Patched round ball range

When making the moose milk for the range i make up 2 liter pop bottle full at a time, it lasts a long time and i give some away almost. This leaves the slow twist shooter with only the task of finding proper ball size and patch thickness without having to worry a whole lot about exact powder charge. Black swamp muzzle loaders sports club findlay, ohio. Another advantage is that it uses much less powder for similar long range energies, loads lot faster and kicks a whole bunch less as well. If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the faq by clicking the link above. Is the rate of twist of the rifling compatible with round ball. But if you plan to hunt, dont forget to limit your range to maximum 50 meters. Im trying to determine the midrange and point black distances for my. Not much has been written recently about the effectiveness of roundball. Round balls are suitable for ranges up to 100 yards theyll kill much farther away, of course and in 90 % of the situations where muzzleloaders are used, the odds of getting a shot that far away are small. The patch round ball challenge long range hunting forum. Serious target competitors commonly load with a ball thats just.

Minimum deerkilling muzzleloading loads for young and small. He wanted a patched round ball rifle with lots of punch, and the 1516 diameter barrel provided the beefiness to permit shooting stout loads of fffg black powder, and the slow 1 turnin70 twist allows it to be loaded and shot at fairly high velocity without loss of accuracy. I shot in a 25 yard and 50 yard off hand match with a round ball rifle. The easiest method to choose the right patch for your round ball rifle. A couple of mornings at the range, shooting both swaged hornady. This seems to be your minimal patch thickness, but in fact it is not. Knead the bag for a couple of minutes, and all of the patches will fully absorb the lardlube. I have taken deer with both but never studied the numbers on these. I did better during the practice shoots than i did in the scored shoots. A traditional muzzleloader uses only blackpowder, is either a flintlock or percussion lock or earlier system, has only open iron sights, a wooden stock, and fires a patched round ball and, if smoothbore, shot of various sizes. It easily betters the long range performance of the hard kicking. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. Knock down targets at 75yds patched round ball only. Ive heard good things about them in round ball guns.

Our next shoot will be the first sunday in november the 4th at 1pm. A round ball doesnt touch the rifling itself, the patch does. The unchoked barrels restricted the effective range of the shot, even when loaded with plastic wads and hard hevishot no. When i walked out to the deer and took a laser range reading on the. When it comes to retaining gametaking energy at any real distance, the patched soft lead round ball is the least effective hunting projectile. The club now owns 27 acres of property with 25, 50, 75 and 100 yard ranges for shooting traditional, patched roundball muzzleloading firearms. Dec 25, 2010 the lightest projectile in this caliber is a patched round ball. Any traditional flintlock or percussion cap muzzleloading rifle or pistol, as described above, where an external hammer is used in the ignition system. The minie rifles real advantage starts over the round ball rifle to show past 100 yards. Several manufactures package pillow ticking patches at.

The patching material is the key to be accurate with a round ball load. This allows a reasonably simple physics model calculation to predict how it will behave, once the resistance of a reference projectile is known for a range of velocities. Patched round ball gun and game the friendliest gun. They can be just as powerful as many high power pistol loads and are plenty potent at close range. Minimum deerkilling muzzleloading loads for young and. It also demonstrates why common round balls have such devastating short range effects.

My deer rifle is a hawken woodsman percussion rifle from traditions. So, the short story is, in my opinion anyway, that your patched round ball shot from smoothbore should provide good accuracy to at least 50 yards, reasonable hunting level accuracy to 70 yards or even further but groups will start to open up and get larger quickly with with increased range due to random spin of the ball induced by air drag on. Therefore, the only real advantage of one design over the other is personal preference. I like the idea of traditional round ball hunting, but as i look at published muzzle velocities and consider how fast energy drops off with a sphere in flight it seems like such a choice means effective hunting ranges would be really short. A round ball is unique among projectiles in that its ballistic characteristics are solely dependant upon its diameter unless its made of something other than lead. There is little difference in effectiveness when compared to. For me, round ball loads tend to shoot higher than point of aim in a revolver and lower than point of aim from a rifle. Patched round balls punched 2inch groups at 75 yards with 70 grains of goex ffg blackpowder and goex ffffg primer. Constant thickness, weave, diameter, weight and thread count help eliminate these variables from your shooting. You can buy good quality patches in your local blackpowder shop, but you can also make your own. Im trying to determine the mid range and point black distances for my. Poking a long hole in any animal smaller than a fullgrown holstein will put it on the ground. Bumping a round ball to the proper diameter is the only way to get any accuracy from them. The easiest method to choose the right patch for your round.

After rezeroing with the new sights with my patched round ball load, i started to shoot the hardballs, they initally shot high about 4 inches but grouped really well, i dropped the sights some and this target believe it or not has 5 shots into it. I found this relatively easy to do when using a rest. We load one of our precision long rifles with a patched round ball. Ive heard and read a lot of different things and would like to know what members here think. Because it is the rifling or barrel twist that dictates whether a gun uses a sabotconical or patched round ball most effectively, both inline and sidehammer guns can be manufactured to shoot any kind of projectile. Remember that a round ball slows at 100 yards to about 5060% of its muzzle velocity. I am not new to the tc or maxisminies, just patched round ball prb. With any change in the mix of powder, ball, cap, etc. That ball isnt made for big game all the typical brain washed fubar where some think you need plastic, ss, scoped and high priced pretty shaped bullets in order to.

