Since the previous thread was getting a little diluted from subject, I thought I would start a fresh one that got into some of the "hunting material."
Timber posted a good recommendation to go with "conicals" instead of round ball. This is especially important for elk with a .50 Cal. I have done some psuedo ballastics calculations and done some additional reading on this as I am most interested in being accurate with my .54 Cal out to 100 yards. I have found my hawken (1:48 twist) does not like conicals very much. The hawken was the "bubble gun" that allowed the newly invented conicals to be shot in the same gun as round ball with reasonable accuracy. I have found this to be somewhat of a comprimise on both counts.
I shoot 110 grains of black powder with my patched round ball and can consistently be inside 6" at 100 yards. With conicals I occassionally can make it inside 8" with 12" patterns more the norm.
The slower the twist in your barrell the better it will shoot round ball and the faster turns will shoot conicals much better.
Here is my .02 on sighting in a black powder rifle for conicals. (or roundball for deer). My goal when doing this is find the "flatest" combination that has no more the two inches high at 50 yards, dead on at 100, and 2-3" low at 150 yards. You will have to try different charges and projectiles to find this.
1. Pick a solid charge to start with, for .50 cal perhaps 90 grains and for .54 cal start with 100 grains. Be sure to check manufacturer recommendations as you do not want to exceed the gun specs.
2. Round balls are cheap use those to get on the paper at 25 yards with the above load.
3. Shoot no less than groups of 3.
4. After getting on the paper at 25 and getting horizontally and vertically aligned. Switch to your selected conical.
5. Shoot no less than 3 rounds before adjusting your sights. (More than likely the conical will be low and maybe off to one side. You may even consider getting it to pattern about an inch or two high as the bullet is still rising at this distance).
6. Adjust your sights and run 3 more conicals at 25 yards. (Yes now we have shot at least 9 rounds and are still at 25 yards.)
7. If you are happy with the results of the second group of 3 move out to 50 yards and shoot another 3 conicals.
8. If the pattern was centered but less than 3 inches high don't adjust anything and go out to 75 yards. Run 3 more. If you are low, bring up you sights. (At this distance, if you are high at 50 and low at 75, you are "lobbing" the round and it has too much arc in its trajectory.)
9. Once satisfied with being and inch or two high at 75 yards go to 100 and try to get dead on.
10. Once dead on at 100, call it a day and come back another day and start it all over. I always start shooting at 25 yards and work out.
Repeat this until you are slightly high at 25 yards, a couple inches high at 50, a little high at 75 and dead on at 100. This does two things. It allows you to model the trajectory of the projectile and verify you are shooting flat. It also gives you a perspective for what the gun patterns like at different distances. 3 years ago, I hadn't started doing this yet and was only shooting at 100 yards for dead on. I was shooting 90 grains with patched round ball for muzzleloader deer season. I almost missed a nice forked horn buck at 25 yards! I hit him right in the spine and knocked out a vertabrea. The point is, I was lobbing the round out to 100 yards and was 6" high at 25 yards! :shocked:
By bumping up to 110 grains I was able to shoot much flattter and ballasitcally get better energy without sacrificing accuracy.
Keep in mind that too much of a charge will "strip" the round as it runs down the barrel. This is especially true with round ball in tight twist guns. (1:28 or 1:36)
Keep at it and learn you gun. Also keep in mind just because you can shoot it accurately doesn't mean you will hit what you are aiming at. When the powder gets a little damp and fires late, no dead critter.
I am sure there is lots of other good advice out there, so lets here it.
Here are a few of the conicals I have tried. (BTW I would only recommend solid points for ballastic reasons with blackpowder)
1. T/C Maxi hunter - didn't do well in my gun.
2. T/C Maxi ball - one on, one off, that's how it went.
3. Hornady Great Plains - does alright but a little inconsistent. My dad shoots these exclusively in his .50 cal and he can outshoot me at 100 yards when I am shooting a .270. ( you gotta love dad's.)
4. Buffalo Ball-ets - not a conical, not a round ball. I haven't tried these yet, but this is my hope for this year.
More on black powder...
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