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Track's maxi balls

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valen

36 Cal.
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I have a few of these in my shooting box and I'd like to shoot them and possibly use them for deer season this year. They look like this...
ball-maxi_0.jpg


I've only ever shot patched round ball before. I'd like to be sure of the loading procedure before I shoot them. I need to lubricate them first? I think I'm supposed to fill the groove with lube, the narrow or the wide groove?

Your assistance would be greatly appreciated.
 
What caliber is your rifle?

If your rifle is 0.45 caliber or larger, then a round ball is sufficient for whitetail.

However you want to use these maxiballs. Fill both grooves with a fairly soft lubricant. I recommend for hunting purposes to use an over powder card to prevent too much lubricant from migrating into the powder. These will perform well but being much heavier than your round ball the trajectory will be more arched and you will have to sight in this alternative projectile.
 
The lower rings are smaller then the bore and expand in to the rifiling when shot. The last ring is slightly larger. TC recommended a starter . Lots of shooter swear by them, I would melt them and run ball.
 
If your rifle has a PRB bore w/ deep rifling, conicals won't seal the bore because they require shallow rifling. The result is that blowby will be excessive. Perhaps an over powder wad might lessen the blowby, but why go through unwarranted complications when your bbl is meant for PRBs? Just like to keep it simple.

My TC Hawken shoots well w/ Buffalo Bullets which weigh 410 grs and this rifle has killed a number of elk....but, it has rifling that's meant for conicals like the one you've pictured.....Fred
 
She's a Pedersoli Jager in .54. I have no idea about the groove depth, but she's the 'hunter' model with the faster twist. Supposedly the fast twist is better for conical bullets, but I've only shot PRBs and they seem to work just fine. I plan to shot a lot more over the summer to get ready for this season.
 
the trajectory will be more arched and you will have to sight in this alternative projectile.

Correct and very important. At longer ranges (e.g. over 50 yards) the projectile will be more falling towards the target than at it. Hard to sight for that unless you have practiced hundreds of shots and have a precise range finder.
After one time out using maxis I gave it up because the projectile can, and in warmer weather, will, towards the muzzle and give you a dangerous obstruction in the barrel instead of a bullet.
IMHO, they are good for wat Tenngun suggested. Melting down and recasting into roundballs.
 
Just to satisfy my curiosity about this Maxi (like the one in the O.P.) slug vs a patched roundball I decided to run some numbers to see how its trajectory compared.

I used my Lyman GPR to get the height of the sight plain which turned out to be 0.770. (Shows as .8 in output.)

I got the MV data numbers out of the Lymans Black Powder Handbook and choose a .50 caliber gun with a 1:48 twist.

I also decided to use the same powder load and wanted it to be hot enough for hunting with 370 grain MAXI so I went with a 90 charge of GOEX 2Fg.
That powder charge generated a MV of 1316 fps for the 370 grain Maxi in Lymans book.

My computers ballistic calculator is for round balls so I used the on line Hornady Ballistics Calculator for the MAXI. (Lymans book says it has a BC of .095).

Here's the result for the 370 grain MAXI loaded over 90 grains of GOEX 2Fg powder.

MV = 1316 fps
ME = 1423 ft-lb
Trajectory:
muzzle = -0.8"
25 yards = + 2"
50 yards = + 3.2"
75 yards = + 2.7"
100 yards = 0.0" (velo = 974 fps, ME = 779 ft-lb)
125 yards = -4.9"
150 yards = -12.3"


I then used my Ballistic Calculator for Round Balls to see what a .490 dia ball over a 90 grain GOEX 2Fg powder charge would do and got the following. Again, I used the Lyman Black Powder Handbook to get the initial velocity of 1580 fps.:

MV = 1580 fps
ME = 981 ft-lb
Trajectory:
muzzle = -0.8"
25 yards = 2.1"
50 yards = 3.7"
75 yards = 3.0"
100 yards = 0.0" (velo = 945 fps, ME = 352 ft=lb)
125 yards = -6.4"*
150 yards = -17"*

(dimensions with a * fell between the given output and required calculations. They are not exact.)

