Hunting Forum

A while back, I spent the morning casting roundball and conical bullets. With a whole bunch of 50 caliber .495 diameter ball out of a LEE mold, I was impressed with their quality.  I decided I had to shoot some to see how they did.

Then I remembered an internet poster commenting about shooting roundball out of their CVA Staghorn at 50 yards with roundball. And I said... Yes!! that is what I want to do. I went and grabbed my rifle that I thought was a Staghorn but by accident, grabbed a Knight LK93. Hey stainless barrel, nickel barrel. Black Stock VS Black Stock, same scope. Anyone can make a mistake. So I figured.. what the heck.

Now I have shot my Knight LK II with roundball and it did real well. So I thought.. ok, lets see how this one does.



Carried all the gear out the the shooting table that I had to rebuild today. And set the target at what I thought was 50 yards. Got all set up and thought... that don't look like 50 yards. Light bulb moment.. you moved the shooting bench today when you were working on reinforcing the legs for winter. Range finder said 44 yards. And I said.. Good enough!!



I dumped 50 grains of 2f black powder down the bore, then a pillow tick patch.  I was using moosemilk as my patch lube and was impressed the way these .495 ball fit the Knight rifle.  Snug but not tight, and they felt real good.  So I got set up to shoot.  



My LK II likes 50 grains of 2f powder. So I loaded 50 grains of 2f powder. First shot looked pretty good. I aimed at that turkey's white head.



So I shot off a few more. And noticed it stringing. That normally means it wants more powder. So I kicked the charge up to 70 grains (by accident I was headed for 60 grains, but the marks on the measure are so worn).



Now I swabbed the barrel real good before shooting 70 grains. But man.. this thing really shoots 70 grains of Schuetzen powder and a home cast roundball.  This is a deer killing load here.  I know the picture shows I have Graf's & Sons powder, but I have to pour the Schuetzen powder into an old Graf's bottle because for some reason the cap will not fit on the Schuetzen bottle tightly.  But it fits perfect on the Graf's & Sons bottle.  All the powder is made in Germany by Wano.  But must have just a little different jug to them.

I did try the target at 100 yards.



First shot in the red but low. Next shot, rifle so dirty I could hardly load it... the next two shots were all over the place. So I decided this is a short range rifle and short range it will be. But I could kill a deer easy with 70 grains and a roundball. And as many might tell you, a roundball is not a good deer load.  I say hog wash.  I've killed a lot of deer with a roundball and 70 grains of powder.  Now granted I would not want to shoot past say...  70 yards with this rifle, only because I have not practiced and learned its quirks with a roundball load.  But where I hunt, 50 yards is a long shot.  I have no doubt I could pull that off and place that roundball.

Cayugad,

I have not shot much BP this year but your post reminded me that I did take the gun out and shoot round ball back in July.  I used 60 grains 777.  The target was 40-50 yards and I was using open sights on my Remington Genesis.  Accuracy was not the greatest on the third shot but it would have put a deer down.

-MD

In case anyone may think that a 70 grain load is not enough for hunting I was in Kansas a few weeks ago when my son-in-law using only 70 grains of 3f black powder in an inline with a 300 grain bullet in a sabot to kill a doe at 101 steps and got a passthrough. Good shooting Cayugad.

Mark-D now I will have to try that. I have a Remington Genesis but have never tried roundball out of it. You shot 60 grains of Triple Seven... But I think I will slow them down a little. Triple Seven is a powerful powder that pushes off very fast. Maybe if I try black powder and a new lube I made up.. well we just have to see.

PA Ridgerunner.. I know for a fact 70 grains and a roundball will kill deer. I have a friend that has passed away, but he used to hunt Wisconsin Whitetail with a T/C Hawkins and he shot 70 grains of Pyrodex RS and a patched roundball. He always (as far as I knew) got pass through. Now granted we did not shoot long ranges.. but every deer he shot at we had to drag out..