In fact, the 45grain round ball over 30 grains of fffg practically mirrors the. Im trying to determine the midrange and point black distances for my. Im going to start with round ball because its cheaper practice and then mo. Salt creek meanders through the property and a bridge connects the camping areas to the shooting range on the other side. Our next shoot will be the first sunday in november the 4th at 1pm. Im trying to determine the mid range and point black distances for my. Patched round balls punched 2inch groups at 75 yards with 70 grains of goex ffg blackpowder and goex ffffg primer. With any change in the mix of powder, ball, cap, etc. Round balls are effective on close range big game animals.
Offered as dry, oiled, wonderlubed, or premium lubed on select sizes. Several manufactures package pillow ticking patches at. Wobble some, or just stay in the same orientation as it was loaded. Round balls in fast twist rifles white muzzle loading. I am not new to the tc or maxisminies, just patched round ball prb. Bumping a round ball to the proper diameter is the only way to get any accuracy from them. Remember that a round ball slows at 100 yards to about 5060% of its muzzle velocity. Somewhat the opposite is true with round balls in fast twist barrels. The patch round ball challenge long range hunting forum. Poking a long hole in any animal smaller than a fullgrown holstein will put it on the ground.
The lightest projectile in this caliber is a patched round ball. These firearms are required to use a patched round ball as a projectile. This means that energy levels and thus killing power will be correspondingly low. Correct style of guns from a certain period is hard to judge. I found this relatively easy to do when using a rest. After rezeroing with the new sights with my patched round ball load, i started to shoot the hardballs, they initally shot high about 4 inches but grouped really well, i dropped the sights some and this target believe it or not has 5 shots into it. The range of accurate velocities is also much more limited. Ive heard and read a lot of different things and would like to know what members here think. I have the choice of real black powder ff or fff i use.
You must have a tight patchball combination it is easy to determinate the minimum thickness of the material. This seems to be your minimal patch thickness, but in fact it is not. Btw, i attended the nmlra national shoot at the ben avery range in phoenix, az a couple of weeks ago. It was by far the most accurate load in that gun, and while labeled light by a lot of guys, it killed with alacrity. It easily betters the long range performance of the hard kicking. Substituting the 1in32inch twist barrel, the great plains rifle. I like the idea of traditional round ball hunting, but as i look at published muzzle velocities and consider how fast energy drops off with a sphere in flight it seems like such a choice means effective hunting ranges would be really short.
Theres so many sizes i dont know what exact one i need for round ball. Is the rate of twist of the rifling compatible with round ball. Ff powder, pillow ticking patch bore butter, from a deer. Truth is i have never needed to take a shot at a deer any further than that.
What happens to a patched round ball when it leaves the muzzle of a smooth bore. A traditional muzzleloader uses only blackpowder, is either a flintlock or percussion lock or earlier system, has only open iron sights, a wooden stock, and fires a patched round ball and, if smoothbore, shot of various sizes. Traditionalmldata2 north american muzzleloader hunting. A good patch is made of good quality, dense natural material. For me, round ball loads tend to shoot higher than point of aim in a revolver and lower than point of aim from a rifle. Im certain the gun is suitable for game such as squirrels and cottontails out to 100 yards. If you spend any time in hunting camps, sooner or later you will hear amazing stories about the longrange performance of modern muzzleloaders. This leaves the slow twist shooter with only the task of finding proper ball size and patch thickness without having to worry a whole lot about exact powder charge. When making the moose milk for the range i make up 2 liter pop bottle full at a time, it lasts a long time and i give some away almost. The limited range of traditionally styled reproduction muzzleloaded rifles of the 1960s and 1970s can be attributed to the oldstyle projectiles of the period.
Now im not sure if the patch gets spun off the ball or if patch and ball just skims the rifling but either way a round ball wont shoot for squat out of a fast twist barrel unless you cut the powder down to an absolute minimum which makes it impractical for most purposes. Round balls are suitable for ranges up to 100 yards theyll kill much farther away, of course and in 90 % of the situations where muzzleloaders are used, the odds of getting a shot that far away are small. How in the world did some of our countrys patriots, in the late 1700s and early 1800s, make reliable head and chest shots on british officers at 200 to 300 yards using patched ball rifles, thus, cutting the snakes head off, as it were. The english have used slow twist barrel for express type rifles for many years. Minimum deerkilling muzzleloading loads for young and small. Apr 30, 2008 how to load a round ball into a muzzleloader. There is little difference in effectiveness when compared to. In the typical lightweight rifles that a young hunter can handle 67 lbs. So, the short story is, in my opinion anyway, that your patched round ball shot from smoothbore should provide good accuracy to at least 50 yards, reasonable hunting level accuracy to 70 yards or even further but groups will start to open up and get larger quickly with with increased range due to random spin of the ball induced by air drag on.
The easiest method to choose the right patch for your. Because it is the rifling or barrel twist that dictates whether a gun uses a sabotconical or patched round ball most effectively, both inline and sidehammer guns can be manufactured to shoot any kind of projectile. The cut lead bar bullet was an auxilary bullet when round ball was not available. There are also buffalo ballets squat bullets that are built to take rifling without a patch.
