Roundball Performance on Game

[Sharp Shooter]

What are everyones experiances with roundball on game? Did you see good blood trails, bad blood trails, did they drop right away, did they run, how far did they run, did they look like they got hit, ect. Also what caliber were you using?

Just wondering what to expect

Thanks

Kirk

 

[rabjr]

Shot 11 deer with roundball, 10 with flintlock.

The percussion .54 shot at 70 yards took 3 steps and collapsed.

Had one buck shot at 20 yards run 40 yards and collapse, blood everywhere, .54 cal

Had one Doe shot at 70 yards, ran almost 150 yards then collapsed (heart shot) .54 left a good trail after the first 50 yards.

Had a Doe shot at 40 yards with a .58 run 60 yards and collapse, good blood trail.

Two shot with .54 dropped in their tracks.

Three shot with .58 dropped in their tracks.

Two shot with .12ga smoothie dropped in their tracks.

 

[hanshi]

I've had a few drop in their tracks but most ran anywhere from 50 feet to 50 yards or more. I can't remember not finding a blood trail. Sometimes it was copious, sometimes slight. If the blood trail was slight I always found them very close; they didn't have time to leak very much. Usually the heavy trails were close as well. Half the time they showed no sign of a hit, about the same as with centerfire calibers.

I've only recovered a very few balls from fallen deer. They were usually just under the off side hide. All were flattened like a flying saucer. One was found in the neck where it broke the neck and didn't exit. By far most went through and through regardless of the range and by that I mean 10 yards to over 100 yards. These were .50 and .45 calibers; I could see no difference between the two up to at least 75 yards. My .54 zinged off into the woods, too. I've shot deer and had tissue blown out the other side that I could see from my stand! On most exits, however, the exit wound is smaller than the entrance. This is due to the ball expanding and slowing down some as it approaches the off side. Still, sometimes the damage is incredible. Don't ever let anyone get away with saying a prb is not a good killer on game. If anything the prb beats second place by a mile.

 

[paulvallandigham]

My first deer was a large doe shot at about 35 yds. Pass through .50 cal. ball. Blood coming out both sides- low lung hit, that also took some of the major arteries above the heart. She ran about 40 yds down a very steel sided ravine before piling up at the bottom.

I think that is typical of what to expect, PROVIDED you hit the major organs like the LUNGs. I have had other deer drop quicker, but in those cases, I broke the front leg, and hit the lungs, or nicked the spine and hit the lungs. On the one where I broke the leg, I had an angled shot that allowed me to break the leg on the near shoulder and take the lung. The ball also took off the top of the heart. I don't think he ran 25 feet before he died. The only "dead in their tracks" shots I have experienced were spinal cord shots, where the animals were close, I had a rest, and I had ground obstructions blocking a low lung shot. I actually aimed to take both shoulders out, and the ball hit the spine, too. He was below the top of the ground brush blocking my view before the smoke cleared.

 

[BrownBear]

I'm still accumulating enough kills to come up with "rules," but so far I'm seeing trends. The higher up the chest cavity you hit the less blood trail, at least initially. The lower in the chest you hit, the more you get and the sooner you get it. I'm guessing that's a matter of how long it takes the chest to fill enough to start leaking.

So far anyway, I've never had one go far enough to need tracking. They have all fallen within sight. The one this year was mid-lung shot at about 35 yards (50 cal/80 grains 3f), collapsed at the shot, jumped back up and went about 10 feet before piling up again. I was surprised that it went down on a lung shot, but even more surprised when it got back up.

The only balls I've ever recovered have been from face-on neck shots. Broadside lung shots just haven't been enough to stop the ball, so I've always had two holes for leaks if tracking enters the picture.

 

[Skychief]

Don't ever let anyone get away with saying a prb is not a good killer on game. If anything the prb beats second place by a mile.

Hanshi sums up my opinion of the prb rather well.

I want to add that of the many deer I have taken with 50 caliber prbs, nearly all have gone about 50-75 yards from the place they were struck (lung hits mostly). I took my first with a 45 caliber prb through the rear part of the lungs a few days ago. It went 50 yards. Blood trails have always been easy to follow.

