Anybody remember black powder and roundballs?

I shoot .50 caliber roundballs in front of 90 grains of FFF. Deadly accurate and I've never failed to kill a deer I've shot with that load.

My CVA Hawken is 1:48 and I shoot 1 MOA with that load.

Lug you can shoot em without any adverse affects, but accuracy will probably be poor due to the faster twist ratios in the newer guns. The breaking point started with the old TC Hawkens and Renegades with the 1:48 twist that was designed to shoot either round balls or conical lead bullets. My 50 caliber flints are all much slower 1:66 and designed to shoot round balls. The newer inlines without hitting the books are at least a 1:24 twist.

I bought my first black powder gun a T/C .50 Hawkens back in 1975. I paid $168.00 new. I shot both conicals and round ball using FF Dupont. This gun accounted for my first deer using a round ball I molded myself. The shot was with open sights and the deer was standing about 50 yards straight at me. I shot her right at the base of the neck and she dropped at the shot. When I butchered her the round ball had flattened out to the size of a quarter. I sold that gun in the early 80's and often wished I hadn't. h.h.

Started out with ball & patch when I got my first muzzy. It was deadly accurate and probably the best shooting gun combo I've had the pleasure to shoot/hunt with.

My .54 Renegade tis loaded as I type this with the same ol, same old 90 grains of Goex FFg and a 540gr Maxi Hunter, just like it has been every year since 1983 (unless I couldnt find the 540 and used the "lighter" ones) and what took down the doe I shot with it earlier.

6 yard "tracking" job. What worked 20 or more years ago, still does if we do our part. I'm older than they are and I still "work" LOL!

As soon as I get one in the crosshairs (missed a buck with iron sights.......sigh), I'll find out if it still works. (maybe) LOL!

Never used a round ball but a brother of my buddy, in his 70s now....always has and still does. Depends on how far you think you will shoot I guess? He's got two in the IN record book. Must work.

I'd not be afraid to take a round ball out with my Renegade stoked with 110 grains of Goex. 90 percent of my ML shots are less than 75 yards, about half of that number less than 50 and a quarter of them in bow range. Doe was 10 yards, maybe 12.

Reminded me of swatting a fly with a baseball bat.

God Bless
Steve

I still shoot black powder in all my inlines. I love the smoke and smell of Swiss 3F powder when it lights off .

I used to shoot two round balls on top of each other. They would hit about 6" apart at 100 yards. Killed deer ok, but the big chunky buffalo bullets did better.

I have many fond memories of deer hunting with my built by me T/C Hawken 50 cal. I think I was 12 yrs old when Dad got he & I the kits. We shot the maxis out of them. I still have mine and it is one of those guns I have that I will never part with...probably hand it down to the son or daughter one day though.

HH, I started out with a one-off custom Tennessee "poor boy" style flinter with a full-length Douglas barrel and a Siler lock and set trigger. That thing sure shot sweet. I got all torqued off with it when fighting ignition problems eventually, and traded it for my first compound bow. Porbably was a poor trade, looking back.

Still have the next ML I owned, a Hunstman .58 like you had.

It accounted for all my ML deer until the last one. Shot most everything I stuffed down it well except the one time I tried to train it to shoot 300 gr. Hornady .44's with sabots. It liked the 240 gr. ones just fine and shot them very well, but wouldn't stabilize the 300 gr. ones no matter what I did in load changes. Guess it was just too much weight to take the rifling, 'cause they'd start tumbling right out of the barrel and half of them left telltale shapes in the target that said they were hitting it completely sideways, when I managed to hit it at all.

Finally completely wore out the main spring, and haven't replaced it yet. Sorta fell in love with the "temporary"replacement, a fairly cheap CVA that likes Powerbelts, so now I go out with the cheap modern stuff, but it works REAL good.

Still kinda miss the thump that old .58 gave me when I touched her off, though. Use to hunt mostly with some locally cast Minies, hollow base hollow points that weighed 505 gr., and 140 gr. of 2F. Always shot open sights with it back then, so never got my forehead decoration.