.62 Cal Tulle

Hello all,
I have a .62 Cal French Tulle Fusil De Chase. I built it from a Woody Woodall kit years ago. I have not taken a deer with it yet and would like to. My current load is 65 grns 3F (Goex), .600 round ball, .015 ticking lubed with the yellow Bore Butter. What is the best deer load any of you have luck with? And at what range is it good for 50yrds or further? Thank you in advance.
All the best, Rodgers Ranger

I got a Centermark and the recommended charge was eighty grains. That shot ok, when I went up my groups didn’t improve, same going down. So I stayed there.
Then I read a lot of folk tried 60 to 65, so I tried that and they improved. 65 goes clean through a deer at forty yards or so.
Dualist 54 has some you tube vids that are great for smoothies ( all his vids are good, I encourage subscribing) . He got real good groups with larger charges. 110 range. It won’t make the deer deader but may hunt better, his 110 groups are similar to my 65s
Experiment with your gun. It will do the job with about any charge you can group well with.

Hey tenngun,
Thanks for the reply! Yes, Centermark! Buffalo NY That is it! I too have had good luck/accuracy with 65grns of 3F. I just want to be comfortable with killing a deer at 50+ yards. Will try the increased powder charges to see what works best. You ever use 1/8" card or lubed shot wads?

My my Centermark F.d.C. and my T.V.M. "Early Virgina" smoothrifle both like 85 grains 3f. But, the Centermark likes patch .600 ball and the smoothrifle likes .610 ball with wads and no patch. 50 yard groups off the bench are very good, I can generally cover all shots with my hand, many are touching eachother. The rear sight on the smooth rifle helps a lot, especially when shooting from odd filed positions, or wearing different clothes while hunting which would effect your eye's relationship to the gun and front sight when shooting with no rear sight. I believe I'll be having one added to my Fusil.

Oh, also, I would ditch the bore butter. Warm some olive oil or coconut oil just warm enough to melt beeswax shavings and add the beeswax until you can feel a slight difference in how the oil stirs. I'm looking for a little stiffer/thicker than jello-pudding when the mixture cools and solidifies. Coconut oil will need less wax to do this.
Sometimes I add a capful of Murphy's Oil Soap as the mix cools. Keep stirring as it cools, the longer through the cooling process you keep stirring the better.
Track Of The Wolf mink oil is another good patch or wad lube.

I’ve not had regular wads since the 1980s and never used them in my TFC, but have shot lots of Tow,picked hemp fiber, picked wool blankets, dog hair, wasp nest ect. It shoots pretty well with wads. I like something fibery that I can ‘nest’ the ball down into. Fine deer killing accuracy at fifty yards.

I use 75 gr. Goex 3f with a .60 ball and pillow tick patch with bore butter lube. Have taken many deer at 50 yards with this. I limit myself to 50+/- yard shots as I feel my accuracy is not good enough beyond that. I am sure the gun could probably do fine out further, but so far I have not had the need to try. I tried mink oil once for real cold weather because it did not seem to stiffen up much, but it changed my point of impact. Bore butter and spit patch (my usual for target shooting) give me the same POI, but mink oil seemed more slippery and shot to a different point.
Where in mid Michigan are you?

Brokennock said:

My my Centermark F.d.C. and my T.V.M. "Early Virgina" smoothrifle both like 85 grains 3f. But, the Centermark likes patch .600 ball and the smoothrifle likes .610 ball with wads and no patch. 50 yard groups off the bench are very good, I can generally cover all shots with my hand, many are touching eachother. The rear sight on the smooth rifle helps a lot, especially when shooting from odd filed positions, or wearing different clothes while hunting which would effect your eye's relationship to the gun and front sight when shooting with no rear sight. I believe I'll be having one added to my Fusil.

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Hey Brokennock,
Thank you for the reply. I've seen other Fusils with the addition of a rear sight. I'd like to keep mine original in appearance. It is a little different using the grove in the tang bolt as your "rear sight" but it works.

Brokennock said:

Oh, also, I would ditch the bore butter. Warm some olive oil or coconut oil just warm enough to melt beeswax shavings and add the beeswax until you can feel a slight difference in how the oil stirs. I'm looking for a little stiffer/thicker than jello-pudding when the mixture cools and solidifies. Coconut oil will need less wax to do this.
Sometimes I add a capful of Murphy's Oil Soap as the mix cools. Keep stirring as it cools, the longer through the cooling process you keep stirring the better.
Track Of The Wolf mink oil is another good patch or wad lube.

Click to expand...

I have thought Bore Butter would really stiffen up in the cold. What other reasons do you have for not using it? Thank you for the recipe! I will make some up.

No Deer said:

I use 75 gr. Goex 3f with a .60 ball and pillow tick patch with bore butter lube. Have taken many deer at 50 yards with this. I limit myself to 50+/- yard shots as I feel my accuracy is not good enough beyond that. I am sure the gun could probably do fine out further, but so far I have not had the need to try. I tried mink oil once for real cold weather because it did not seem to stiffen up much, but it changed my point of impact. Bore butter and spit patch (my usual for target shooting) give me the same POI, but mink oil seemed more slippery and shot to a different point.
Where in mid Michigan are you?

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Hey No Deer, Thanks for the reply. Is it a complete pass through on the deer with 75 grs? I will be using that load today. Mink oil being more lubricous will give you a different POI for sure. I live near Mt. Pleasant. How about you?

I do have a rear sight on my FDC ... rare at very best, but it sure makes it easier for me to shoot.

tenngun said:

I do have a rear sight on my FDC ... rare at very best, but it sure makes it easier for me to shoot.

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I'm sure it does! I have seen some smoothbore shooters file a groove down the middle of the top flat to use as a rear sight if they have trouble using the groove in the barrel tang bolt. Looks nice. I have a turtle front sight blade and I have it filed down to the point where it just sticks up over the barrel flat in line with the tang bolt groove. I have thought about building a .62 Cal rifle. That would a chunk of a rifle eh?

Rodgers Ranger, I killed a buck last Fall with my 62 caliber smoothie. He was broadside at 33 yards. My load was a patched ball over 80 grains of 2f. He never knew what hit him.

I'd be confident with your load to 50 yards and then some, so long as I could place the shot where it needs to be.

These heavy balls carry a lot of energy, so hunt with confidence and share some pictures in the hunting section here when you can.

Best of luck, Skychief.

PS, welcome to the forum!

Skychief said:

Rodgers Ranger, I killed a buck last Fall with my 62 caliber smoothie. He was broadside at 33 yards. My load was a patched ball over 80 grains of 2f. He never knew what hit him.

I'd be confident with your load to 50 yards and then some, so long as I could place the shot where it needs to be.

These heavy balls carry a lot of energy, so hunt with confidence and share some pictures in the hunting section here when you can.

Best of luck, Skychief.

PS, welcome to the forum!

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Hey Skychief, Thank you for your post! Using patched round ball over 75 grains 3F at this point. For sure need to hit the range a bit more to check load at 50+ yards. Thanks for the welcome! Glad to be here! It was nice having my Ole' Flinter in my hands walking out to the woods today. Felt like old times when I used to do A LOT more black powder..... Miss it.

Welcome home Rodgers Ranger, welcome home......

Rodgers Ranger said:

Hey No Deer, Thanks for the reply. Is it a complete pass through on the deer with 75 grs? I will be using that load today. Mink oil being more lubricous will give you a different POI for sure. I live near Mt. Pleasant. How about you?

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So far every one has been a complete pass through, double lung shot, and they all went less than 40 yards. I am in Laingsburg, about 30 miles NE of Lansing. Our gun club is located here also, Lansing Muzzle Loading Gun Club. We have several open shoots each year, our next is the Winter Woods Walk, on Jan. 11. Come on down for some good shooting and great eating . If you have never been to our club, we are very proud of our woods walk, we feel, and have been told, that it is one of--if not the best one-- in the state.

.595 and .600 RB’s with 70 grns FFFG (Goex) pass clean thru hogs outta my Centermark. On several occasions. Wasp nest wad.

Consistent accuracy with my .62 smoothbore is with 70 to 75 grains of 3F. The bore is a bit tight so when using a .600" ball a patch of around .010" to .012" works good. The last deer I killed with the smoothbore was a fairly decent running shot at just over 20 yards. The deer dropped in its tracks and never moved. The gun has a rear sight and that makes it easy to shoot well. Three shot groups at 50 yards stay around 3".

I pass shots over 50 yards with my 20 gauge smooth bore.

RR, I got a really nice 8 point with my Tulle several years ago. Using 80 grains of 2f I got a pass through at what several said was over 100 yards. That shot was taken back when I was really good, not sure I could duplicate that shot or ever try again. That big round might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer but definitely gets the job done every time.