round ball impact.

[kkmemmott]

I was just wondering if anyone had any experience hunting game larger than Mule Deer (elk, moose, etc.) and if you have noticed if a larger diameter ball has a greater killing effect on these bigger beasts. In other words, using the 54 round ball as a standard, can you tell a difference between the impact of the 54 and say a 62 caliber on an elk? I have both calibers and have no experience yet with game larger than Mule Deer but have killed several Mule Deer with the 54. I'd just like to know if you thought it would be worth going to the 62 for these larger animal.

 

[FrontierMuzzleloading]

big ball = bigger hole.

 

[nwtradegun]

A 54 will put down elk, bison if you put the ball where it counts. As for the 62 and 72, their shoulder busters.

 

[Sean Gadhar]

1st, no I don't have any experience shooting bigger than deer game with these two to compare, so in that I can not help. that said I think you would need to give more info. Right now you have asked is a bigger ball better, well......maybe

How fast would each be going?
How close will you be?
How accurate is each gun?
Are both rifles?
How good/comfortable are You with each gun?

I mean if the .62 is a light loaded smooth bore that can't hit a pie plate at 20 yards and makes you flinch like a cat in a dog kennel.....I'd shoot the .54 :rotf: But without more info I think those with experience will still find it hard to help you :idunno:

 

[wattlebuster]

I have both 54 an 62 rifles an hunt bama whitetails with them. Have killed a many deer with the 54 an its just about perfect for deer sized game. Good size hole an blood loss. Back in 2013 I started hunting with a 62 cal. Have killed 17 deer with it so far an somewhere around 8 maybe 10 coyotes. The difference that I noticed was the amount of blood loss which of course means a blood trail that a blind man could follow. Several have been DRT kills but the few that have run off you could easily find even in our bama thickets an thats why i like a 62. I have hunted with it enough to know there is a difference that I can see. I hunt short range so I dont use heavy charges so the tad extra recoil does not bother me at all. As far as larger game, well I would expect the same results. Big hole big blood loss = better blood trail :v

 

[robert bw]

Ill state the obvious, given equal velocities, heavier bullets carry more kinetic energy downrange and retain greater energy for longer distance Vs. lighter projectiles.

My big game experience is limited,but I would think, bigger game, bigger bullets.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

That was the practice of Lt. James Forstyth of his Majesty's Bengal Staff Corps in 1867. At a time when conical bullets had started to be used including the Whitworth, Sharps, and Minnie Balls, he very much preferred patched, round ball of at least .69 caliber for big game in India. For Dangerous Big Game he preferred either 8 bore [.84 caliber] or 4 bore [1.05 caliber], and a whopping large powder charge, as he preferred a rather "flat" trajectory out to 100 yards, or more.

LD

 

[BrownBear]

I'd just like to know if you thought it would be worth going to the 62 for these larger animal.

It certainly won't hurt. The reverse of the "whether to" question is "why not." Sure there will be more recoil and more expensive shooting, but you likely won't feel the recoil on game shots, and the cost of powder and ball are zip in the larger scheme of hunt costs.

I doubt there's a single person in the world with enough experience using diverse calibers on large game to answer your question. There are just too many variables.

If you're curious about larger calibers or just have the itch for a new gun, reach for your wallet and have a ball.

 

[kkmemmott]

Thank you all for your comments and I do apologize for the lack of information in my question. I will try to be more specific in the future. I have shot muzzleloader for many years, and I know what they can do on paper and Mule Deer, but I lack the experience with the bigger animals. My 62 cal is a Virginia style rifle with a 42 inch Rice barrel and a 1:95 twist with the Forsyth rifling. It groups very well with 150 grains of Swiss FF powder and a 340 grain PRB. This is at 100 yards. I have gone to a max charge of 180 and it still will be in the kill zone of a Mule Deer. I know most will say I am blowing a lot of powder out the barrel, but with the bigger volume and the longer barrel, there is very little if any powder in the snow after the shot. This seems to be way overkill for Mule Deer, but if the 54 will take down the bigger animals just fine, then is the power of the bigger ball really needed and does it really knock them down any faster with well placed hits? This is what I was curious about.

 

[robert bw]

This seems to be way overkill for Mule Deer, but if the 54 will take down the bigger animals just fine, then is the power of the bigger ball really needed and does it really knock them down any faster with well placed hits? This is what I was curious about.

From what I understand bullets kill in several different ways.Kinetic energy(or force imparted to the target),wound channel(directly correlated to the diameter of the bullet,or the final diameter it expands to and hydrostatic shock(a temporary enlargement of the wound channel that tears tissue)I don't believe muzzleloaders can be expected to produce hydrostatic shock(pretty much applies to fast, heavy center fire rounds).

A complete pass thru is allways better than a single hole.(think, holding your finger on a drinking straw of liquid, a vacuum is formed,or little blood loss) Two holes equal massive blood loss.

Bigger faster bullets, penetrating deeper and imparting more energy on impact coupled with good shot placement should get er done!

 

[BrownBear]

My 62 cal is a Virginia style rifle with a 42 inch Rice barrel and a 1:95 twist with the Forsyth rifling. It groups very well with 150 grains of Swiss FF powder and a 340 grain PRB. This is at 100 yards.

With that rifle and load in the house, I wouldn't even look at the 54 for chasing moose, even elk. Only reason to drop to the 54 would be simply because you like it.

