Hardball for small caliber deer hunting

[Wes/Tex]

You're right...they've moved caliber designation to "Means Restrictions" under Public Hunting Regulations and no longer list it up front under Muzzleloading Hunting specifications. How odd. No idea when that happened.

https://www2.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/hunt/public/public_hunt_drawing/regulations.phtml

 

[Loyalist Dave]

If I buy a deer from a deer farm, I can kill it with whatever.

If I buy one from the State, I have to follow their rules.

One is considered farming. the other is a sport.

Both have the same end result.

Um...., you don't BUY the deer from the state. You bought permission for the chance to harvest game (deer was part of the list), according to the rules provided by the state, which you accepted when you agreed to buy that opportunity from the state. :wink:

While the outcome is the same, the beginning of each scenario is different. Hunting has chance, which is why it's called hunting, while farming has very little chance, and when you buy an animal from the farmer it's not hunting..., it's getting.

AND that's why a lot of "game farms" are scorned by hunters.

LD

 

[nkbj]

I got a .40 barrel with 16" twist for a different muzzleloader to hunt with.

Then moved to a state where .44 is the minimum caliber.

 

[Artie Peltier]

Please remember that some states, like RI where I live has a minimum caliber to use! During the muzzle loading season here DEM, ( the game wardens), check what caliber your using! Using below the minimum will result in fines.
Art

 

[segner05]

You're right...they've moved caliber designation to "Means Restrictions" under Public Hunting Regulations and no longer list it up front under Muzzleloading Hunting specifications. How odd. No idea when that happened.

https://www2.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/hunt/public/public_hunt_drawing/regulations.phtml

Aha! Thanks, Wes...I had no idea that the draw hunts had a minimum caliber! I've never put in for any draw hunts as I'm fortunate enough to have family land to hunt on. Learn something new everyday! :thumbsup:

 

[dledinger]

Thanks for all the responses. Yeah, I know, a deer can be killed with a pen knife if one wants to. I know of more than a few deer put in freezers with nothing but a CCI CB Cap.

That wasn't really my point.

I guess what I was really wanting to discuss is that I used to think .45 was marginal at best, and anything under that was absurd. The fact is, I've seen far too many deer killed with itty-bitty hardballs to believe that. Inside 40 yards, a 00 buck pellet through the boiler room absolutely levels a deer in short order.

I don't think there's any legal requirement in this state, but I plan to keep hunting with my 50s and 54s. Hindsight being 20/20, and putting apples to apples, I have a different view of smaller calibers.

I always strive for the best shot available, and pass up when they don't work out.

I've really enjoyed reading the responses on this thread. Thanks to all who contributed.

 

[hanshi]

I've had way too many one shot kills on deer to ever consider the .45 too small. Plus, it's easy on the shoulder. :v

 

[nhmoose]

Thanks for all the responses. Yeah, I know, a deer can be killed with a pen knife if one wants to. I know of more than a few deer put in freezers with nothing but a CCI CB Cap.

That wasn't really my point.

I guess what I was really wanting to discuss is that I used to think .45 was marginal at best, and anything under that was absurd. The fact is, I've seen far too many deer killed with itty-bitty hardballs to believe that. Inside 40 yards, a 00 buck pellet through the boiler room absolutely levels a deer in short order.

I don't think there's any legal requirement in this state, but I plan to keep hunting with my 50s and 54s. Hindsight being 20/20, and putting apples to apples, I have a different view of smaller calibers.

I always strive for the best shot available, and pass up when they don't work out.

I've really enjoyed reading the responses on this thread. Thanks to all who contributed.

45 to small? You are wrong

 

[Zonie]

He said, "I used to think .45 was marginal..."

He didn't say he still thinks that.

 

[azmntman]

:idunno: well is he married? Is so he is still wrong :slap:

 

[Skychief]

dled', like hanshi and others here, I've killed a bunch of deer with 45 caliber roundball. Some with dead soft balls, others with hardened balls.

I've seen little difference in accuracy or killing authority.

One benefit I've seen with a hardened ball is getting an exit EVERY time (an aid to tracking at times). Soft balls, most of the time unless the shot is taken at very close range, say, 25 yards or less. Such shots flatten the ball right now and the disc like projectile can usually be found under the offside skin.

Getting back to the harder balls that I've cast and hunted with....I killed a big nanny a few years ago. If memory serves, she stood a good 60-80 yards from me and was quartered real hard toward me. I was hunting on the ground. The ball struck the neck low, went through the lungs, diaphragm, intestines and back ham. And kept going, unlike the heavy doe.

Made an impression on me.

I subscribe to the theory of hitting them good for a quick, humane kill. Works every time. No howitzer needed. Placement, placement, placement.

Best wishes, Skychief.

 

[Eddie Southgate]

Anything .40 cal and over is plenty in my book . Tennessee has dropped minimum to .36 but I won't use one myself . My son has shot and lost two with my Seneca in .36 . He's a good shot and hit both well but the balls were soft and I don't think got very good penetration . First one was a lung shot , second was a spike he shot in the head . Both left in a hurry and did not slow down best he could tell . Found hair and blood just no deer .

