Pumpkin performance

[Travis Hampton]

This is probably an odd question but here it goes. I had a range day with a buddy yesterday he had never shot frontloaders so i brought my tc hawken 54 and my pedersoli 32 cal. Targets were pumkins. Jack o lantern size at 100ish yards for the 54 and soft ball sized at 15 yards for the 32. The 54 performed as expected punching large holes through both sides of the pumpkin. The 32 was loaded with 60gr of fff 777 under a patched round ball. I cant remember why i was loading 60 grains. I worked up the load a few years back but i think im gonna go back to the drawing board but i digress. When we would hit the pumpkin it would cause a big crater on the surface of the pumpkin but not penetrate through. Im thinking that the little pill was traveling so fast it blew up on the hard shell of the pumpkin.
Any thoughts on the terminal performance?

Next time i have it out im gonna put it on paper back the load down to 30 or 40 gr
I recall when i started with this rifle i had problems getting smaller charges to ignite consistently. It was like the ball was partially covering the flash hole. This is a percussion gun.

 

[Kansas Jake]

Some guys use as little as 10-12 grains fffg in a 32 for hunting squirrels. I find mine does pretty well with about 17-18 grains by measure. I suspect your assumption about the pill blowing up is correct. With 60 grains that little 32 ball is really scooting at 15 yards.

 

[BrownBear]

Huh.... I can't imagine how else to explain it, but I'd guess with a surface "blow" like that the back of the pumpkin would be riddled with fragment holes, almost like a shotgun blast.

Now down to even more fun. Next time out take a half inch punch and poke a hole in the top of the pumpkins and fill them with water. Not a heck of a lot of pumpkin left to clean up, I can tell you for sure!

 

[Britsmoothy]

60 GRN in a 32!
That ball is lead vapour!

 

[russellshaffer]

Wow! A 32 magnum muzzleloader. I have shot as much as 30 grains in my Crockett 32.

 

[Travis Hampton]

Huh.... I can't imagine how else to explain it, but I'd guess with a surface "blow" like that the back of the pumpkin would be riddled with fragment holes, almost like a shotgun blast.

Now down to even more fun. Next time out take a half inch punch and poke a hole in the top of the pumpkins and fill them with water. Not a heck of a lot of pumpkin left to clean up, I can tell you for sure!

Yes filling pumpkins with water works well. I was lazy yesterday and didnt want to bother with lugging water up the mountain with me. I have some vids of pumpkin puree if i can find them

 

[Zonie]

This is probably an odd question but here it goes. I had a range day with a buddy yesterday he had never shot frontloaders so i brought my tc hawken 54 and my pedersoli 32 cal. Targets were pumkins. Jack o lantern size at 100ish yards for the 54 and soft ball sized at 15 yards for the 32. The 54 performed as expected punching large holes through both sides of the pumpkin. The 32 was loaded with 60gr of fff 777 under a patched round ball. I cant remember why i was loading 60 grains. I worked up the load a few years back but i think im gonna go back to the drawing board but i digress. When we would hit the pumpkin it would cause a big crater on the surface of the pumpkin but not penetrate through. Im thinking that the little pill was traveling so fast it blew up on the hard shell of the pumpkin.
Any thoughts on the terminal performance?

Next time i have it out im gonna put it on paper back the load down to 30 or 40 gr
I recall when i started with this rifle i had problems getting smaller charges to ignite consistently. It was like the ball was partially covering the flash hole. This is a percussion gun.

The Lyman "BLACK POWDER HANDBOOK & LOADING MANUAL", 2nd ed. says the .32 caliber, 26", 1:66 twist barrel they loaded 60 grains of GOEX 3Fg powder into under a .310 diameter patched roundball developed a muzzle velocity of 2238 fps and 13,000 psi breech pressure. The ball was traveling at a velocity of 989 fps at 100 yards.

The book did not test 777 powder. The nearest thing to it that they did test was Pyrodex P.
60 grains of that under the roundball developed a muzzle velocity of 2363 fps with a breech pressure of 22,600 psi. That ball was traveling at 1021 fps at 100 yards.

IMO, breech pressures that high are taking a low carbon steel barrel to the limits. I do not recommend that anyone should try doing it.

 

[Travis Hampton]

The target pumpkin was only 15 yards away but agree that the load was pretty stupid. After the fact i was found myself thinking, " what are you doing?"

 

[Zonie]

I misunderstood the distance to the pumpkin.
Yah, my roundball velocity calculator says if the MV was 2363 fps, the ball was traveling about 2020 fps at that distance. Lead bullets will almost expolode at that speed if they hit something.

 

[Travis Hampton]

I misunderstood the distance to the pumpkin.
Yah, my roundball velocity calculator says if the MV was 2363 fps, the ball was traveling about 2020 fps at that distance. Lead bullets will almost expolode at that speed if they hit something.

Thats certainly what it looked like. I should have taken pictures.

 

[Stumpkiller]

If pumpkins are considered varmints that may be a fine load. But if you want them for pies maybe you need to alter your load for less edible damage.

 

[Travis Hampton]

Update. Went out and shot my 32 cal again. Dropped the load to 20 then 30 grains. Shot some more pumpkins at 25yards results were much much better the pumpkind got blown to bits. Put it on paper 20grains was shooting several inches low at 25 yards when i used the bottom of my staghorn sight. When i used the sight more as a peepsight and held the front sight in the middle it was pretty close. Only problem ive had with that is its hard to keep a consistent sight picture. Maybe i just need to shoot it more