 

[hanshi]

When in doubt, bigger is always better. I've never hunted or killed anything other than deer. Though many have dissed the .45 I've had 100% success using on a large number of whitetails. The last one I killed with the .45 was a large 8pt. The shot was an angling going away shot. The ball entered in the area of the liver - but on the left side - and flattened under the off side hide just back of the right shoulder. The deer staggered as it started to run and was weaving like it was drunk. It piled up about 50 yards away. The blood trail was enormous with blood on trees and brush waist high to me. Dead is dead. A .62 would not have done any better; and I've killed deer with my .62 smoothbore. Admittedly, a 330 grain ball is like the hammer of Thor. But the little .45 is deadly on deer.

 

[Grimord]

I have no experience shooting game larger than our New England whitetails and a few Boar. I have used .50's, .54's, and .58's at various times and have found that the bigger bores drop game much faster, and as said, leaves a bigger blood trail. I now hunt deer almost exclusively with the .58 here in CT because where I hunt (on Public State Forest Land) you need to drop the deer in place almost immediately. If the deer runs off, there is a good chance that some other hunter will shoot it or claim it if it drops near him. It's worse now than it used to be when the black powder season saw hunters using mostly traditional caplocks and flintlocks. The number of hunters using inlines, and taking longer shots has increased over the years. I guess us traditional shooter/hunters are more ethical. I keep wishing the state would implement a "Primitive" season that would only allow flintlocks and patched round balls.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

72 Cal. Said:

My 62 cal is a Virginia style rifle with a 42 inch Rice barrel and a 1:95 twist with the Forsyth rifling. It groups very well with 150 grains of Swiss FF powder and a 340 grain PRB. This is at 100 yards.

With that rifle and load in the house, I wouldn't even look at the 54 for chasing moose, even elk. Only reason to drop to the 54 would be simply because you like it.

Agreed, a barrel like that, launching that load..., you have plenty of gun. The 1:95 twist is a bit fast for "Forsyth Rifling"...he preferred 1:108 :haha: , and he might consider a .62 a light gun.... :shocked2: . You should have no worries.

:thumbsup:

LD

 

[coloradoclyde]

A complete pass thru is allways better than a single hole.(think, holding your finger on a drinking straw of liquid, a vacuum is formed,or little blood loss) Two holes equal massive blood loss.

NO!, That is neither accurate or true.

Also;
Bullets kill by causing damage.
They disrupt or sever nerve signals
Sever arteries causing blood loss.
They break bones
stop heart or lung function.
and damage organs stopping their function.

A bullet that passes cleanly through without doing any of those things will not kill an animal, however it may die from subsequent infection or starvation.

 

[Black Hand]

A complete pass thru is always better than a single hole.(think, holding your finger on a drinking straw of liquid, a vacuum is formed, or little blood loss) Two holes equal massive blood loss.

Not necessarily. I'd rather have one hole with ALL the kinetic energy imparted to the animal.
Blood loss is directly dependent upon where the animal is hit. In the guts or muscle, little blood is lost compared to the lung, heart, liver and spleen which are very vascular. The shock-value alone is enough to put down an animal without any appreciable blood loss (I've dropped a couple of deer by putting a bullet through the edge of the spinal column - no blood loss or severing of the cord occurred).

Bigger faster bullets, penetrating deeper and imparting more energy on impact coupled with good shot placement should get er done!

In the realm of muzzleloading, bigger bullets may not be faster, but they do retain more kinetic energy downrange to impart to the target (due to their mass). But you are correct in stating that placement is a significant factor - a small or large bullet in the right place beats any bullet in a poor spot.

 

[wtilenw]

Having taken quite a few elk with a .58 ball, I would only say this. Elk are big tough animals that can take an unbelievable amount of punishment and still travel. In the case of elk and moose, I truly believe shoot the largest chunk of lead you can and put it in the best place you can.

 

[nhmoose]

Killed 2 moose with my 54 flinter. Both shots exited. 1st moose went 10 yards dropped. Second ran 50 yards stood and blew steam out the entry and exit and his nose, wobbled some fell dead. Got that one on video.

Hit them where it counts works best. As for exiting I do like blood trails. Entry wounds don't bleed that well IMHO.

 

[tenngun]

Thank you all for your comments and I do apologize for the lack of information in my question. I will try to be more specific in the future. I have shot muzzleloader for many years, and I know what they can do on paper and Mule Deer, but I lack the experience with the bigger animals. My 62 cal is a Virginia style rifle with a 42 inch Rice barrel and a 1:95 twist with the Forsyth rifling. It groups very well with 150 grains of Swiss FF powder and a 340 grain PRB. This is at 100 yards. I have gone to a max charge of 180 and it still will be in the kill zone of a Mule Deer. I know most will say I am blowing a lot of powder out the barrel, but with the bigger volume and the longer barrel, there is very little if any powder in the snow after the shot. This seems to be way overkill for Mule Deer, but if the 54 will take down the bigger animals just fine, then is the power of the bigger ball really needed and does it really knock them down any faster with well placed hits? This is what I was curious about.

Try shooting something like wet paperbacks and see if your getting better penetration with the bigger charges. PRB even in a big size loose velocity fast ( that sounds like a bad sentence). At 25 or 50 yards it might be a big deal, at a hundred you may find they have slowed to almost the same velocity.
A small group might be better then a few extra fps.

 

[Mad Professor]

Where is roundball these Days?

I miss his musings about "whompability" of 58 and 62 cals