TG,
I hope no one is misunderstanding me as trying to promote plinking loads instead of hunting loads, as that is NOT what I am trying to do. I was just trying to throw in a variable that I have seen personally to say that, in this case, I believe we can all agree that a .50 is enough for deer, that the absolute maximum loads are not the bare minimum needed and to use the accurate load as opposed to the highest velocity load, and that sometimes, the lower velocity has certain advantages. Having said that, we also need to be honest with ourselves and remember that the RB slows down very quickly as compared to a conical or modern bullet, so the light loads lose enough velocity quickly enough to make them a questionable choice unless limited to close range use. This makes the high velocity loads extend the effective range but they do eventually turn into low velocity loads if we were to measure them far enough down range. What I am saying is that, just to pick on a few people here, Roundball being the first one to come to mind after having just read one of his posts a few minutes ago, prefers fairly heavy powder charges for the flatter trajectory, and I don't disagree one bit. BUT, his 90 gr load will work the same as my 70gr charge, but his will do it a little further out than mine will, and mine will do it a little further out than the OPs 60gr charge. In the end, we all accomplish the same thing, but Roundball can reach out further than the OP and I. I would bet that RBs load does at 125yds, what mine does at 100yds, and the OPs does at approximately 85-90yds. Personally, most of my shots are close enough that the OPs load would work well enough for me, but that may not be the case for many others here. Also, I would bet that many people here were surprized to learn how slow their ball actually is at, say for example, 100 yds vs. what it was travelling at at the muzzle. This is one of several reasons we limit our hunting ranges when using PRBs. Personally, I like the range limitation as it forces me to hunt, where I used to just have to be able to shoot when I was using CFs before I started MLing. I think we are looking at the same issue and for the most part agree, but with just a slight disagreement--and one that I dont think makes enough true difference to matter in hunting considering our chosen weapons and calibers.