PRB effectiveness on big game?

[Idaholewis1]

:face: Wow.. you PRB guys really have my head spinning now on caliber selection :|

This is just me Personally, if i were gonna buy a rifle to Hunt with Patched Roundball i would go .50, or .54 Cal, When you Handle these little .440 Roundballs they are REALLY small, 128 Grains is not a very big chunk of lead, Shot Placement is obviously KEY, as with any Projectile! I am a hardcore Bullet Guy, and use to Big Lead, So These Roundballs look really Small to me

This is by no means a Fair Comparison, this is just to show how little my .440 Roundball is beside my Buffalo Arms Elliptical Bullet, Same 45 Caliber. This is 1 of my top long Range .45 Cal Bullets, this one is used extensively in BPCR to 1,000 Yards. 

The .440 Roundball is sure a Cute Little Thing!  It will no doubt be a Lot of Fun to Shoot! I am very much looking forward to it! 

 

[oneshot1]

My Dad lived in Alaska off n on through the 80s working in the Timber industry, Dad met lots of People there over the years, You will never guess What the Weapon of Choice for Locals that Poached their Moose Meat? It was the .22 Magnum! And of all places, They would shoot them behind the Front Shoulder just like you would a Big Magnum Centerfire, They would Drive off, Go get their Gear, and when they got back, Their Moose would be there close by! My Dad wasn’t involved in this, But He knew several guy’s there that did it, and was told it by MANY MANY locals, Dad said when they Told him what they used, they would wait for Dad to Call BS on them? But my Dad knew GOOD N WELL that the .22 Magnum was EXTREMELY Capable, He had ZERO reason to Doubt what they were Saying, My Dad had LOTS N LOTS of hands on Experience with the .22 Magnum. Dad spent 40 years of Hunting with Hound Dogs, His .22 Magnum was the Only Gun he used! 

Back on track With the OPs Question, The Data i provided Above Clearly shows the .36 Cal AKA “Squirrel Rifle” with Little 65 Grain Roundball Beating up on a .22 Magnum BADLY!! It is DOUBLE the Energy! Now think about all the .22 Magnum has done, and keeps on doing. 

A Roundball in it’s effective Range is no Doubt DEADLY!! It has proven itself OVER N OVER For Eons, There’s no disputing that. As I’ve said above, the Key is knowing any projectiles Effective Range, and Staying in that Range! If you start trying to Reach out past that Range, you are asking for Problems, and you are Being UNETHICAL! Everything i look at “Ballistically” 100 Yards should be your MAXIMUM Range with Patched Roundball, 50-75 Obviously being better. 
      The Big bullet on the other Hand stretches out several Hundred Yards. There is a Reason they use BIG 500-540 Grain Bullets to Compete in BPCR (Black Powder Cartridge) all the way out to 1,000 Yards, The BIG Bullets Keep Chugging along, A Roundball does NOT

In other words let the Bullet do its Job.

Here Poachers use regular .22 Long Rifle. 50 years ago seen a Whitetail Buck killed at 300 yards with a .22 Long Rifle out of a .22 Single Shot, Open Sights. just aimed 3 foot over his back.

Had to laugh at a Guy one time. Killed a Big Buck, the guy was going on and on how its neck was cut up from fighting.    I took one look, someone had shot it several times with .22 in the Neck but because it was so swollen from rutting the .22 didn't have the effect it normally would.

oneshot

 

[Marty1]

When it comes to projectiles, my overall sense is you really only have two broad categories... the "PRB" and "everything else".  This has been/is a very interesting and helpful topic for discussion.  I've decided that a PRB smoker in .45 caliber is out to suit my overall future needs.   I think I'm also likely to have a better selection of traditional smokers with a bigger bore.  Keep the replies coming guys!

 

[CoHiCntry]

When it comes to projectiles, my overall sense is you really only have two broad categories... the "PRB" and "everything else".  This has been/is a very interesting and helpful topic for discussion.  I've decided that a PRB smoker in .45 caliber is out to suit my overall future needs.   I think I'm also likely to have a better selection of traditional smokers with a bigger bore.  Keep the replies coming guys!