I have a 50 cal tc hawken coming my way with the idea that i might be able to get a muzzleloader tag next year. A round ball is unique among projectiles in that its ballistic characteristics are solely dependant upon its diameter unless its made of something other than lead. A lot of people i know, and reading these threads, seem to prefer a round ball. We load one of our precision long rifles with a patched round ball. Round ball vs cut lead gelatine tests, accuracy, ballistics. My deer rifle is a hawken woodsman percussion rifle from traditions.
Minie and maxi have better long range and terminal ballstics, round balls are. When it comes to retaining gametaking energy at any real distance, the patched soft lead round ball is the least effective hunting projectile. The 5 calibers to claim the most powerful handgun in the world title reupload duration. Constant thickness, weave, diameter, weight and thread count help eliminate these variables from your shooting. This allows a reasonably simple physics model calculation to predict how it will behave, once the resistance of a reference projectile is known for a range of velocities. The patching material is the key to be accurate with a round ball load. Any traditional flintlock or percussion cap muzzleloading rifle or pistol, as described above, where an external hammer is used in the ignition system. They can be just as powerful as many high power pistol loads and are plenty potent at close range.
It seems they wanted to extend the point blank range of their hunting rifles during the percussion era. Ive heard good things about them in round ball guns. For me, round ball guns are best considered 100 yard guns for deer. Not much has been written recently about the effectiveness of roundball. The wide range of round ball loads for plinking and small game hunting make the rifle versatile.
Precision shooting patches for round ball track of the wolf. Another advantage is that it uses much less powder for similar long range energies, loads lot faster and kicks a whole bunch less as well. Precision made from special tightly woven cotton, to insure uniformity. Therefore, the only real advantage of one design over the other is personal preference. I put 100 dry patches in a zip sandwich bag and pour about 12 fluid oz of melted, 100% hog lard in the bag with the patches. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.
Spend some time at the range and i think you will be surprised at how well your rigle will perform with a little less powder. If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the faq by clicking the link above. Large variations in powder charge dont seem to make much difference. I did better during the practice shoots than i did in the scored shoots. Get the latest information about new products, special deals, news, toprated items, promotions and more. Patched ball has a lapping effect, and as you shoot the sharp edges will wear with time. When i walked out to the deer and took a laser range reading on the. It also demonstrates why common round balls have such devastating short range effects. A round ball doesnt touch the rifling itself, the patch does. The club now owns 27 acres of property with 25, 50, 75 and 100 yard ranges for shooting traditional, patched round ball muzzleloading firearms. So, im about to start shooting muzzle loader for the first time and am wondering what size patch i need to get for my. Loading the plr or muzzleloader with a patched round ball. That ball isnt made for big game all the typical brain washed fubar where some think you need plastic, ss, scoped and high priced pretty shaped bullets in order to. Accepting to hunt with the patched round ball, which ive done plenty of.
Several side hammer round ball guns are available in. Minimum deerkilling muzzleloading loads for young and. A hunter can take feral hogs or deer at moderate range very effectively with a patched round ball and a modest powder charge. The minie rifles real advantage starts over the round ball rifle to show past 100 yards. That ball isnt made for big game all the typical brain washed fubar where some think you need plastic, ss, scoped and high priced pretty shaped bullets in.
This evening i skinned and quartered the carcass of the deer. The easiest method to choose the right patch for your round. Precision shooting patches for round ball precision shooting patches. Patched round ball gun and game the friendliest gun. He wanted a patched round ball rifle with lots of punch, and the 1516 diameter barrel provided the beefiness to permit shooting stout loads of fffg black powder, and the slow 1 turnin70 twist allows it to be loaded and shot at fairly high velocity without loss of accuracy. Serious target competitors commonly load with a ball thats just. The club now owns 27 acres of property with 25, 50, 75 and 100 yard ranges for shooting traditional, patched roundball muzzleloading firearms. I have taken deer with both but never studied the numbers on these. Knead the bag for a couple of minutes, and all of the patches will fully absorb the lardlube. Patched ball barrels wear out faster than naked lead barrles. You will have to find a good working load for your particular rifle. The thing is, i have been messing with these guns for more than four. Out of a quality bore, a properly loaded patched round ball can prove deadly accurate at the ranges it was truly intended for and that is 25 to 50 yards.
The vast majority of kills were at ranges patched round balls, when placed correctly, are deadly. Jul 05, 2014 the patching material is the key to be accurate with a round ball load. Knock down targets at 75yds patched round ball only. Also, traditional muzzleloader only shooting orgnizations generally require the use of patched round ball only during official muzzleloading target competition. But if you plan to hunt, dont forget to limit your range to maximum 50 meters. This evening i skinned and quartered the carcass of the. A couple of mornings at the range, shooting both swaged hornady. The easiest method to choose the right patch for your round ball rifle. The research i have done indicates loads between 120 and 200 grains of powder for the patched round ball. The waterfowl had been shot with the required nontoxic bismuth or steel shot, and the big game with a patched round ball. Black swamp muzzle loaders sports club findlay, ohio.
I shot in a 25 yard and 50 yard off hand match with a round ball rifle. Early on, i never had much luck with plasticpatched round ball which my kentucky shooting friends were using, so i went exclusively to maxis since 81. Dec 25, 2010 the lightest projectile in this caliber is a patched round ball. Hornady hard ball michigan sportsman online michigan. You can buy good quality patches in your local blackpowder shop, but you can also make your own.
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