What the hell. Might as well cover all the bases.

2 cow elk with a round ball.

Got one with a 50 Thompson maxi-hunter, and a monster muley which was hit in the liver. The deer was tough to find, after he humped and almost fell at the shot. He shook it off and walked 60 yards almost to the base of the big ponderosa pine I had climbed and shot him from. I was reloading the TC Hawken and didn't see him lay down and it was getting dark. I climbed down and busted him and left him overnight. It took 8 hours and lots of work covering country to find it. He had left a plate sized area of blood but after he bled down to below the bullet hole he went a few hundred yards in thick oak brush ridges.
I did shoot a big antelope buck dead in the shoulder at 60 yards once with a round ball. He went over 200 yds before bedding in a brushy draw and expiring. I will never hunt elk with a 50 cal round ball.
I did rifle kill a big herd bull in Co. once that had a big broad head embedded in the lumbar spine which had healed over. It also had a large hollow point and base ML bullet embedded in a rib through the back edge of the shoulder and about 10 in. up from the bottom of the chest. It was a lead bullet and I think 54 cal. I truly feel for the guy who made a perfect shot except for hitting a rib with a soft bullet. Gristle had sealed it off from the inside, but the wound still drained a bit outside. I know many guides in Co. have told me they actually hate round ball elk hunters and have found many round balls in elk. Big bulls have a reputation for being pretty tough to a lot of people. Obviously they don't shoot as well as the average Fire member.

It will take elk though. Scroll down to GreenMtnBoy post.

http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/212140/

Now that Washington State has ok'd jacket bullets have stopped using round balls during ml elk. Still use for deer, antelope .

I limit my round ball shots to 75yds or less broadside standing shots.

That limitation could prevent one from getting a monster bull. Whats the purpose? I wonder. I knew that 370 gr bullet would take an elephant till I shot that 31 in muley. I have real reservations that a rb would penetrate a big bulls shoulder at 75 yds. Why risk the price of a tag or the time from work to accept reducing your possibility. I always spent my time working to increase the odds in my favor. The antelope I shot went over 200 yds. A rb that centers a rib may not get to the second lung for all I know. I know one thing, I won't find out.

Ps, we all agree it CAN be done.

Well, the question is, who has done it? Not would you do it?

Every bullet has it's limits. You need the discipline to stay in those limits.

I have used with success a .54 RB, but I think a .50 RB is a bit light. If I can get a shot in bow range. I'll take it, but everything needs to be perfect.

I'll shoot a muley to 75 yds though. Which is pretty much what I want to use the flintlock on.

50 cal., no. 54 cal from a flint lock, yes. 100 grains of ffg did the job at 40 yards. Was a young 4x4 bull and the ball went through both lungs. He tried to run a few bounds but walked about 20 steps and fell over dead. A 50 cal would have done the same thing IMO.

That old lead round ball performs better than it's suppose to.

It took me awhile to believe it, but I do now.

Two with a traditional 50 using Maxi and Maxi hunter. One, a 1 shot kill (point blank). The other layed down and while I was sitting quietly watching her, she got up, then stayed down again after that shot.


I would chase them with a spear if I could draw the right tag!!!!

Took my very first ML Elk with a .50 cal round ball, a 5-pt bull under the chin at 15 feet. At that daunting distance he dropped like a 400-lb potato sack, but all other hunting, including 3 more bulls with the .50, were upgraded to T/C MaxiBalls.

15 ft! Wow! You could smell his bad breath that close.

How did that come about?

It was December, Washington's Blue Mountains, snowing heavily with 18 inches on the ground and rising. The bull was jumped by my partner several hundred yards below me, and came directly up the mountain through heavy timber toward me. I first heard, then saw the bull coming up fast about 60-80 yards ahead and below me. When he hit my elevation in the dark timber, he wheeled without slowing and commenced to trot right at me on a very clear, though snow-filled game trail. I knelt, cocked, and aimed, waiting for the bull to pull up and stop before running over me. He never stopped. First fascinated, then alarmed, I just kept holding under his chin. Thirty yards, twenty yards, ten yards, he never stopped. I was actually aiming up at him when I touched it off at 15 feet. He appeared out of the downhill side of the cloud of smoke, flopped over instantly in the snow. Dead. The round ball shattered his neck. Five point with one bad eye, which might have partially explained his failure to recognize me.

Excellent.

I can still hear the "slap"

Used an Ithaca Hawken with .490 round ball and 70 grains of FF. Took a spike in the lungs at 20 yards broadside. He ran about fifty yards and laid down. Died in four or five minutes. Never found the ball but it didn't exit.

2 negatives to concider

#1 like any shot with a BP firearm - the smoke - always seem to block your view after the shot - nice to have someone behind you off to the side to actually see the shot an watch the elk.

#2.- round balls tend to leave a little round hole - more than once - after shot - no hair to befound - no blood to be found-
once hit and they take a step or 2 the hide moves/covering the hole and you basically have no blood trail to follow

though i have recovered the elk -sometimes it was after an extensive search