Patched round ball or saboted?

[Chickencoop96]

I have an old knight inline and I have only ever fired saboted bullets out of it. What are y'alls thoughts on patched round balls?

 

[Omega]

I have shot round before and they work fine, but conical or sabot is much better IMO.

 

[DoubleRidge]

Barnes T-MZ with yellow sabot or T-EZ with blue sabot...(if you have a tight bore go with T-EZ)...very pleased with the performance.

 

[Spurhunter]

I know so many people that lost bucks of a lifetime shooting round balls in the 80s. With all the modern bullet choices why even consider a round ball?

 

[Remi]

Bartender!

Hold the PRB and pass me the sabots.

 

[swampbadger]

I'd stick with what works. I think most hunters would go with what works best. Sabots are more accurate and have expansion properties that help to kill a deer faster. If balls were more accurate all bullets would be spherical not conical.

I have been lucky and have recovered all my deer I've shot with my ML shooting sabots. The deer don't make it 100 yards with a sabot in the ribs and they often leave a nice blood trail if they don't drop within eyesight.

 

[Chickencoop96]

I know so many people that lost bucks of a lifetime shooting round balls in the 80s. With all the modern bullet choices why even consider a round ball?

Well because I have a lot of round ball and every deer I've seen shot with round ball has been retrieved

 

[Spurhunter]

Well because I have a lot of round ball and every deer I've seen shot with round ball has been retrieved

I guess you answered your own question then.

 

[Wobblyshot1]

I will attest from experience that that dates back to the 1970s that a patched ball will definitely kill deer cleanly. I mostly hunted with an open sight flintlock rifle even before Tennessee had a ML season. My advice is to practice shot placement (round balls being cheap so you ought to be able to do plenty of that) and keep your shots close. I like to keep my shots under 50/60 yards.

 

[Omega]

Well because I have a lot of round ball and every deer I've seen shot with round ball has been retrieved

Like I said, they will work, just stay withing 100 yards or so and pick your shot. Some of the bases I hunted had shotgun only areas that allowed BP as well, round ball was used for the longest time until conicals and sabots got popular, certainly shot better than a slug out of my smoothbore SG.

 

[lafn96]

If you were a traditionalist, like using a recurve bow instead of a compound; yeah go patches. You have an inline though, so use the most deadly and effective item available, which is the sabots.

 

[TnBob]

I have an old knight inline and I have only ever fired saboted bullets out of it. What are y'alls thoughts on patched round balls?

I've killed deer with .54, .50, and .45 round balls. Like Wobbly said, keep shots fairly close and put it in the right spot = dead deer.

 

[WestTn Huntin man]

Well because I have a lot of round ball and every deer I've seen shot with round ball has been retrieved

Different guns shoot different ammo differently. . If you want to consider using round balls go and shoot some and see how it does. . I will say that a Knight in line was most likely designed to shoot Sabots. I would expect it to shoot better groups at longer ranges with sabots.

 

[Tenntrapper]

I don't know this as fact, nor am I a baseball pitcher, but....
Rifles designed for round ball have a 1/66" twist. Modern inlines are closer to 1/20". It wouldn't surprise me if shooting a RB in a fast twist produced a "curve ball" effect. Of course...I could be completely wrong

 

[TNLynn]

I don't know this as fact, nor am I a baseball pitcher, but....
Rifles designed for round ball have a 1/66" twist. Modern inlines are closer to 1/20". It wouldn't surprise me if shooting a RB in a fast twist produced a "curve ball" effect. Of course...I could be completely wrong

Exactly my thinking also!

 

[ROVERBOY]

I have killed a couple with .50 caliber round balls but, they didn't amaze me. If a shoulder or neck shot, they flatten out nice and work ok but, through the ribs, I couldn't even tell they expanded at all. I have killed several with saboted bullets, and several with Maxi- Hunters, Maxi Balls, and Great Plains Bullets. Sabots and conicals do much better. An older hunter years ago, told me good round ball rifles start at .54 caliber.

 

[Chickencoop96]

I guess you answered your own question then.

It was more of a question of shooting them out of an inline. I've only ever seen round ball out of trad guns

 

[348Winchester]

A T/C New Englander I once had, and wish I still did, was perhaps the most accurate rifle I've ever owned. It was amazing what it would do with a patched round ball and 90 grains of black powder or Pyrodex. It was responsible for the death of many a deer and a huge bobcat. I replaced it with a T/C Big Boar 58 caliber that was one of the most inaccurate rifles I've ever owned. There is no telling how much time, money, and effort was spent experimenting trying to find an accurate load all to no avail.

If a rifle really likes round balls then they are more than adequate. The vast majority of inlines have twist rates that will shoot sabot clad bullets or skirted bullets better than round balls. They will, however, probably shoot balls good enough especially at distances under 50 yards.

A fun and DEVASTATING load is the old double round ball. They will usually strike about an inch or three apart from one another. Every deer I shot with that combo went down as if struck by the hammer of Thor! I know, I know they were not then and are not now legal. A damn I did not give then nor do I now. If I still had the ol' New Englander that's the load I'd use.

 

[Chickencoop96]

A T/C New Englander I once had, and wish I still did, was perhaps the most accurate rifle I've ever owned. It was amazing what it would do with a patched round ball and 90 grains of black powder or Pyrodex. It was responsible for the death of many a deer and a huge bobcat. I replaced it with a T/C Big Boar 58 caliber that was one of the most inaccurate rifles I've ever owned. There is no telling how much time, money, and effort was spent experimenting trying to find an accurate load all to no avail.

If a rifle really likes round balls then they are more than adequate. The vast majority of inlines have twist rates that will shoot sabot clad bullets or skirted bullets better than round balls. They will, however, probably shoot balls good enough especially at distances under 50 yards.

A fun and DEVASTATING load is the old double round ball. They will usually strike about an inch or three apart from one another. Every deer I shot with that combo went down as if struck by the hammer of Thor! I know, I know they were not then and are not now legal. A damn I did not give then nor do I now. If I still had the ol' New Englander that's the load I'd use.

"A damn I did not give then nor do I now" is probably my favorite response yet lol

 

[ROVERBOY]

I've got a H&R Huntsman .58 caliber. That 2 ball load would be devastating in it, if it would handle it. I think .58 balls weigh 279 gr. So, that would be 558 gr., and balls can vary a little.

 

[Farm manager]

I have an old knight inline and I have only ever fired saboted bullets out of it. What are y'alls thoughts on patched round balls?

I think that the twist rate would be the consideration. If the rifling was 1 in 38 or slower you would have a good chance of shooting PRBs accurately. I still shoot traditional side hammer guns at modest ranges and have been well pleased with PRBs

 

[348Winchester]

I've got a H&R Huntsman .58 caliber. That 2 ball load would be devastating in it, if it would handle it. I think .58 balls weigh 279 gr. So, that would be 558 gr., and balls can vary a little.

It will handle it.

 

[Flintlocksforme]

Never lost one that I hit in the vitals with a patched round ball. The ones that I lost were from bad choices on when to take the shot. Killed a bunch with round balls.They are my preferred method for killing deer. 58 caliber generally doesn't stop until it's in the dirt or a tree on the other side. Use whatever you choose. But practice makes perfect.

 

[mike243]

Killed my first muzzle loader deer with a patched round ball 45 cal. Seen a lot of deer killed with them years ago and I never felt under gunned. I would not suggest stacking 2 balls in a muzzle loader, having done it the recoil is so bad I dropped the rifle onto the bench. If you can't hit or kill them with 1 ball wait on rifle season.

 

[Smo]

My latest roundball casualty….

.626 Whompability

He barely wiggled….

 

[Wobblyshot1]

Old Tip would be proud.

 

[BPhunter]

I have an old knight inline and I have only ever fired saboted bullets out of it. What are y'alls thoughts on patched round balls?

We have used PRB for years for elk, deer, antelope, bear, etc. Never lost one and never had to track very far. Farthest one was no more than 20-30 yds. Longest shot was an elk I took at 147 yds. Dropped it where it was. This year took a deer at approximately 130 yds. and it just dropped. The elk was shot with .50 cal., then Colorado changed to .54 cal. for PRB for elk, so that is what we use these days. A PRB in an inline probably won't work as well as a saboted bullet, as the twist rate is so much different than a traditional ML.

 

[ROVERBOY]

Well because I have a lot of round ball and every deer I've seen shot with round ball has been retrieved

I've killed a few with round balls but, in my experience they don't do well with through the ribs shots. And I never lost any but, unless a hit was in shoulder or neck I got little or no expansion that I could tell.

 

[Flint]

Round ball works for elk like @BPhunter says.

 

[Harold Money jr]

I bought a .45 Seneca that I'm really wanting to get hunt ready with round balls this year. It's been pretty finicky.