Maxi Ball Questions

[smoothshooter]

I shot Ox Yoke Maxi Balls for the first time in my recently acquired .45 T/C Seneca. I've only ever used PRBs so I wasn't exactly sure of the correct technique. I just got the grooves as well packed with Wonder Lube as I could and seated them on top of the charge. I tried 60gr FFg and then 70, which is the recommended best load in the TC manual for the Seneca. The 70 gr load gave me a couple of 2-3 inch groups at 50 yards off a rest. Anything else I should try to improve the accuracy? The Wonder Lube was pretty soft, maybe too much so, it barely stayed where I put it. All in all it was a pretty messy process, made me think I should just stick with round balls. Any advice would be much appreciated.

I gave up on the elongated bullets because of the mess.

 

[Harmonica Bob]

Just like any load, you have to do allot of testing, no matter what components you use! I found that the round balls did more damage to the deer! they flatten out! The maxi or minnie bullets are more likly to just punch a hole through a deer without expanding! I have lost deer shot with TC Maxi Balls, but I have never lost a deer that I shot with a round ball.

 

[2 shots]

thats why t/c recommended the maxi hunter [ hollow point] for deer not the maxi ball.

 

[SDSmlf]

Personally have found the Maxi-Ball a really poor performer on game unless bone was hit, otherwise they just didn’t expand and blow right through……

In testing done years ago (before everyone had a phone with a camera, so no photographs), found that the top band or ring on the maxi-ball collapsed back into the large lube ring just under it, creating what could almost be called a spire point when shot into soft tissue. Conicals with a wide flat nose or a hollow point expand reliably in soft tissue. Believe this is the major reason TC came out with their Maxi-Hunter design after their Max-Ball had over penetration and poor expansion issues. My testing was done with 54 caliber Maxi-Balls and Maxi-Hunters cast from TC molds using ‘pure’ lead (believe I still have both molds). Using the same gun and powder charge, the expansion difference was dramatic.

 

[Harmonica Bob]

Personally have found the Maxi-Ball a really poor performer on game unless bone was hit, otherwise they just didn’t expand and blow right through……

In testing done years ago (before everyone had a phone with a camera, so no photographs), found that the top band or ring on the maxi-ball collapsed back into the large lube ring just under it, creating what could almost be called a spire point when shot into soft tissue. Conicals with a wide flat nose or a hollow point expand reliably in soft tissue. Believe this is the major reason TC came out with their Maxi-Hunter design after their Max-Ball had over penetration and poor expansion issues. My testing was done with 54 caliber Maxi-Balls and Maxi-Hunters cast from TC molds using ‘pure’ lead (believe I still have both molds). Using the same gun and powder charge, the expansion difference was dramatic.

Very well said! I had almost the same results. I had outstanding results with round balls way before they came out with the "Maxi Hunter". I never went back. I wore out the barrel on my TC Hawken and replaced it with a drop in, high quality, 1 in 72, 54 cal, deep groove, round ball barrel. This high quality drop in barrel is no longer made, as well as the hollow point, hollow base, minnie ball that I killed so many deer with. In 45 years, I have seen good products come and go,

 

[towgunner11h]

Personally have found the Maxi-Ball a really poor performer on game unless bone was hit, otherwise they just didn’t expand and blow right through……

In testing done years ago (before everyone had a phone with a camera, so no photographs), found that the top band or ring on the maxi-ball collapsed back into the large lube ring just under it, creating what could almost be called a spire point when shot into soft tissue. Conicals with a wide flat nose or a hollow point expand reliably in soft tissue. Believe this is the major reason TC came out with their Maxi-Hunter design after their Max-Ball had over penetration and poor expansion issues. My testing was done with 54 caliber Maxi-Balls and Maxi-Hunters cast from TC molds using ‘pure’ lead (believe I still have both molds). Using the same gun and powder charge, the expansion difference was dramatic.

Never blew right through a deer with a .54 Maxi Ball that didn't fall right over!

 

[Red Owl]

When I first got into muzzle loading I just naturally jumped toward using a conical for hunting. They fit so tight that you need to swab between shots and a lot of effort on the ramrod is needed. The bore gets lead fouling. The conicals were never used historically (I realize a few exceptions exist, they called them "Sugarloaf"). In any event I was speaking with a friend that had just shot an elk with a PRB 50 caliber, ran about 20 yards and dropped. He dug out the ball and kept it. It was as flat and wide as a quarter coin. It went through both lungs. With the PRB: easy to load, the patch means no fouling, never any pressure worries. (Conicals increase bore pressure.) In any event, re=think the patched round ball, it has a lot going for it.