The only deer that I have had drop on the spot to a .50 prb was a heavy 10 pointer years ago. He dogged a doe for about a half hour all around me until she finally stopped. She "presented" to him as her tail went way to one side and she seemed to crouch a bit. As he was about to mount her I cut loose and caught him through both lungs at a downward angle (I was above him on a bluff, of sorts). He didn't move a hoof for about 5 seconds and then just tipped to the ground on his side! I have to think his reaction as a total fluke (shot as he was). Maybe he passed out as he realized that he went from the imminent prospect of ecstacy to being shot at the drop of a hat. :hmm:

 

[lonehunter]

skychief, you are one cold blooded fella!
ya could have let him finish :rotf: :rotf:

 

[rabjr]

I'm still accumulating enough kills to come up with "rules," but so far I'm seeing trends. The higher up the chest cavity you hit the less blood trail, at least initially. The lower in the chest you hit, the more you get and the sooner you get it. I'm guessing that's a matter of how long it takes the chest to fill enough to start leaking.

I agree with that for sure. With the exception of the heart shot Doe I took.

 

[playfarmers]

I have shot somwhere around 30 whitetails with a muzzleloader, and the only ones I had to track any distance were the ones shot with a slug. I now use nothing but round balls in .50 or .54 and most drop within 50 yards. The last 3 out of 4 that my .54 took down dropped on the spot.

 

[tg]

I have not seen a pattern with ball anymore than with a 30/30 sometimes yopu get a better one than others the anatomy offers a lot of options for a projectile to do things, just like killing power, seen Elk drop with what looked like the same hit as the one that ran 300 yds this is examimning the remains after the animal died. I think a good double lung shot with a large exit is as good as it gets, the little poop I shot a while baxk had a two inch hole on the off side as the ball blew up a rib and turned it into shrapnel and opened up a gap between two ribs o the other side...plus the .562 ball going thru.I think ya just hit them hard and give them some time before you follow and most will make it to the freezer, tracking smal blood trails is a bit of an art itself, try to stay where you think is along side the trail and mark every spot with a twist of cloth on a limb.in real damp woods a cheater bottle of peroxide will help on those tiny red colored spots on leaves with red colored spots that just don't look right.

 

Never had em go more than 35 yards max. LOTS of blood. Its all about shot placement.

 

[pchwcf50110]

What are everyones experiances with roundball on game? Did you see good blood trails, bad blood trails, did they drop right away, did they run, how far did they run, did they look like they got hit, ect. Also what caliber were you using?

Just wondering what to expect

Thanks

Kirk

in my teenage years when i started ML hunting my friends and i didn't know a whole lot and chased quite a few deer around long distances after being shot with .45 and .50 PRB's. we took all angles of shots with mixed results. now, i know, it was our fault but my solution then was to go bigger in caliber. there was a dramatic improvement as we could reach the vitals through shoulders and bones with .54's and .58's. i still tend to err on the bigger side because sometimes things just happen in the game fields beyond your control. the humble ball takes game very well and the bigger balls are real killers. there are alot of old hands here who do very well with .40 and .45 PRB's. not my choice but it's hard to argue with their results.

 

[agill]

I've shot between 10 and 15 deer I suppose with round balls. Most were with 45 cal. and a few with 50 cal. I've had them drop in there tracks. I've had them drop after a few yards and after 20 yards. I've seen them run off and escape or be picked up in the road by someone else in a pickup after running a couple hundred yards and fall.

As far as blood trails go, I've seen everything. I've seen lots of blood to no blood hardly at all. I've shaved the hair of some without drawing blood. Those I never found and I think I either gut shot them or just barely hit the skin.

Getting off the muzzle loading topic for reference, I've actully hit a tree once with a centerfire and had the bullet split and hit a buck in the stomach. The stomach exploded out the hole and stopped up the hole. A second shot killed the deer. This is how I know that the first shot stopped the hole up and did not allow blood to flow. I fear that I've done this with round ball more than once.

I've had some deer leave good blood trails only to make it into posted land and be lost. Also, I've had deer stop bleeding and even after a couple of days of searching be lost.

The first deer I killed went about a mile(seriously) before I caught up to him. He was a button buck and I shot him too low in the chest broadside. I had to shoot him again to finish the job. He first dropped blood about 50 feet from where he was first hit. It was a drop the size of a pencil eraser. I tracked him by just tracks, instinct, and a few drops of blood on my hands and knees for two hours. I lost his blood trail near the end and went on instinct of where I would go if I were him and found him in some thick stuff. He was trying to get up, but lacked the strength.

