Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders 50 or 54 cal?

=diamondjim] I live west of Lake McConaughy

The market says .50. Just look at the supplies available. I've had both. I simply feel better having a bigger bore, but when you look at ballistic tables I don't think you are gaining much if anything.

.54 conicals are becoming difficult to find.

50 for conicals,54 for balls.

My T/c hawken in 54 is the most accurate open sight rifle I own. It likes roundballs best so thats all I shoot.

give me a little time,i'll find you a nice 54 renegade.

As you're in Pennsylvania and like bigger bores and longer rifles perhaps you should take a look at a Christian Springs, a Jaeger or early Lancaster rifle. 54 would be appropriate in any of them. If you prefer the half stocks there were and are half stock "Kentuckies". Generally they were of smaller bore. If the Plains style rifle has completely captured your attention there are no flys on the GPR. I used one for years in 54 before going to an absolutely correct custom Hawken. There is also Tryon, Leman and Henry from the fur trade era and after. Good rifles all. 54 would assuredly be my choice between 50 & 54.

Man I must be dense! I make a comment without getting the point of the subject!
Flinter? .54 cal all the way when shooting balls, conicals or anything the size of the bore.
Hope you knock some big stuff down.

Since you'll be shooting RB's I'd go with .54

50 will do fine, 54 hammers them.

I've had both 50's and 54's. I prefer the 54 although there is far more ammo etc. available for the 50. Some years ago my dad had drawn a damage control tag for Roosevelt Elk up on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. He suddenly needed to have open heart surgery about 4 months before the hunt. Doctor told him not to go. Well he borrowed my 54 TC Renegade and loaded it with 80 grains of FF black powder and a round ball. He was afraid to try and handle to much recoil. He shot a big cow with this setup. He dropped it right on the spot. He was shooting uphill and the ball went in to the right shoulder, breaking it and then it angled up and took out the spine. She hung 375 lbs at the butcher. Lot's of knockdown with the 54.

My long time BP hunting rifle of choice is the T/C Renegade in .54 caliber. I use black powder and PRBs. I've killed whitetails with the .50 too, but have come to prefer the .54. YMMV.

A patched round ball of .490" diameter in a 50 caliber rifle weighs only 175 grains. When that pure lead round ball hits something it flattens out like a pancake. Personally, I would not use that load for anything bigger than a squirrel.

A round ball for 54 caliber weighs 232 grains, and 56 caliber weighs 265 grains. If we insist on using round balls, I would not go smaller than 58 caliber, and bigger is better.

Personally, I use 350gr conicals in 50 caliber for deer. Even a 300gr conical, like the aformentioned CVA deerslayer, is leaps and bounds ahead of a round ball. But then, a lot depends on where the bullet is placed. If I get a quartering shot at a big buck, I'm gonna take it. That is why I use bullets that I know are gonna penetrate reliably. Such is the case in any gun I point at game. 175 grains? Heck, my 7mm bullets weigh that.

If you mix black bear, elk or moose with white-tail or mule deer hunting, then the .54 caliber is your best bet.

If not, the .50 caliber does an excellent job on any deer and has slightly better ballistics with similar loads if one is allowed to say "better ballistics" in the same sentence with "muzzle-loader".

Jus' my 2�...


Strength & Honor...

Ron T.