Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Quartering Toward Shot

Is it advisable to take a "quartering toward" shot on a mule deer with a .54 cal round ball? Is it possible for the ball to deflect off of the shoulder blade (or shoulder plate) and fail to reach the vitals?

While I am asking these questions, I guess I will give some background and then ask some more.

I am hunting for deer this fall/winter with my .54 Renegade that has a 1:66 round ball twist. This is my first time hunting with a muzzleloader. I have had good accuracy with 100 grains of Pyrodex and a patched round ball. What do you think my max killing distance would be with this load? I can hit targets out to 150 yards, but I don't know what the lethality would be on a shot like that or if that is ethical.

Thank you all for your help and time

A very tricky question with a whole lot of if's!

You will hear a lot of different advise on this one, as every experience is not going to be the same.

My own experience on a Mule Deer, quartering forward, is limited at best when only one comes to mind.

But, it is a good story and I remember it well, so don't go to sleep, yet.

A few years back, six or eight years, maybe more maybe less, I had such a shot and it all started at about 100 yds.
I thought that was too far, so I waited him out in hopes he might get a little closer, and he did.
He came in at one point to at least 60 yds or so but he was looking right at me. I had made two or three Doe Bleats earlier on that might have got him started my way, and my rifle was in my left hand.
I didn't dare change hands with the rifle with him that close, and there aint no way I was going to hit him left handed.

I must have spooked him because he took off...ran a good 100yds or so and stopped in his tracks at a another Doe Bleat, I finally managed to blow on.... and one that I still had in mouth since I first spotted him.
Then he walked with his head down at a right angle, to my right, which closed the distance a little bit but he was still looking straight in my direction, so I didn't move.

Then he angles back to the left, still coming toward me, and at what I thought was "70 / 80 paces" I eased my rifle over and now had it in my right hand, so I slowly, slowly, slowly raised the .58 cal, steadied it as best I could on a small sapling to my left that was between me and the Deer, lined things up and let her go.

As the smoked lifted and the rifle settled back down he was still standing, exactly where he was, and looking right at me.
I "thought" I could see a red spot on his right front shoulder but be stood stock still, looking at me, and didn't move a muscle that I could tell.
I thought OMG, Is that really blood? or did I miss him completely?

I eased over the powder horn, measure, and dropped in another 105gr Goex FFg, placed my patch on the bore and was ready to seat the ball when he walked off. He turned his back to me and started walking straight away....not in a hurry, just casual walking.
I grabbed my rod out, short started the ball, cut the patch, seated the ball, and put a cap on the nipple.
But when I looked at where he had been, he was no longer there.
Once more...OMG! Is this possible? I thought I might have seen a small blood and now this Deer just walks off, totally unharmed??

I started counting the paces to where I "thought" he was standing and at about 70 paces I sure enough found a couple drops of blood.
I looked around for a few minutes and found him stone dead under an old tree that had fallen from blow-down years earlier.....He had traveled another 30 plus yds without me seeing him after he walked off.....amazing!

Back at camp we hung him, dressed him, and tried to access the damage that round ball had done, and it had done plenty....he was "ugly" inside, but after we got him cleaned up we determined the bullet had hit just behind the shoulder, taken out the heart and lungs, punctured the stomach and somehow exited about four inches to the right from his bum-hole without striking the left rear quarter!

The rifle was a T/C Big Boar in .58, 105gr Goex FFg, pillow-tick patch with Lehigh Valley Lube, and a .570 round ball.

Russ

with a round ball that is a risky shot. the differents between a dead animal and a wounded animal is only a few inches.

There is no simple answer to that question! Though I personally prefer bullets to roundballs, we all know that front quartering shot is one of the least desirable no matter what we are launching.

And yet I doubt I would pass it up on a given day if it looked like that was the only opportunity. With my traditional .50 Hawken style, I have drawn an ethical limit of about 150 yards using maxi-balls.

