Originally Posted by Swampman700
Lead must be heavier where you live. The .440 roundball isn't enough. The .490 is ok and the .530 is enough. Ballistic charts don't lie.

I do not hunt with charts! laugh
I go through that problem with gun hunters all the time when they read muzzle energy in a book. That has never, ever killed an animal. Bullet work is what does the job not loading for the highest velocity or energy.
I know it is hard to explain but only vast experience killing deer and doing a necropsy on each will show the truth.
A .440 ball is 130 gr and a .457 ball is 143 gr. Seems to me 13 gr is not going to change a thing when there is only .017" difference in diameter. The weight difference is only an air gun pellet.
It does seem strange that the light balls and low velocities are so effective but it was that way long ago and still is, deer have not grown armor plates.
I use 300 to 420 gr boolits in my revolvers at 1160 to 1350 fps and they also kill deer like crazy but not much better then a .45 Flinter and both are actually better then the wrong bullet in a .300 mag.
It still comes down to what the ball or boolit does in the animal.
Boolit weight will give penetration way over a light boolit or ball but remember what it did inside the deer before leaving is only the thing that counts.
Let me give you an illustration of penetration with a 420 gr .475 boolit from a revolver. Energy from a book is WAY less then a high power rifle. But some will tell you it is wasted on the off side of a deer but it makes mush of the heart and lungs before leaving. It does not ruin meat either. The boolit is very hard and does not deform at all. Just don't line up four deer or you have a lot of work to do! cool
It blew up 4 jugs, shot water 30 feet up, split 2 more and penetrated 14 jugs.
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This is what it does to a deer.
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The point is that if I speed this boolit to over 1600 fps it LOSES killing effect and you can lose deer even though energy climbs. Yet I can slow it way down and still kill. This boolit will kill deer at 800 fps.
Please don't read charts and don't put down a round ball.
The muzzle loader is fantastic and a .440 ball will do more then your charts tell you.