Eddie

 

[mike garner]

back a year ago I plowed this same ground here. I was going to build a 40 cal. and use it every now and then for deer. everyone gave there opinion, some said it was ok to use and some flat out said no way! I ended up buying a 45 and am in the middle of building it now, and will have it ready for next year. I think I made the right choice. but next time I will get a 40 I want to get a couple of deer under my sash first with the 45, I am a life long handloader and deer hunter with conventional guns and bows. I have always lived in SC where our deer season on private land runs aug.15 - jan1 I have killed more than mine and someone else share of deer in my life. I have used about every cal. you can think of from 22 hornet up. the one thing I have found that is the key to success is location, location, location, of your shot placement. if a deer is hit wrong you most likely will never see him again. if he is hit right he will die in short order no matter the caliber as long as it reaches the vitals.......

 

[Eddie Southgate]

back a year ago I plowed this same ground here. I was going to build a 40 cal. and use it every now and then for deer. everyone gave there opinion, some said it was ok to use and some flat out said no way! I ended up buying a 45 and am in the middle of building it now, and will have it ready for next year. I think I made the right choice. but next time I will get a 40 I want to get a couple of deer under my sash first with the 45, I am a life long handloader and deer hunter with conventional guns and bows. I have always lived in SC where our deer season on private land runs aug.15 - jan1 I have killed more than mine and someone else share of deer in my life. I have used about every cal. you can think of from 22 hornet up. the one thing I have found that is the key to success is location, location, location, of your shot placement. if a deer is hit wrong you most likely will never see him again. if he is hit right he will die in short order no matter the caliber as long as it reaches the vitals.......

I agree with the exception that you cannot move a .36 cal round lead ball as fast as you can a 45 grain bullet in a hornet . The 71 grain soft lead ball I think flattened on Parker's deers skull due to a combination of angle , lack of enough weight at the velocity that it was moving at and the softness of the lead . Kids around here neck shoot deer with .17 rim fires ( very illegal ) and they drop like a rock from that little bitty bullet but it has way more speed than the .36 RB . My .218 Bee will shoot holes thru a dime all day long but I don't think any .36 cal projectile fired from a muzzle loader ( Black Powder no Smokeless ) will penetrate the dime at that same 100 yards .

Yes , if a 71 grain soft lead ball gets by the ribs and through the lungs or heart you do have a dead deer but it may run off (before it drops ) and never be found also . Same hit .40 and above with a moderate powder charge and I have not ever had this happen .

Eddie

 

[Eddie Southgate]

:idunno: well is he married? Is so he is still wrong :slap:

Sad but true and very funny !

Eddie :thumbsup: :hatsoff:

 

[CapPopper]

Since the OP was originally about hard balls I will say a .357 diameter bullet in the 158 weight range will pretty much go one end of a deer to the other... I'd say and ball hard enough to not deform and waste energy on expansion with the momentum to reach vitals will do the job.... And its amazing the penetration a hard cast projectile can give... Shot placement is still paramount as always but on average these projectiles are not going 1200 fps... Even for very large animals the don't push them hard.... Of course these are more the conical type of bullet.... All im saying is a hard bullet will penetrate like you wouldn't believe... Try a paper patched 180 357 bullet as hard as you can push it.... Honestly inside 70 yards it will penetrate more than enough to go right through an elk broadside and still smack the snot out of anything behind it... On something the size of a deer a good hard cast paper patched bullet at max velocity out of a 32 would be plenty.... Just not my cup of tea... I like extra gun instead of just enough.... Im also not saying these deer are going down super fast simply that with the bullet in the right place they will Definetly go down and more than likely you'll have an exit wound and a followable blood trail... I like expansion and no tracking myself... Never forget despite its size the old 22lr has killed thousands of deer so it all comes back to one thing... Shot placement always wins.

 

[RUDY MR]

Right again. Same for food plots if planted as putting out apples or grain of sort both feed deer

 

[Lonegun1894]

I had a frustration with a Traditions Crockett years ago that I solved with a TVM .32 rifle . . . but in asking around on the internet, )and I don't think it was here), some guy down south, TX perhaps posted a pic of a deer and his .32 Crockett.

He was also committing a ticketable and arrestable offense here in Texas. All muzzleloaders below .45 are illegal for deer throughout the state. He's lucky they weren't combing through social media looking for those kind of things like they do now. Some checking of hunting sites are also being undertaken by many states wildlife depts!

Please correct me if I’m wrong, but “drawn hunts” have different regs than general state-wide regs. For example, there’s things that are perfectly legal for me to do while hunting deer on private land, that are illegal for me to do on State land just on the other side of a fence while hunting the same deer in the same county. It’s these details that we have to watch out for sometimes.

In my case, I hunt hogs on a friends place that borders Corps of Engineers land. On one side of the fence, my .54 GPR is legal, but 6” over and I’m required to use a shotgun. Go figure.

 

[smoothshooter]

Would be kind of tough trying to prosecute him for it now.
No evidence except his statement, and he could always claim he was making it up.
I would think going after one individual who may have fractured a game regulation of that type would be pretty low on the priority list. It's not like he was poaching, spotlighting, abandoning an edible carcass, or something.

 

[okawbow]

I’m heading to Texas on a pig hunt and cannot find any reference to a minimum caliber for muzzleloaders.