I used a Renegade .54 with a GM barrel (1-70) this year for elk. My load was 85gr of Swiss. I shot a cow and she only went 30yds before piling up. I forced myself to take only a double lung shot though. I might have tried a slight quarter away, but never a quarter towards me. My shot was 70yds.

If you can make a DL shot. You should be good to 100yds. Are you using open sights? If so, how accurate are you at 100yds?

A PRB loses FPE really fast. 100yds will be safe if you can place the shot where it belongs.

If the only opportunity or not, I usually pass. A few inches differnce and you end up clipping a lung and a gut shot animal.Even just a clipped lung is a long trailingj ob if even successful. A deer or elk can go along way even with a double lung broadside shot, IF the shot is toward the back of the lungs.
Not to flame anyone, but being the "only opportunity" is not a good criteria for deciding on whether to take a shot or not.

Never occurred to me the question needed a lot of thought. Thinking the answer hinges on one's ability to place the shot where it belongs. That's a standard that is unique for each gun/shooter. Might be 100 yards and it might be 25.

I still/stalk hunt and the range is invariably short, so frontal quartering shots give no pause.

i will take it,but only if i'm setup with a very good rest and the animal is within reasonable distance. i have lost a few really good whitetail in the past by taking this shot. i shot a huge 6pt in highland county ,va that was standing on the edge of a step droppoff. he had no where to go but away from me and was standing in a very narrow gap between 2 pine trees. i got a good rest at about 200yds and shot,he turn when i shot and vanished. i trailed that buck for 6hrs. he bled a few drops at a time ,i think off one leg. i believe i pulled to one side and missed the chest completly. a 3 legged deer will go for miles.

I would take that shot out to 100 yds under the right circumstances.

I think your set up is good to 100 yds for sure, 125 maybe. Maybe little further, depending on how good you are and how cooperative the deer is and your rest to shoot from.

I shoot a .54 roundball flinter with 112 gr of Swiss 1.5fg
Brent

Never my preferred shot, but within range of the gun and shooter its certainly doable.

Our late season archery and muzzleloader elk overlap here and today was the opener of both. I am hunting bow elk this year and this morning I jumped about a 330 class 6x6 out of his bed at 80yds. Too far for me and my bow but my buddies .54 roundball caught the bull just in front of the left shoulder and exited about 12" behind the right shoulder. Bull made it about 20yds and fell over. The chest cavity was total soup as he got both lungs and the heart. Needless to say we were all late for turkey dinner today but fresh sauteed elk tenderloin made up for it.

Last week the 11 year old that I was hunting with had a quartering toward shot. He shot slightly wide of his aiming point and took out the outside lung and the bullet exited behind the outside foreleg. The deer was in the edge of a hayfield and turned and ran into the woods. The shot was just after sundown and we couldn't wait long or it would be pitch black. We hurried the pursuit and the deer got up and ran. No way to follow.

Next morning we hunted the same place for three hours and saw nothing. We walked into the woods and found the blood trail. After two hours, we found the deer. It had run about five hundred yards and piled up. The deer was able to go because it still had one lung and the heart was missed. This is why I like to take a broadside shot and get both lungs. That way they can only run as far as they can hold their breath.

Are you frickin kidding me? Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!! Pic's brother pic's!

It was supposed to be a quick morning hunt, I don't think any of us thought we would score. Dude has shot plenty of deer but never an elk. I don't think he knew how good of a bull he shot, after the shot he says " I think it was an okay bull, just a 6point". Took a while to convince him it was a good bull for western Wa.


Not sure how to attach pics off my phone as its the only thing I had once we got back to the trucks. Shoot me a text or email Shag and I will send it right over

You guys are bringing back a memory of what MIGHT have been...

Best live mule deer buck I ever saw in my life. Had him dead to rights at 225 yards. He was legit 30 in. plus, plus junk, plus two enormous drop tines that looked like war clubs hanging down on either side of his rack.

And I was clutching... a muzzleloader.

No, I didn't take the shot. I still see that buck in my dreams.