Marty, I'm obviously new to the whole PRB thing too, but as far as caliber goes... if you ever plan to hunt out west there are caliber restrictions as you mention.  You can't even use a .50 caliber PRB to hunt elk in Colorado right now due to the way they wrote the newest regulations.  It states "To hunt elk or moose round-ball bullets must be a minimum of .54 caliber".  I wouldn't doubt if they walk this one back, but who knows?  The muzzleloading lobby seems to have a very small voice with our CPW.  So... not sure what or where you might be hunting in the future but to avoid any issues you might strongly consider a .54 caliber?

 

[Sparkitoff1]

My son shot a Dall ram with a 50 PRB. The hit was obvious and some hair came off but the sheep went over a mile. He lost daylight. The next day he found the ram alive and moving. Since it had gone onto private property they asked permission and the person said they could go get it but "I don't want to hear any shooting". Somewhat perplexing, he spent the day getting close to it and shot it with a bow. The ball hit the shoulder and seemed to change direction along the scapular and did not cut a vital organ but did cause a lot of bleeding. The load was .490 PRB and 70 grains FFFg and the shot was 75-yards. This was a one-time incident and does not condemn the .50 PRB. However, my son pondered over and over whether 50 more grains of bullet weight or .004 diameter would have got through the shoulder.  No one will ever know exactly what happened of if something else would have made a difference that day. Regardless, he has switched to .54 PRB and 90 grains FFFg. To me, this is like the .22 Magnum that has been mentioned. It works a lot of the time. Maybe the majority of the time. Is it worth the risk for the one time it doesn't work? I guess somebody can come up with an instance where the .54 PRB (or .62+) didn't work right. You have to be comfortable that you have something that will work the majority of the time if you do everthing else right. Even then nothing is perfect 100% of the time when you are dealing with hunting conditions and wild animals.

 

[CoHiCntry]

My son shot a Dall ram with a 50 PRB. The hit was obvious and some hair came off but the sheep went over a mile. He lost daylight. The next day he found the ram alive and moving. Since it had gone onto private property they asked permission and the person said they could go get it but "I don't want to hear any shooting". Somewhat perplexing, he spent the day getting close to it and shot it with a bow. The ball hit the shoulder and seemed to change direction along the scapular and did not cut a vital organ but did cause a lot of bleeding. The load was .490 PRB and 70 grains FFFg and the shot was 75-yards. This was a one-time incident and does not condemn the .50 PRB. However, my son pondered over and over whether 50 more grains of bullet weight or .004 diameter would have got through the shoulder.  No one will ever know exactly what happened of if something else would have made a difference that day. Regardless, he has switched to .54 PRB and 90 grains FFFg. To me, this is like the .22 Magnum that has been mentioned. It works a lot of the time. Maybe the majority of the time. Is it worth the risk for the one time it doesn't work? I guess somebody can come up with an instance where the .54 PRB (or .62+) didn't work right. You have to be comfortable that you have something that will work the majority of the time if you do everthing else right. Even then nothing is perfect 100% of the time when you are dealing with hunting conditions and wild animals.

Interesting story, thanks for posting!  Taking a Dall ram with a muzzleloader is a dream hunt for me.  Your right that nothing is perfect and in a hunting situation strange things can happen.  Hunt long enough or often enough and your chances of something happening like what you describe seems inevitable.  Certainly not a reason or excuse to be sloppy with shot selection or your setup, but like you said nothing is 100%.  We do everything in our power to make sure we have the correct setup and have practiced enough and take only shots we're certain of but even after all that, bad things can and will happen.

 

[Buck Conner1]

I recorded this information given to me after testing by several friends.

http://sittingfox.tripod.com/articles/comparsions.black.powder.htm

 

[Marty1]

When it comes to projectiles, my overall sense is you really only have two broad categories... the "PRB" and "everything else".  This has been/is a very interesting and helpful topic for discussion.  I've decided that a PRB smoker in .45 caliber is out to suit my overall future needs.   I think I'm also likely to have a better selection of traditional smokers with a bigger bore.  Keep the replies coming guys!