Based on this playing, it looks to me like both the roundball and the Maxi slug are within an inch or less of one another out to 100 yards assuming each one of them had been sighted in for a 100 yard range.

It is only after 100 yards that the roundball starts really loosing altitude compared with the Maxi.

Very interesting. :hmm:
 
Unlike the conical haters here, I have used maxi-balls for over 25 years for hunting and love them in the rifles that shoot them accurately.

Neither of my .45s like them but 2 of my .50s do as does my .54. They flat knock a deer down at times and I love them for it. :thumbsup:
 
i ran the same numbers as you a couple weeks ago for a long range project i'm working on this summer. i will have a new spot to sit for deer season and the shot distance is going to be 250 yards. i really don't want to go to a BPC, i would much rather get it done with a flintlock and you need mass to get the energy out that far. probably will be going to a full length scope to see that far. right now it looks like the 62cal rifle i'm building might be a possibility with prb. conicals are still a thought for one of the other rifles. any thoughts from others out there?
 
My shots are normaly within 50 yards if I pick the stand properly. Pretty easy to stay within 100 yards. Never had a problem with conicals. Best luck was with the Hornady great plains and a heavy charge and a felt wad under bullet. While others have reported having conicals move off the charge I have never had that happen. My best conical shooter is a 50 cal TC Hawken that loads real hard, but will drive tacks. That is the key if it doesn't load hard it won't shoot tight groups.
 
Pedersoli recommends a .540 diameter conical of 420 grains for that rifle.

So, I'd measure your TC product and see if it's that size or very very close. I imagine that a starter of some sort is needed to get the Pedersoli conical started in their Jaeger's bore. As mentioned in a previous reply, if it's not pretty close to being "snug", you may experience gas blow-by and poor results.

LD
 
You didn't say what caliber you have but most likely it is a .50 caliber. I just referred to my copy of the Lyman "Black Powder Handbook and Loading Manual" and for a .50 caliber rifle shooting the T/C Maxi Ball that you show in your post, the manual shows a load ranging from 60 to 120 grains of Goex or Elephant 2f or 3f and the same volume equivalent for Pyrodex RS or Select. I'm thinking that something in the range of 80 to 100 grains will be a very good hunting load. I can tell you from personal experience that a load of 120 grains of Goex 3f behind a T/C Maxi Ball will kick like a mule.

For a good lube, you will want something kind of thick. In cold weather, Bore Butter will do the job. If you use something like that, you will find that it is better to lube your bullets ahead of time in the warmth of your home where the Bore Butter will come out of the tube easier. Once it gets nice and cold, Bore Butter doesn't want to come out of the tube easily. Just lube several Maxi Balls at home and wrap each one in a piece of paper to keep your possibles bag or pockets clean. When you are ready to load one of your pre-lubed rounds, just unwrap it and load it. Doing it this way will make loading in the field much easier.

If you have some bees wax, you can make your own lube to the thickness you like...thicker in the summer and thinner in the winter. An easy recipe is to melt some bees wax in one can in a pan of boiling water and some lard in another. When both are melted, mix them together. The proportions will depend on the temperature in which you are going to use it. Just play with the proportions until you get what you want. Add bees wax to thicken or more lard to thin it. After mixing the two melted ingredients, I like to add about a tablespoon of Murphy's Oil Soap and beat the mixture until it cools. This makes a nice creamy lube and the Murphy's helps with keeping the fouling soft. This is just one of ga-zillion lube recipes.
 
larry wv said:
The hate is great towards conical's around here.

Guys get all "historical" about round balls, but that's an Eastern bias. To us out in the West where round balls were abandoned in favor of conicals long before the Civil War, it seems pretty hysterical rather than historical.

I just look on it as bias and ignore them. I know they're not ignorant, but I'll grant them narrow vision.
 
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