58 cal.

[jharstad]

i shoot a 58 cal. t/c big boar. Deos any body else shoot 58 cal. and do u like it?

[Hangfire]

I started out with a .58 Zuave for target shooting and musket matches. I didn't hunt much with it, and never did get a shot at any thing but a coyote. Many people in the club I belonged to hunted with theirs. One of the people had taken several elk with the.58 roundball. I know he told me he had to reduce the powder charge from I think 120 grains of 2f to some thing less. He was shooting clear through cow elk behind the shoulder.

My gun was very accurate, I was competitive with all the other rifles. I won several turkeys in the Thankgiving matches. I would think the TC Big Bore would be a excellent 75 to 100 yards elk gun. That big round ball will start to drop fast after that. I don't remember my powder charge for hunting for sure, but I think 120 gr. I was shooting a .575 round ball and a heavy patch material, lubed with melted Crisco. The recoil wasn't to bad. I carried some Minnie balls, original style civil war conicals. I shot one of them over 120gr. one time, kicked like a mule. I think I shot them with 90 grains of 2 f. They were not very accurate.  We had some gong shoots that were out to over 250 yards. There was quite  time gap between firing the shot and hearing the bullet strike the gong.  The person that I sold my rifle to, got a cow elk with it. He said he shot at it at about 100 yards. When the smoke cleared there was no elk in sight. He waked to where she was standing and she was down kicking her last.

[Goldeneye]

  I own a old .58 cal TC Big Boar.  Thinking about that ol gun brings a grin to my face.  When I hunted with that smoke pole it was a real hammer.  3 Rocky Bulls and 2 blacktails fell to it.  I hit one of those bulls straight on right in the middle of the chest at about 15 yards.  He whirled around on his two hind legs and just lay there.  The hole it produced was so impressive that the blood spray looked like a garden hose had been cut .  All these hunts happened more than 15 years ago.  I used to shoot maxi-balls (555 grains as I remember) with 120 gr of pyrodex.  It's been in the safe for many years now.  I need to pull it out and play with it one of these days.

  Since I stopped packing the smokepole I've went back to modern hunting.  The black powder was fun to do but I've continued to do well with modern since then too.

[jharstad]

i love mine haven't been able to harvest an elk with it but have shot a doe with it at 50 yards with the patch n ball. i also use the maxi hunters 560 grains of *censored*ness and 100 grains of 2f pioneer powder, which i like alot. i hunt with all weapons, what ever tickles my fancy for that year. thinkin about going muzz for elk this year thou. oh did i mintion it consistently hits a clay target at 50 to 60 yards that's what I'm talking about. 

[B.G.hunter]

my dad has 2 hopkins and allen, 58cal underhammer muzzleloaders, he has taken several elk and deer with them.  I took my first elk with one.  He shoot a 630gr steakbuster bullet with 120gr of 2fg goex blackpowder behind it. 

[jharstad]

nice now thats a hunk of lead

[AWS]

I have an old CVA Big Bore Mountian Rifle that I hunted and target shot with for quite a few years it was like the Hammer of Thor on whitetails and a real axe at log cutting competitions.  Switched to a 54 cal Fintlock for hunting now but wouldn't sell the 58.

AWS