To sum up, I've seen a lot of blood trails to hardly any. I agree with the rest that good shot placement is the key. The patched round ball will do its job if I do mine.

 

[Stumpkiller]

I've had very good results with .50 and .54 round balls in my local woodlots. Shots have ranged from 10 yards to 60 yards. Most are 35 to 40 yards and that is ideal for the round ball. One dropped without moving his hind legs (reared up after a frontal & collapsed). Two have dropped after a few steps. Most others pile up in 50 yards or less. Usually I don't need the blood-trail at all, as I watch them auger in. On the broadsides I never have retrieved a ball - they pass through. The one .50 ball I have was the frontal and it lodged in the skin behind his femur. 32 inches from entry point. Expanded from 0.490" to 0.52" . . . hardly at all. But it was a home-cast from lead that has some pipe solder in it and is overly hard.

Blood trails do not seem as good as the 12 gauge rifled slugs or two-edged broadheads I otherwise hunt with. Both of those let out a lot of blood. Deer have about seven seconds to live after a double-lung with a good sharp broadhead.

IMHO the round ball bloodtrail is on par with the Maxi-Hunters I have used in the past.

Interesting side note is that I have only shot two deer with a centerfire rifle. Both with a 7.62 X 54R at 10 and 15 yards on consecutive days from the same stump. BOTH travelled over 150 yards out into a plowed field in a large horseshoe and dropped about 30 yards away after doubling back into the woods! I cannot account for that. I was using Barnaul 180 gr soft-point ("hunting") ammo and they failed to expand at all. VERY poor performance . . . though the deer did expire. I went back to round balls & m/l after that.

One thing that is missing with a round ball is the hair at the impact site that helps confirm the hit. Round balls cut very little hair compared to slugs or broadheads.

 

[rabjr]

I've had some deer leave good blood trails only to make it into posted land and be lost. Also, I've had deer stop bleeding and even after a couple of days of searching be lost

I've had the misfortune of trying to help recover deer shot in one front leg. Your above quote pretty much describes those. Bleed alot, leave bone chips for one or more hundred yards onlty to peter out and stop as if they plugged the wound up.

 

[bobman]

seems like the 45 is lacking in killing power reading this most of the people using 54-58 seem to have better results

This is not a critcism of the poster just thinking outloud about the results you've had after reading all the posts in this thread.

I've killed a few with a .54 rb and none of them went 20 yards, all were shot less than 30 yards away.

I've probably killed close to 150 in my life with recurve and long bows so I tend to hunt thick and close stuff even with a gun.

If my GPR ever gets back here I will post my results for the rest of this season.

 

[Skychief]

skychief, you are one cold blooded fella!
ya could have let him finish :rotf: :rotf:

:redface: :redface: :wink:

 

[Trench]

I only have one experience to offer. I shot a buck at 40yds with a .490 ball and 60gr of 2F. The ball went through the lung and then up through the spine so it dropped immediately. Not much blood outside the deer because the ball hit high. The cavity above the diaphragm was completely filled with blood and just poored out of the deer.

I think lower shots are better than most for blood trails. High, lung shots will take longer for good flowing blood to start to flow out of the hole.

 

[silent sniper]

the only deer I have killed with a muzzleloader was a medium size doe with a 14 guage double barrel smoothbore shotgun. the shot was 70 yards. the load was a .620 RB over 70 grains FF. i shot the deer out of a treestand. The ball hit right behind the shoulder, blowing a hole right through the heart and coming out the other shoulder blade. the deer only made it 10 yards and the blood trail was so profuse that a blind man could of tracked that deer.

 

[longcruise]

All deer and antelope that I have hit with rb in .50 and .54 dropped within 10 feet. Distance of shot was from 15 to 85 yards. Loads varied from a .50 with 60 grains to a .54 with 100 grains. All dropped within 10 feet and some on the spot.

An elk hit thru both lungs just above the heart at 45 yards with a .54 and 110 grains of ff went hell bent for about 100 yards and did not shed a drop of blood until a few feet before she went down.

A mulie buck hit with a maxi ball thru the onside lung and thru just the rear tip of the off side lung walked over 100 yards and laid down needing a finishing shot.

My first two years ml hunting I thought a slug would kill better than a rb. I only started using the rb after some experiences of finding the bullet had moved off the powder charge. So, initially it was a safety move. The enlightenement came thereafter. :haha: