# The ballistics of a lead ball?



## TatnallCountyHunter

Something I have been thinking about for a while and hope someone who uses black powder to answer is: How good is a musket ball when it comes to killing/stopping power?

Yes, _stopping power_, the force so many do not believe in and calls it a "marketing phrase". 

I refer to stopping power is how hard that projectile hits the target, and how much damage it does to said target, and how quickily it can make that target incapacitated.

So how does a lead musket ball hold up compared to something like a modern .44 or .45 caliber bullet, or a 150 grain 30-06 bullet or something like that?


----------



## Nicodemus

I don`t know, too scientific for me to worry about. I do know this though. I`ve hunted with blackpowder rifles a long time. The real ones, not the inlines. I`ve killed a lot of deer with them. I`ve never lost a deer that I shot with one. I`ve only recovered one ball from a deer, the rest were shoot throughs. The longest I`ve had to trail one was around 50 yards.

That`s good enough for me.


----------



## Sutallee

Round balls from a muzzleloading rifle can have very good power out to 50-100 yards.  But, because of the poor aerodynamics of a round ball, they lose energy  and drop rapidly and I would not attempt a shot at a deer size animal much further out. I shoot a 45 caliber rifle with a 42 inch barrel The .440 ball weighs 128 grains and  and with a stout load of powder, it would likely shoot as high as 1800 fps at the muzzle.  That translates to 925 foot pounds of energy.  I don't know how this compares to popular deer cartridges, but I think that it would compare well to a large caliber handgun.  It should easily kill a deer at short range.  Remember too, that a .45 caliber is a small caliber for a muzzleloader.   

A .54 caliber would carry  a lot more energy and would hit a lot harder.  A .54 caliber ball weighs 224 grains and would have 1700 foot pounds of energy at 1800 fps  Contrary to what you might think, soft lead round balls do deform and expand, so a .54 caliber ball would pack a considerable wallop due to its cross section and mass. Before the days of cartridge loading rifles, the .54 caliber was a common elk and bear load.


----------



## 7Mag Hunter

Can't really compare a round lead ball with a modern bullet...

Round balls fly like...well, round balls....Trajectory of a rainbow,
but effective to about 100yds...Probably would not try a 100 yd
shot with my 54cal Hawken, but you hit a deer in the boiler room
with it, the animal dies very quickly....I can hit a coke can to about
75-80 yds with it...I don't  worry to much about groups with it...I
just make the 1st shot count...
Mostly pass thru with good clear exit wounds for good blood loss...
Usually short blood trails...


----------



## TatnallCountyHunter

Thanks for the info.


----------



## tv_racin_fan

Hiyas Tatnall!!  My wife is from Glennville sir.

You have been given the truth here sir, patched round ball have killed every animal on the planet save a few sea creatures. As has been said a round ball does not have the ballistic ability an elongated bullet does. But anything inside of 100 yards should be fair game with anything 45 caliber and larger depending on the rifle. You look around you will see the old style rifles generally have longer barrels. This is because black powder doesn't generally burn as fast as modern powders and the aforementioned short comings of the round ball so to get more energy downrange they made longer barrels to burn more powder. (it helped with accuracy as well 'specially with smoothbores) I'm talking over 30 in barrels. More modern style muzzleloaders come with shorter barrels and I wouldn't shoot even to 100 yards with my 24 inched rifle.


----------



## polaris30144

Actually, traditional black powder burns extremely faster than smoke less powder. Black powder is explosive when it ignites, smokeless burns progressively and only generates it's power from being confined to build enough pressure to overcome the weight of the projectile. The reason why there are so many different smokeless powders versus the few types or granulation of traditional black powder. Check it out by googling black powder versus smokeless powder.

The reason for longer barrels on black powder guns is to allow more of the explosive force to be transferred to the ball. The other reason is because the rate of twist is much slower in a barrel designed to stabilize a round ball and because a round ball is not bore diameter, the patch must serve two purposes. The first thing a patch does is seal the bore so more gas pressure is imparted on the ball. The second purpose is the patch grabs the lands in the barrel to impart the stabilizing spin on the ball, thus improving accuracy. These important factors are favorably affected by a longer barrel.

 A well practiced shooter with a good quality black powder gun, designed to stabilize a round ball with a proper patch/load can and will kill deer or any other game cleanly within the limits of the shooters ability to hit consistently in the kill zone.


----------



## tv_racin_fan

I dunno about that sir, I believe black powder is treated as an explosive because it is much easier to ignite. In any event it takes more black powder to get the same amount of energy so in order to burn more powder you need the longer barrel. Plus since the round ball loses it's energy faster they compensated by making larger bores to get acceptable power at longer ranges.


----------



## polaris30144

tv_racin_fan said:


> I dunno about that sir, I believe black powder is treated as an explosive because it is much easier to ignite. In any event it takes more black powder to get the same amount of energy so in order to burn more powder you need the longer barrel. Plus since the round ball loses it's energy faster they compensated by making larger bores to get acceptable power at longer ranges.



You need to do some research instead of relying on what you have heard over the years from people. Your idea of what black powder is versus smokeless powder is an old wives tale told by uninformed people that really have no knowledge about the chemistry or history of black powder propellants. The most accurate statement you made was the first part of the first sentence.


----------

