WITH OPEN PEEP VRS DOVETAIL SIGHT.

Yeah, but everyone knows you can't kill a real live animal bigger than a mouse with a side hammer, pumpkin ball, and iron sights. You just can't.

I'm going to try this year with my .54 Hawken. Seems to be very accurate

quote:

Originally posted by Buglemintoday:
I'm going to try this year with my .54 Hawken. Seems to be very accurate

.54 hawkins is one that is super good using a roundball....Little hard to get supplies locally and why I suggest to folks they buy a .50 cal BUT .54 is better using a roundball if you had to compare both BUT both are fine ..

Ive observed the killing of, and performed funky field autopsys on a few animals shot with the round balls and bullets On deer and elk with 45 (deer only) 50 and 54 caliber for many years in elk and deer camps. I've seen two or maybe 3 shot with 58 but didn't autopsy..I would say I like the round balls on deer just fine, but I much prefer the big heavy bullets on elk with the lighter muzzle loaders. I base this based on the length of run/time these animals have made before expiring and visual damage noted while gutting them..Nothing scientific..

I will be shooting nothing but black powder and round ball next year in my 54 and 58, probably only my 58..Ive decided that's part of the game of muzzle loading, it should be a primitive hunt all the way. with the exception of moccasins in the snow. Ill dress modern, and shoot primitive, unless someone donates a coonskin cap.

I've got a .69 cal Harpers Ferry musket that I would love to initiate this coming season! Test firing showed very good grouping at 50 yds with Geox 2F and a undershirt spit patch.

From observation only I get the impression the bigger the hole in the barrel the better it kills in a muzzle loader..

The 54 caliber is impressive on deer,not so much on elk, even with those big heavy bullets.. On elk you get quite a tracking job with even good ball or bullet placement, Hopefully you have a little snow as opposed to damp forest folage..Just my observation, nothing scientific..

What little Ive seen with the 58 is 4 feet. sticking up when the smoke clears with ball or bullet, if it wasn't for the smoke Id bet you could see daylight through the hole for an instant!! Im sure there are those here that know way more than I on black powder as my actual knowledge is almost entirely on observation of the few muzzle loader hunters I sent out to play.