Longest round ball shot

[Squirrel pizza]

Hey ya'll. I've been reading, Googleing, etc., trying to find out what is the longest, Consistant, proveable shooting with a round ball. I don't mean a freak once in a lifetime flying crow at 400yds., but know to be true proven. I've read about inlines with scopes at 250. This was an article sent in by who knows who. Is there a publication of recorded longest round ball shots? I'm not interested in "I heard my cousins friend shot a so and so at 500yds". Just recorded, provable longest shot. Thanks, Mike

[smokinbuck]

Mike,
Hunting and target shooting are 2 different animals. I don't know what someone may have done on a hunt but I do know that there are 1000 yard matches at Camp Perry for the muzzleloaders. I think there may be some 1200 yard matches elsewhere.
Mark

[wattlebuster]

I cant speak for others but I hunt thick stuff be it hardwoods pines grown up cutover an all my shots have been 50/60 yrds at the most with an good average at 30. The only target shooting I do is offhand out to about 75 tops. All my shooting is geared towards hunting as thats what i live for

[Squirrel pizza]

Maybe I should have been more specific. For whatever reason I can always make a better shot in the field, especially squirrel hunting, which if you haven't guessed is my favorite thing in the world. Yes, including that. I mean from a bench, or even off hand at a measured range. It's my experience that the Camp Perry match is a bullet match, not round ball. And I can't picture 1000-1200 yds with a RB. But there's plenty I don't know, and have been accused of being wrong at. A lot of the matches we shot at River Bend Gun Club in Ga had a steel bear sillouette at 200 that was regularly hit off hand with our flinters. 200-250 doesn't impress me. (On a bear silouette), a group of bulls eyes with rb's at 200-250 is a different story.

[Standing Bear]

95 long paces in a pine plantation. 90 gr FFg, .495 ball, .018 patch, mink oil for lube, primed w 4F.  Yep a flintlock. DRT ( dead right there).   Most are 40-65 yds.

[bob in the woods]

You specified round ball, so I'll leave out the 1000 yard target matches since they are shot with bullets. [  I use a .45 cal 535 gr ]  however, we regularly hold 200 yd patched round ball matches and many use flintlock rifles.  I have made consistent hits beyond that distance with my .62 rifle on a gong I have set up at 300 yds, but that's my range and I know it well.  Most shoot .54's at the 200 yd target here.and the scores are decent.

[Squirrel pizza]

Fellas, don't get me wrong. I love hearing about "the best shot I ever made ", but I'm not asking that. Does any one know the record,(official record) for the longest round ball shot? Like it's in a real book, with witnesses. And stuff like that.

[Bob Roller]

I no longer have a copy of Walter Cline's book,"The muzzle Loading Rifle,then and Now"but I THINK
there was a test to verify a 600 yard shot with a round ball that replicated or verified a similar shot
of past history. Maybe someone here can find their copy of that book and check my memory.

Bob Roller

[gumboman]

Checked my copy of Cline's book. The shot was made 600 yards across a lake. Cline states the shot was with a BULLET of 220 grains, patched with heavy drilling and greased with tallow. He does not state the caliber. Rifling twist was one turn in 48 inches. A load of 25 grains of 3f followed by 50 grains of 1f was used. The gun was a flintlock that Cline rebored and rifled. Of 10 shots fired, 4 would have hit a man and the others were close.

Based on Cline's description, we cannot be sure if these shots were made with round ball or bullet. But with 75 grains of black powder and a 600 yard shot, I would think the projectile was a bullet. Most likely a 40 to 45 caliber considering the 220 grain weight. Most of what he wrote about were target rifles and matches of different types.

[bob in the woods]

Define the size of the target, and then you might get a better response. Also, you first said you wanted info re consistent hits...not a one time or fluke shot.  The 200 yard target used is 22 in x 28 in and most shots are on target  .   Looking to history, wall guns of large caliber were used to engage enemy gun crews out to 600 yards. 

[Bob Roller]

Checked my copy of Cline's book. The shot was made 600 yards across a lake. Cline states the shot was with a BULLET of 220 grains, patched with heavy drilling and greased with tallow. He does not state the caliber. Rifling twist was one turn in 48 inches. A load of 25 grains of 3f followed by 50 grains of 1f was used. The gun was a flintlock that Cline rebored and rifled. Of 10 shots fired, 4 would have hit a man and the others were close.

Based on Cline's description, we cannot be sure if these shots were made with round ball or bullet. But with 75 grains of black powder and a 600 yard shot, I would think the projectile was a bullet. Most likely a 40 to 45 caliber considering the 220 grain weight. Most of what he wrote about were target rifles and matches of different types.

Thanks for the clarification of that long shot. It's been many years since I read Cline's book and
then loaned it and never got it back.
A 45 caliber bullet of 220 grains would be about one and a half calibers in length.Makes sense to me.

Bob Roller

[Daryl]

I have mentioned this here, before.  Years ago at our local rendezvous- in 87 through 90, we had a 300 meter range up top, above the black powder range.  At rendezvous, we did quite a lot of our shooting up on the rifle range and also used the trap range for smoothbores.

On the 300 meter rifle range, we had a steel plate - 24" in diameter hanging on the target rack.  My .69 was undefeated on that target - didn't matter who was shooting it - as I had filed (sighted in) the 3rd leaf for that range, specifically for the 165gr. 2f charge and a tightly patched 484gr. pure lead ball. We no longer have that 300 meter range as that location has been reduced to a 200 meter berm.  We do have another location range, with target butts to 100 meters and beyond, so shooting to 300 with round balls is now possible, again.

We are able to "take" shots out to 250 yards at the Hefley Creek Rendezvous with our round ball rifles, if desired. Every rendezvous, a number of us have fun with this, but it is not a scheduled event.

[hanshi]

This has been posted before but the longest shots I've ever taken were at two different deer.  I use to hunt a private farm down in Georgia.  Most of it was woods and the shots were close.  But a hay field on the farm was a few hundred yards long and from 100 to over 200 yards wide.  I use to hide behind hay bales out in the field and wait for deer to come out in late afternoon.  On one occasion several large doe & fawns ventured out at the far edge.  There was a swale on that end so only the head and part of the back were visible.  Shooting light was almost gone when one doe exposed a ribcage (legs & belly still hidden).  Using the hay bale for a rest I sighted my flint Va rifle on what I could see and fired.  She ran inside the treeline and when I paced the distance to the shot it was right at 100 yards but I'll call it 95 yards just to be conservative.  On another afternoon with a different .50 I took a deer at what turned out to be well over 100 yards.  That's the farthest I've ever fired at ANY target, game or paper.  Never witnessed anyone else shooting prb at that distance.

[Candle Snuffer]

I'm inclined to believe that Cline's shot was with round ball as I believe they were trying to duplicate a shot that a frontiersman took at Indians that had crossed a River after a raid for captives and the frontiersman hit one of the Indians from what was estimated 600 yards away as they went up the bank on the opposite side. Therefore, I believe Cline would have also used a round ball to duplicate/test this.

I believe a .54 round ball is 230 grains, not sure what a .53 is, and with Cline's reputation of shooting original flintlocks, it could be a variation of caliber of the bullet mold that came with the rifle from the maker?

[Bob Roller]

I'm inclined to believe that Cline's shot was with round ball as I believe they were trying to duplicate a shot that a frontiersman took at Indians that had crossed a River after a raid for captives and the frontiersman hit one of the Indians from what was estimated 600 yards away as they went up the bank on the opposite side. Therefore, I believe Cline would have also used a round ball to duplicate/test this.

IF that ball/bullet or what ever weighed 220grains it was about 53 caliber and would still be lethal at 600 yards.
I think it was 1948 at the NMLRA shoot at Friendship that the gun writer Lucian Cary stated he's sit in his car which
was one of the first 1949 Fords and let someone shoot at him with a round ball gun.Someone made a full size mockup
of that Ford and it was shot up badly at 300 yards and Cary had to eat his words.E.M.Farris told me about this and I
later read in a magazine or book Cary wrote for.

Bob Roller

[bob in the woods]

If I recall correctly, Mr Roller is right about the shot being taken with a round ball.  I have a NMLRA article in my files somewhere which related the caliber as .53/.54 size

[Candle Snuffer]

Bob, I made a modification to my post not realizing you already posted the .53 caliber ball info. My apologies.

[Bob Roller]

Bob, I made a modification to my post not realizing you already posted the .53 caliber ball info. My apologies.

NO need to apologize.I was going to an enfeebled memory of an obscure happening.
I have done long range shooting but it was with a Whitworth. Never thought of it with a
round ball gun. 58 caliber is the biggest RB gun I ever owned.

Bob Roller

[Longknife]

Here is a quote from WIKIPEDIA but I have read  this same statement in many different sources.

 "A wall gun's barrel could be over 54 inches (140 cm) in length with a bore of at least 1 inch (2.5 cm). This made them more accurate than the standard flintlock or matchlock musket. George Washington acquired several wall guns during the American War of Independence; tests showed that they were capable of hitting a sheet of common writing paper at 600 yards (550 m). Wall guns were part of the standard equipment of some artillery pieces at that time.[6]"

[Daryl]

The larger the ball, the greater the accuracy potential is, of a rifle or smoothbore.  One must, however, be able, through design or support, to handle the increased recoil which will accompany such accuracy potential, or there is no advantage in range to be realized.
Thus, large bore heavy wall guns, some with a Pintal Mount, became somewhat popular.

[Candle Snuffer]

Not sure, but didn't the British Army do some testing at long range with their .62 caliber Baker Rifle before adopting it?

[Squirrel pizza]

I've never had the opportunity to shoot a Baker rifle, but the carbine is a brute! I wouldn't want to have to use one in Wyoming, but for Georgia hog hunting it's big medicine. I've found, with my limited computer ability that "googling" this subject mostly connects me to yahoos who all think they're Mathew Quigley. There must be a reference, official record. But where does one look? I never thought, especially in the middle of Tennessee, that scanning the books on the shelves of the public library there would be zero, nil, not a book on guns and shooting, except for a 12 year old copy of "the blue book of gun values". Banks of computers free to public for use, google, get BS. Everyone has an opinion, everyone who shoots has made that golden once in a lifetime shot. Like Ralphie in "A Christmas Story". I thought THIS would be easy!

[Candle Snuffer]

Here's a video on 300 yard shooting with the Baker Rifle.

[Squirrel pizza]

Hey Candle, watched video. I bet his shoulder is sore. Still, not bad for a short barreled flinter over what looks like a canteen for a rest. Thanks for sharing

[Candle Snuffer]

You are welcome sir. This guy puts out some interesting videos of shooting vintage firearms.