Is 60 grains of powder enough?

[BlackPowderGuy (AJHS)]

I was at the range today and shot a 400 grain lead conical over a felt pad and 60 grains of swiss 2f. Group was good and recoil reasonably gentle for a prolonged shooting session. Any reason I need to go higher on the powder? Will 60 grains of powder generate enough energy to kill a deer at fifty yards? To be honest, I cannot see taking longer shots than that with these open sights until I feel WAY more confident. Also, shoutout to Eekjellander who cast the bullets!

 

[sabotloader]

I was at the range today and shot a 400 grain lead conical over a felt pad and 60 grains of swiss 2f. Group was good and recoil reasonably gentle for a prolonged shooting session. Any reason I need to go higher on the powder? Will 60 grains of powder generate enough energy to kill a deer at fifty yards? To be honest, I cannot see taking longer shots than that with these open sights until I feel WAY more confident. Also, shoutout to Eekjellander who cast the bullets!

I can not imagine that your 60 grain load of Swiss combined with 400 grain lead conical would not easily do the job at 50 yards.

 

[Dave951]

I was at the range today and shot a 400 grain lead conical over a felt pad and 60 grains of swiss 2f. Group was good and recoil reasonably gentle for a prolonged shooting session. Any reason I need to go higher on the powder? Will 60 grains of powder generate enough energy to kill a deer at fifty yards? To be honest, I cannot see taking longer shots than that with these open sights until I feel WAY more confident. Also, shoutout to Eekjellander who cast the bullets!

Quite stressing over more and more power. I bet you won't find the bullet on the first deer you shoot. It'll be a complete pass through. I know guys who hunt deer with their competition 1858 Smiths and they use 28g 3f with a 325g bullet, complete pass through at 50y or less. Spend time learning the load and get accurate.

 

[deermanok]

That load will put the smackdown on a deer no problem.

 

[Hatchet Jack]

I think your load will be fine.
I use 65 grains of Swiss 2f and a wool wad to push 460 grain conicals from my 1-48'' twist Renegade. It' the most accurate load I have found for this gun . I have killed a fair amount of whitetails with it. I have yet to recover a bullet. All but one deer have dropped in their tracks.

 

[rusticbob]

I was at the range today and shot a 400 grain lead conical over a felt pad and 60 grains of swiss 2f. Group was good and recoil reasonably gentle for a prolonged shooting session. Any reason I need to go higher on the powder? Will 60 grains of powder generate enough energy to kill a deer at fifty yards? To be honest, I cannot see taking longer shots than that with these open sights until I feel WAY more confident. Also, shoutout to Eekjellander who cast the bullets!

You did not mention , is this a rifle? If so what caliber?

 

[BadgerRidge]

^^^^ this

Need to know caliber & barrel length, and perhaps twist rate, to be certain of what advice to give... but in general if the projectile leaves the bore its "Safe"... the question is if its accurate and if if has enough energy to do the job?

the given combination is almost certainly good enough to kill deer at close range.

The real question is if you can do better with a bit more powder... and that needs the details/specs above to wager a good estimate.

 

[michiganmuzzy]

Deerhunter .50 i believe. Selling/sold his Wolf.

 

[toytruck]

Check your state's minimum powder required to be sure it's legal.
VA used to have a minimum of 50 gr. (if I remember correctly). I can't find it in the game regulations, so they may have dropped that when the caliber required went down to .40 cal.

 

[JeffB1961]

folks kill deer with big bore air rifles generating a few to several hundred FPE .

 

[rusticbob]

Deer are very easy to kill if you hit them in the RIGHT place, very hard to kill if you do not. Be more concerned with getting an accurate load, put the ball or slug thru both lungs and you will be all set.

 

[BlackPowderGuy (AJHS)]

Deer are very easy to kill if you hit them in the RIGHT place, very hard to kill if you do not. Be more concerned with getting an accurate load, put the ball or slug thru both lungs and you will be all set.

Deerhunter, 1:48, .50 cal...

 

[deermanok]

My last time at the range, I brought my deerhunter to mess around with some round balls I got from a member here.
I also shot some of my Hornady PA conicals and I wanted to burn up the last of an open container of 2f Triple 7.
I started at 60 grains [V] went to 80 then back down 70 and stayed with the 70 grain load for that gun.
With the short 24 inch barrel, I don't think you need to overpower it.

 

[Ballshooter]

I have used 50 grains of 3F and a .530 roundball on deer at 50 yards.

 

[Confederate rifleman]

Plenty.

 

[Bad Karma]

Quite stressing over more and more power. I bet you won't find the bullet on the first deer you shoot. It'll be a complete pass through. I know guys who hunt deer with their competition 1858 Smiths and they use 28g 3f with a 325g bullet, complete pass through at 50y or less. Spend time learning the load and get accurate.

I’ve been shooting 30 grains of 3f Swiss under the 385 grain Great Plains bullet. I’m continually surprised at the accuracy and I don’t doubt it would blow through the average muley in my part of the country.

 

[JeffB1961]

one pellet is more powerful than a 50 cal. airgun and they have killed bison .

 

[ElDiablo]

one pellet is more powerful than a 50 cal. airgun and they have killed bison .

That guy is entertaining but barely knows which end of the rifle to load.

 

[JeffB1961]

yep , but his chrony numbers are hopefully accurate .

 

[ElDiablo]

Im not going to argue that KE is everything but…..His 245 gr bullet at 781 fps is only producing 332 ft lbs of energy at the muzzle. Thats about half (at the muzzle) or a third of the widely recommended minimum KE for whitetails.