Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Shooting deer with RBs

I used round balls in my 54 caliber ml. It bowled deer over.

It's interesting to read the differences in hunters experience. I've shot 3 whitetail with a muzzleloader. One 170lb. buck at 12 yds. broadside with a .50 roundball. It was a high heart shot, and I tracked on plowed ground for 20yds. and found no blood. Kept looking for 2 hours past dark.

The next day, 5 friends helped me track and we found one tiny drop 35yds. from the shot, and more small drops every 20ft. down a grass road. We found it around a curve headed uphill 250yds. away, dead. Ruined meat.

Two does were shot with 370gr, Maxi-balls. One with a shoulder shot that ran a horseshoe pattern(and fell once) on 3 legs for about 80yds. My first one a lung shot ran like hell for 30yds and fell dead.

That's a hit with a .50cal. 370gr. bullet at 1800fps. I always take stories about kills with pistols and other guns with a grain of salt now. Same with fast centerfires. If I don't clip the spine or brain, they run. Maybe we have tough deer in SC or something.

Maybe that's the difference between a 50 cal and a 54 cal. The 54 cal 230gr RB's I use, pushed by 90grs of Goex FFg, just flat out work, zero complaints...

I’m excited for the nicer weather and playing around with my GPR some. I bought it back in November and never really shot it much other than hunting. Harvested a nice doe during our late firearm season and put it away. I need to really play around with the RBs and powder charges and patches and get figured out what she really likes! I love shooting the flintlock … there’s just something really cool about it.

70gr Schuetzen FFF behind a Speer .535 RB and .018 patch = Dead deer

Few plains bucks from last few years. Like to hunt out there as I can easily get them out. If I remember right I am around 90-95 gr ffg swiss in my 54 and 100-105 gr ffg swiss in the 58. I could drop down and may this summer. The 58 is my favorite and will get the call this fall. Hope to add a bear to the pile this fall. Shot a few antelope does with mine also.

Very nice Sir, those 58's are in a league of their own, have never had a buck or doe deer take a step after catching a 58 cal round ball, iirc they leave my rifle at 1888 fps over 140gr 2F, have bought pure lead and cast round balls with 20 and 30-1 alloy, man the are tough customers this side of 133 yards.

am just finishing a .58 with a c5 maple stock flintlock. that swamped 42 inch rice barrel looks all bore from the front. can't wait to shoot it.
most of my builds have been 50 or 54's. they sell the best, but the .58 kills the quickest.
I have put a round ball from a .54 stem to stern on a white tail. also through both sides and gone on a 300 black bear. people think the old flints are just for wall decoration. their loss.

.45 prb for me. My ml "rifle du jour" is a .45 Ohio-style half-stock percussion gun. Works best with 70 gr. FFFg, and I honest to God killed more of our small-medium sized Maryland deer with it than all my centerfires combined.

Can't tell you how many less than perfect shots I've passed on - the .45 RB will kill efficiently but it has to be placed right. No big deal, another deer will be along directly.

I found a like new T/C Cherokee in .45 after decades of searching. Love that gun and it will be the one I hunt with in early season always.

A coworker does very well with round balls on our local elk. His preferred hunt as muzzle loader season is a couple weeks ahead of our general rifle outing. Not tried mine on those guys yet.