Marty, I'm obviously new to the whole PRB thing too, but as far as caliber goes... if you ever plan to hunt out west there are caliber restrictions as you mention.  You can't even use a .50 caliber PRB to hunt elk in Colorado right now due to the way they wrote the newest regulations.  It states "To hunt elk or moose round-ball bullets must be a minimum of .54 caliber".  I wouldn't doubt if they walk this one back, but who knows?  The muzzleloading lobby seems to have a very small voice with our CPW.  So... not sure what or where you might be hunting in the future but to avoid any issues you might strongly consider a .54 caliber?

I seem to be tilting towards the .54 and be done with it.  I can't imagine shooting more than 60-70 yards at any big game I choose to stalk.

 

[exMember]

Mountain men savored sheep meat as a treat. Big horns used to fall to these muzzle loaders with round ball. 

This popped up today on Facebook,  another perfect example of what the prb can do.

 

[Hanshi]

That rifle looks so very tiny lying across that huge elk.  Nice gun and beautiful elk!

 

[Buck Conner1]

That rifle looks so very tiny lying across that huge elk.  Nice gun and beautiful elk!

That's not a huge elk, pretty much average, less than a 1,000 lbs.

 

[exMember]

That's a great elk anyway you look at it.

 

[CoHiCntry]

That rifle looks so very tiny lying across that huge elk.  Nice gun and beautiful elk!

That's not a huge elk, pretty much average, less than a 1,000 lbs.

Smallish rag horn or satellite bull.  In most units in Colorado I wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger on it with a traditional muzzleloader!  Looks like possibly a Roosevelt with the dark horns along with the lush green grass around it?

 

[Buck Conner1]

Smallish rag horn or satellite bull.  In most units in Colorado I wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger on it with a traditional muzzleloader!  Looks like possibly a Roosevelt with the dark horns along with the lush green grass around it?

Use to see this size and color racks in Area 20 outside of Estes Park and north.  That's when you control yourself from pulling the trigger and start looking at the shadows and dark timber for a big boy laying back and watching the others.

When still hunting the late season (January) we were hunting for meat not horns (they take to long to boil down into anything edible).  :slaps:

 

[Hanshi]

Small!?  Anything that weighs 1000 lbs is called a horse in my neck of the woods as long as it doesn't have horns.  Of course where I live now there are moose and those things can start approaching a ton.  I can just see myself trying to drag one of those out of the woods!  Seeing as the biggest things I've ever killed were 200 lbs deer, that elk is enormous in comparison.
Here is one a good friend of mine killed in Kentucky.  Not with a muzzleloader but still a great trophy.

 

[CoHiCntry]

I was referring to the rack.  They all have big bodies!  Even the cows are really big.  There's no "dragging" them out of the woods unless it's with some kind of machine like a 4-whlr or something, Lol!.  Quartered and packed out on your back is the method I'm most familiar with.  Although I have been able to gut and drag with a 4-whlr a few times over the years!

 

[CoHiCntry]

Here’s a cow I got this year. Notice how flat the terrain is?  This was a gut & drag.  It was on private property at our family cabin so didn't have to worry about legalities of using a 4-whlr off a designated trail. 
 

 

[Buck Conner1]

Here's something to try, take a goat with a .62 caliber smoothbore, on a Once-In-A-Life-Time hunt in Colorado.

 

[Buck Conner1]

Took this picture a few years ago near Roosevelt Utah when heading to Doc White's place, always see game around there.

 

[CoHiCntry]

Here's something to try, take a goat with a .62 caliber smoothbore, on a Once-In-A-Life-Time hunt in Colorado.

Yeah, that would be quite an accomplishment!  I've got about 15 years worth of preference points in Colorado and maybe 12 points in Utah for Mountain Goat.  They are next on my list!  I've been able to draw, hunt and be successful on both Bighorn Sheep & Bull Moose here in Colorado.  The Mountain Goat will complete my "big 3".  It will probably be with a rifle though.  I'm to chicken to try with a lesser weapon and end up eating the tag after so many years to draw!  Who knows if you'll ever draw again and it's just to risky for me.  Maybe after I take all 3 with a rifle I'll try to go back and complete it with a muzzleloader?  Who knows?