The limited range of traditionally styled reproduction muzzleloaded rifles of the 1960s and 1970s can be attributed to the oldstyle projectiles of the period. Precision shooting patches for round ball precision shooting patches. The waterfowl had been shot with the required nontoxic bismuth or steel shot, and the big game with a patched round ball. Somewhat the opposite is true with round balls in fast twist barrels.

The 5 calibers to claim the most powerful handgun in the world title reupload duration. Patched ball has a lapping effect, and as you shoot the sharp edges will wear with time. Salt creek meanders through the property and a bridge connects the camping areas to the shooting range on the other side. In the typical lightweight rifles that a young hunter can handle 67 lbs. Open to the public with a muzzleloader with a patched round ball only. Mountainmen must have killed plenty of elk with round balls, charges, range. Apr 30, 2008 how to load a round ball into a muzzleloader. That ball isnt made for big game all the typical brain washed fubar where some think you need plastic, ss, scoped and high priced pretty shaped bullets in. Also, traditional muzzleloader only shooting orgnizations generally require the use of patched round ball only during official muzzleloading target competition. The range of accurate velocities is also much more limited. Ff powder, pillow ticking patch bore butter, from a deer. A lot of people i know, and reading these threads, seem to prefer a round ball.

Traditionalmldata2 north american muzzleloader hunting. The club now owns 27 acres of property with 25, 50, 75 and 100 yard ranges for shooting traditional, patched round ball muzzleloading firearms. Round balls in fast twist rifles white muzzle loading. This evening i skinned and quartered the carcass of the. These firearms are required to use a patched round ball as a projectile. Get the latest information about new products, special deals, news, toprated items, promotions and more.

How in the world did some of our countrys patriots, in the late 1700s and early 1800s, make reliable head and chest shots on british officers at 200 to 300 yards using patched ball rifles, thus, cutting the snakes head off, as it were. Large variations in powder charge dont seem to make much difference. Correct style of guns from a certain period is hard to judge. The wide range of round ball loads for plinking and small game hunting make the rifle versatile. Jul 05, 2014 the patching material is the key to be accurate with a round ball load. I put 100 dry patches in a zip sandwich bag and pour about 12 fluid oz of melted, 100% hog lard in the bag with the patches.

The cut lead bar bullet was an auxilary bullet when round ball was not available. Im going to start with round ball because its cheaper practice and then mo. It was by far the most accurate load in that gun, and while labeled light by a lot of guys, it killed with alacrity. I have the choice of real black powder ff or fff i use. If you spend any time in hunting camps, sooner or later you will hear amazing stories about the longrange performance of modern muzzleloaders. Round ball vs cut lead gelatine tests, accuracy, ballistics. This means that energy levels and thus killing power will be correspondingly low. Patched ball barrels wear out faster than naked lead barrles. Out of a quality bore, a properly loaded patched round ball can prove deadly accurate at the ranges it was truly intended for and that is 25 to 50 yards. Round balls are effective on close range big game animals. You must have a tight patchball combination it is easy to determinate the minimum thickness of the material. What happens to a patched round ball when it leaves the muzzle of a smooth bore. The thing is, i have been messing with these guns for more than four. Early on, i never had much luck with plasticpatched round ball which my kentucky shooting friends were using, so i went exclusively to maxis since 81.

Theres so many sizes i dont know what exact one i need for round ball. In fact, the 45grain round ball over 30 grains of fffg practically mirrors the. Truth is i have never needed to take a shot at a deer any further than that. Im certain the gun is suitable for game such as squirrels and cottontails out to 100 yards. The research i have done indicates loads between 120 and 200 grains of powder for the patched round ball. Substituting the 1in32inch twist barrel, the great plains rifle. The lightest projectile in this caliber is a patched round ball. Wobble some, or just stay in the same orientation as it was loaded. There are also buffalo ballets squat bullets that are built to take rifling without a patch. A hunter can take feral hogs or deer at moderate range very effectively with a patched round ball and a modest powder charge. The easiest method to choose the right patch for your. Spend some time at the range and i think you will be surprised at how well your rigle will perform with a little less powder.

I have a 50 cal tc hawken coming my way with the idea that i might be able to get a muzzleloader tag next year. Loading the plr or muzzleloader with a patched round ball. A good patch is made of good quality, dense natural material. Btw, i attended the nmlra national shoot at the ben avery range in phoenix, az a couple of weeks ago. My 50 flintlock likes 80 grains of swiss 2f black powder.

It seems they wanted to extend the point blank range of their hunting rifles during the percussion era. Now im not sure if the patch gets spun off the ball or if patch and ball just skims the rifling but either way a round ball wont shoot for squat out of a fast twist barrel unless you cut the powder down to an absolute minimum which makes it impractical for most purposes. The vast majority of kills were at ranges patched round balls, when placed correctly, are deadly. Offered as dry, oiled, wonderlubed, or premium lubed on select sizes. Precision made from special tightly woven cotton, to insure uniformity. For me, round ball guns are best considered 100 yard guns for deer. So, im about to start shooting muzzle loader for the first time and am wondering what size patch i need to get for my. Minie and maxi have better long range and terminal ballstics, round balls are. Hornady hard ball michigan sportsman online michigan. Precision shooting patches for round ball track of the wolf.