• This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.



    Sign up here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/account/upgrades

Minie for hunting

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Apr 4, 2010
Messages
973
Reaction score
370
Been wondering about this for awhile now. Dont hear about folks hunting with these civil war bullets. Seems like they ought to be equal or better then the round balls in the 58 cal.

Any thought on this?
 
If I had a civil war era rifle or musket, I would use it for hunting and might use minies. Especially if it was a rifled musket. They would put the knock down on large game.
 
According to a book by the late James Forsyth, " The Sporting Rifle and its Projectiles" he and his contemporaries found Minnes' less effective than round ball of similar and larger size. Round ball delivers more shock and energy into the target animal. They found when shooting tiger and the like that minnies got them into nasty scrapes. I have shot plenty of kangaroos when a teenager and found them most effective on those animals, so would think if well placed should work fine on deer. I might not be so inclined to tackle a koala bear with them as they make you grizzlies look like teddy bears .
 
I just not 2 hrs ago killed a doe with the 360 lee improved minie... Its kind of dark but it really put the wallop on that doe... Gonna post the pics I have shortly im relaxing now only been home 20 mins and drug her 1.5 miles alone...
 
Forsythe was referring to mines on big game. My first buck with a minie was with an original '63 Springfield with 50 gr of 1 1/2 Swiss over a soft lead minie. The shot was at around 60 yards. he took two steps and folded. I thought I missed him.
 
I don't think your koala bear would be much of a problem for a .58 Minie' bullet.

Now its close relative the vicious Drop Bear! :shocked2: That's a whole different situation.

Anyway, IMO, any slug that will poke a .58 caliber hole thru an animal is bound to make a severe impression on whatever it hits. (pun intended). :grin:
 
I still can't see it doing to bad in any reasonable caliber... Of course for dangerous game there's no such thing as hitting them too hard... Any decent shot with a 50 cal minie on about any animal short of elephant really should be plenty... But I wouldn't want a bad hit... Of course they used to hunt different than we do also and that would have something to do with it..
 
Kansas Jake said:
If I had a civil war era rifle or musket, I would use it for hunting and might use minies. Especially if it was a rifled musket. They would put the knock down on large game.


Many shooter/writers/expurts claim there is no such thing as 'knock down power'. I dunno. :idunno: I subscribe to the school that places greatest importance on shot placement for quick, humane kills.
And, do not overlook the rainbow trajectory of those heavy minies. Personally, I'll choose a prb and know where it hits before heading for the fields or woods.
 
James "pondoro" Taylor said it exists and based his theory on how long a given round would knock an elephant out for.... Its there
 
He also came to the conclusion that bore diameter and projectile weight mattered more than velocity
 
I have killed a bunch of deer with my 61 Springfield. I use the same load I used in the N-SSA for target shooting,depending on what bullet I was using the powder charge was between 42 and 50gr fffg. Most ran from a few steps to less than 100 yds. The blood trail left a blind man could follow.
 
That a conical projectile is better then a round ball can’t be argued. We know this from every way we can test it. It keeps velocity and foot pound energy better then a ball.
That said a ball will drop anything that walks on land. Owning a gun made to shoot a conical makes a conical a good choice. However a prb from a Eastern style long barreled .45 cal will make a deer just as dead as an .58 enfield rifled musket with four times bigger conical.
 
Be sure the fit is tight enough that it does not move off the powder if you carry it loaded.

Don't discount RB's. I might keep a minie in a cartridge for the reload after the shot and load a patched ball for the first shot.
 
Be sure the fit is tight enough that it does not move off the powder if you carry it loaded.

Don't discount RB's. I might keep a minie in a cartridge for the reload after the shot and load a patched ball for the first shot.
 
I carried my rifle 2 days and kept checking to make sure it stayed seated and it never moved on me... Of course I carried it horizontal not muzzle down im sure that helps... The shape of the meplat on a conical matters too.. The pointy ones probably don't have the initial shock of the big flat replay on the lee 360... That's why I picked it probably not the best long range minie but its a hammer
 
I should think that the hunters of dangerous game in the olde days were shooting antimony-hardened roundballs of large diameter. A soft lead ball or Minie used on thick skinned game would flatten. Plus a large bore roundball gun would be more versatile allowing them to shoot both soft and hardened projectiles.

As to effectiveness on thin skinned game such as deer, one of my books on civil war guns said that, early in the war, both sides accused the other of using exploding bullets, based on surgeons reporting wound damage way beyond what they were accustomed to. They soon became adept at amputations.
 
CapPopper said:
He also came to the conclusion that bore diameter and projectile weight mattered more than velocity

If you have low velocity, bore diameter and projectile weight will matter little. Think of the difference between a roundball thrown by hand or accelerated by a charge of powder - the former might give you a nasty bruise, the later will poke a hole through you. Nope - velocity is still important.....
 
Heelerau said:
According to a book by the late James Forsyth, " The Sporting Rifle and its Projectiles" he and his contemporaries found Minnes' less effective than round ball of similar and larger size.

I can believe that for the original pointy minies with their thin skirts restricting velocities. But this minie from LEE is a game changer. The large flat nose (meplat) along with a thicker skirt designed for larger powder charges turns it into a real snot slapper on game. I don't have experience with the smaller versions, but the difference is night and day in my 58 calibers. Kills about as well and as quickly as any of my modern large caliber handguns shooting hard cast with big meplats.
 
Black Hand said:
CapPopper said:
He also came to the conclusion that bore diameter and projectile weight mattered more than velocity

If you have low velocity, bore diameter and projectile weight will matter little. Think of the difference between a roundball thrown by hand or accelerated by a charge of powder - the former might give you a nasty bruise, the later will poke a hole through you. Nope - velocity is still important.....

The low velocity, large bore, heavy projectile .45ACP imparts all of its energy on a target as opposed to the higher velocity, smaller bore
9mm. Large bore black powder hunting guns, muzzleloading and breechloaders don't rely on velocity nearly as much as on projectile
weight and mass. Black powder can't provide the necessary velocity to kill by shock and massive tissue damage the way a smokeless smaller caliber will. That's why, IMHO I'll take a slower moving big .58 round ball over a much faster .45 any day. In fact I consider the .45 marginal at best for deer hunting. The point of diminishing returns relative to increased powder charges and added velocity achieved prevents it from being anywhere near the killer that the slower but bigger .58 is. The same argument is made for the .50-70 over the .45-70.
 
shot with a few n-ssa shooters they used their rifles for deer none of them ever lost a deer. could it be because they could shoot or the ,58 ? I use a .45 round ball never lost a deer.

cal. has less to do with it then being able to shoot.
 
Back
Top