Since you are new to Flintlocks, and, apparently to MLers in general, Do yourself a favor:
1. Forget everything you ever learned about using Ft.Lbs of Energy(FPE) to judge how well a cartridge will kill game;
2. Do your own comparison Penetration testing of rifles. When I got started, I built a "box" made of 1" pine boards, spaced( arbitrarily ) 1" apart, and test fired several guns from the same distance. I used a .22 rimfire rifle; a .30-06 shooting Factory 180 grain HSP bullets; my .50 caliber rifle, shooting .490" dia. RBs, weighing about 180 grains, with first 60 grains of FFFg powder( Dupont,now Goex), and then 100 grains of the same powder;, my .,45-70 shooting a commercial 400 grain JSP bullet; and my friend's .50-140-550 Sharps rifle, shooting a .50 caliber, 550gr. cast bullet, in front of 140 grains of Goex FFFg powder.
The only surprises were from the .22 rimfire, High speed hollow points, which went through 2 boards and lodged into the third- I was not expecting that from a 29 grain bullet; and from my 2 loads with my PRB. Both load, the target, and the "Hunting" load with a PRB penetrated 6 boards( and six air spaces) and hit solidly into the 7th board. But, THE HEAVIER POWDER CHARGE did not cause any greater penetration! :shocked2: :surrender:
MY 180 grain .30 cal. bullet mushroomed correctly and got to the 8th board. My 400 gr. bullet from my .45-70 made it through 10 boards and broke the 11th; the .50 caliber cast bullet went through all 12 boards and buried itself in a railroad tie behind the "box" about an inch, SIDEWAYS, as the bullet yawed, or "Keyholed" the last three boards. Very little damage to that bullet, when we cut it out of the RR tie, BTW. It lost some lead off its NOSE, and its outside diameter, but it still showed grease grooves, and still looked like a bullet.
What did I learn? The Caliber of a RB reflects it possible weight, and weight has more to do with penetration than MV. MY MLer may not have penetrated as far as my .30-06 did, but it penetrated enough to make a Pass-thru shot a reality on any white tail deer I might shoot.
[ In fact, my first deer taken with that rifle was an old doe, shot broadside, at about 35 yds, and the PRB passed right through both lungs, and some of the major arteries coming off the heart, before exiting the other side of her. She was walking down a steep sided ravine, and stumbled on down to the bottom where she died. The Ball left blood trails on both side of her tracks, and she was easily tracked to where she lay.]
Most shooters who come to this sport from shooting modern rifles have all kinds of wrong ideas on how well these guns, shooting Round Balls will kill game. Just remember that a .50 caliber MLer puts a ball INTO the animal that is larger than must modern bullets can expand to when they come out of an animal. My .50 cal. ball expanded to close to .70 cal. in that first deer I shot, by the time it exited her off-side. The damaged to her internal organs was impressive, to say the least.
A modern cartridge kills by sending a bullet so fast through the animal, that a Secondary Wound Channel is formed by the vacuum and "shock wave" formed behind the bullet as it passes through the tissues. However, expanding bullets obviously slow the bullet down considerably, and in so doing, also cause the secondary wound channel to lessen in dimension.
My penetration box showed the primary wound channel for all the guns tested. It could not show secondary wound damage. That was its limitation.
If you use wet clay blocks, or ballistics gel, for your testing, you can show and see the secondary wound channel damage made by hi-speed bullets.
However, few conicals shot from any MLers retain enough velocity very far from the muzzle to form second wound channel damage. The tend to be large caliber "slugs", that do similar damage to that done by a PRB. The difference is they recoil a LOT more than a comparable PRB. Unless you use a Very short Bullet in that 1:66 ROT barrel, you are not going to get much accuracy shooting any conical.
Flintlocks were Not designed to shoot CONICALS. Conicals appeared in the 19th century, when the transition to percussion ignition was well under way. You've spent the money to get a finely made flintlock. Why not learn all you can about its capabilities before you think you know better what its designed to shoot well? :idunno: :hmm: :surrender: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Nice rifle!
