Round ball for elk

[Dirty Mike]

Anybody hunt elk with round ball i have a hawkin 54 and was thinking bout it

[carpsniperg2]

I have not. But with a good clean shot I am sure you would do fine. There has been many elk and critters killed with lead round balls.

[Dan-o]

I've hunted elk with M/L for almost 30 years now, but never with round ball.

I grew up hunting deer with round ball and the results were less than spectacular.

Are you familiar with how much more energy you can deliver to the target by shooting a conical bullet instead?    Do a quick internet search and look at the energy.   Be sure to look at down range energy, like even 50 and 100 yards down range,  because round balls are waaaaaaaaay inefficient (horrible ballistic coefficient).

My experience with deer, and seeing how little energy they pack compared to conicals has kept me from ever wanting to hunt elk with them.

That said, I don't disagree with the first reply.  I'm sure many elk have been killed by them over the years.   But I wouldn't feel comfortable hunting elk with a really small/light modern rifle cartridge either.   I just think they can be one tough critter.

2 cents,

Dan

[colockumelk]

Elk can't be killed with round balls. The only way you can kill an elk with a muzzle loader is if you are using a T/C Encore with a 209 primer, 150 grains of pyrodex pellets, and a 300 grain T/C Shockwave jacketed bullet. Oh and its impossible to hit an elk unless you have a Nikon BDC 3x9 Muzzy scope on top and only after you ranged him.

Anything less than the combo I described above can't kill an elk. Nope impossible.

On a serious note we owe it to the animals we hunt to put them down quick and hard. Co ovals do this far better than a round ball. But if you want to use a round ball go for it. Just be reasonable and shorten your Max range.

[bobcat]

I'm sure a round ball would work ok but you'd want to limit your range to about 50 yards. 

[Hangfire]

I believe I have taken 7 elk with roundballs. I used both .50 cal and .54 cal. I never lost a animal. I have shot them from about 5 yards to 90 yards. Five were shot in lungs, leave a very good 50 to 100 yard blood trail. The 90 yard bull was high on the shoulder, near the spine, dropped on spot.  The 5 yard in back of head. Four were shot with a .50 cal, .495 round ball and .90 gr fffg black powder. The other three were a .54 TC New Englander using a .530 patched roundball and 115 gr of ffg blackpowder.

I switched from my .50 Green River Leman rifle (36 in by 1 inch across flats barrel, very heavy but very accurate. I went to the New Englander because much lighter hunting rifle. We were going in 7-10 miles in a road closure unit and weight important. I didn't switch to improve performance although I think the .54 gives better penetration. If I was to be doing it again I would build a .58 or .62 roundball gun.

[O_mykiss]

It will work. Generally less effective range and less energy at impact than a conical, but put it in the lungs or heart and it will work just fine.

If it were me, I would be using a heavy lead conical, but your mileage may vary.

[lonedave]

I haven't used a .54 ball for elk, but last year I took this bull with my .62 T/C Hawken and a single patched round ball.  One shot from less than 50 yards and he was down in 14 long steps.  The numbers game would say round balls are terrible for game, but results like this and Hangfire's above would say otherwise.  As to the need to keep shots close, I'd say yes for any muzzleloader as that's kind of the name of the game, right.

[img][/img]

[carpsniperg2]

Thats a dandy spike bull lonedave. Heck of a big body on him.

[O_mykiss]

That does seem like a LARGE bodied spike.

lonedave has a good point, gotta be close anyway, so there is probably not much of a gap between the edge of roundball range (75 yards or so?) and the maximum muzzloader range (125 for me).

[C-Money]

Cool pic Lonedave! Nice bull! I have see quite a few deer killed with roundballs and they seem to be effective. With acceptable ranges, I'd use one on an elk.

[lokidog]

As stated keep the range down and why not.  I punched completely through a nice 4X4 blacktail in OR with a .54 Hawken and round ball at 80 yards clipping one shoulder blade.  Try not to hit any shoulder bone, at least on the way in. 

[undertoad]

Elk were rendered extinct east of the Mississippi and drastically reduced in number west of the Miss. by round balls. They can do fine. I've shot through a broadside elk at over 100 yards with one.

That said, they work best if your gun was designed for them. That means slow-twist rifling. The typical twist rate for ball guns is 1 in 66-72 inches. Bullet guns're typical 1 in 20-48 inches.

On slow-twist guns, you can use big powder charges and still keep accuracy. For hunting in my .54, I use 120 grains of 2f black powder. It shoots great and bowls 'em over.

I chose muzzle-loading for the history aspect, and because I like to keep things simple. I use patched balls, natural lubes, black powder, traditional guns, and clean up with plain room-temp water. Life is so easy, and I do not feel any handicap compared to bullet muzzle-loaders, given iron sights for both.

[colockumelk]

Elk can't be killed with round balls. The only way you can kill an elk with a muzzle loader is if you are using a T/C Encore with a 209 primer, 150 grains of pyrodex pellets, and a 300 grain T/C Shockwave jacketed bullet. Oh and its impossible to hit an elk unless you have a Nikon BDC 3x9 Muzzy scope on top and only after you ranged him.

Anything less than the combo I described above can't kill an elk. Nope impossible.

On a serious note we owe it to the animals we hunt to put them down quick and hard. Co ovals do this far better than a round ball. But if you want to use a round ball go for it. Just be reasonable and shorten your Max range.

I hope people realized that this whole post of mine was 100% sarcasm. 

[SkookumHntr]

That was a nice spike!!