Pure Lead Balls

[Billnpatti]

You are absolutely right when speaking of Texas Hill Country deer. We have to shoot a half dozen if we are expecting company for dinner. However, the South Texas deer and the Mule deer in the Pecos part of Texas are a whole different kettle of fish. Those are big deer. One will feed your family a while unless you're Paul Bunion or you're trying to feed a guy from Beaverton Oregon. Then you had better throw in a few more biscuits :haha:

 

[Idaho Ron]

Ron, How about a little instruction on how you make your paper patched bullets? Thanks, Robin

I have written a lot about them. If you search for my posts you will find out a lot about them.

In short they are the Lee C-501-440-RF mould. They drop out at .501 and I wrap them with two wraps of 25% cotton onion skin paper. Then I size them dry with a Lee 501 sizer die.
In all the green mountain barrels I have shot them in they are very snug and very accurate. These bullets will not come off the charge like some do. Ron

 

[gjr902]

Thanks guys. The info is great. I did wonder about that big old wad of grass and what it would do. I'm keeping things as they are. I just got worried when there was no blood. I've hunted a lot of years, but this is my first deer with a flintlock, so I really didnt know what to expect.When there wasnt a blood trail, I thought I might be doing something wrong

 

[Rifleman1776]

Wait till you find your ball in pieces with separate wound channels under the hide on the off side, then you really scratch your head. :thumbsup:

Methinks the key to preventing the "pieces" is to use only pure soft lead which is almost clay-like in malleability. Below is one I recovered from an Arkansas deer.

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[majg1234]

The PRB and load did what they do.....kill a deer.The "no pass through" was a result of of lots of variables and will happen again IF you shoot enough deer.Don't worry about the load it is a "good 'un".Spend your time honing tracking skills.Enjoy the journey :hatsoff:

 

[gjr902]

Yep, my recovered ball looks almost exactly like that one

 

[Joel/Calgary]

Yep, my recovered ball looks almost exactly like that one

If you can find the right threads, there's been a bunch of discussion here (and elsewhere) over the years about expansion versus penetration with round balls in the context of caliber, velocity, range, and alloy. Some who have shot way more animals than I am ever likely to have observed that they get the dramatic expansion and ball-under-the-far-hide on closer shots, while getting little or no expansion but complete penetration more often on longer shots, where the velocity has dropped somewhat. Some folks, especially when using a caliber a bit light for a particular animal, do use a somewhat harder alloy to reduce expansion and increase penetration. Often, this is in a smaller-ball-thicker-patch combination. Some searching in the hunting forum should turn up more specific information.

Regards,
Joel

 

[gjr902]

Thanks, I'll do some searching.
One other thing I forgot to mention. Some of the patch stayed attached to my ball. I use TOTW mink oil for patch lube. I guess it "glued" the patch to the ball. What effect would the patch have on the ball