What's a good calibre for your hunting area?

[excess650]

I've taken a lot of whitetails and can say you just never know how far they will go after the shot.  I took a buck some years back with a 38-55 (100 yards)while it was looking at me(knew I was there) and it dropped on the spot with a high shoulder shot.  I took my largest buck ever this season quartering towards me(60 yards) with a 30-06 through the near shoulder and destroyed the lungs.  It had no idea that I was there, and it ran some 80 yards.  I've taken them with 12ga slugs at 15 yards and 50 yards, both not knowing I was there, and watched them run off as if untouched and found them some 75 yards off.

I prefer a hole in AND out so that it will leave a blood trail when shot, so that's why I'm hunting with a .58 and and a .62.

[Dennis Glazener]

Guys please restrain your comments to muzzleloaders and not modern rifles. If you have questions please see the ALR rules here http://americanlongrifles.org/american-longrifles-privacy-policy-2.htm?action=recent
Thanks
Dennis

Allowable topics are:

1.  The building or recreation of custom muzzle loading sporting arms that would have been made or used in North America between 1607 and 1898.

2.  The study and collecting of custom muzzle loading sporting arms as defined in item 1.

3.  The shooting of custom muzzle loading sporting arms as defined in item 1.

4.  The historical and cultural setting for the manufacture and use of custom muzzle loading sporting arms as defined in item 1.

[FRJ]

I use a 54 cal in Washington state but have a 58 cal build in progress. If g/bears were a possibility 62 would be small!!!!!Had a barren ground grizzly attack our plane in Alaska and the pilot finally had to shoot it. That sucker just wouldn't give up. Only weighted about 350 and the pilot got a ticket for shooting an imature bear but it was dismissed when an Alaskan university aged it at 12 years old. I wouldn't feel over gunned with a 458 win mag when facing one of these babys. FRJ

[chuck-ia]

If I could only have one muzzleloader here in Iowa it would be my .62 smoothbore. I can hunt pheasant, duck, rabbit, squirrel, deer with it, in one outting. chuck

[sonny]

I am from p.a, an have shot  many years with my 45 cal flinter/rifle with 84 gr/3f/.445rb. I bet i have killed easily 20 deer, at range's from 10yds to 90yrds,with none flopping over on the spot, with good heart/lung shots. They almost always run off like they were missed an are flopped over within 50yds in a matter of 30seconds. I went to a 58 cal hawkin rifle to knock-em-stiff on the spot, only to find out that the 58cal makes better blood trails an bigger holes but in all truth, they still run about 40-50 yrds an pile up. I then tried a 54 cal for the faster-optimum size hunting ball i read about. Nope! same thing.......heck!, i hit one with my car an it ran 30yrds an fell over. The only dead on arrival rb shot,is the brain, or the spine.....sorry! there is no magic size, just magic spots to hit them.....sonny

[doulos]

I am from p.a, an have shot  many years with my 45 cal flinter/rifle with 84 gr/3f/.445rb. I bet i have killed easily 20 deer, at range's from 10yds to 90yrds,with none flopping over on the spot, with good heart/lung shots. They almost always run off like they were missed an are flopped over within 50yds in a matter of 30seconds. I went to a 58 cal hawkin rifle to knock-em-stiff on the spot, only to find out that the 58cal makes better blood trails an bigger holes but in all truth, they still run about 40-50 yrds an pile up. I then tried a 54 cal for the faster-optimum size hunting ball i read about. Nope! same thing.......heck!, i hit one with my car an it ran 30yrds an fell over. The only dead on arrival rb shot,is the brain, or the spine.....sorry! there is no magic size, just magic spots to hit them.....sonny

I agree , your statement of better blood trails is the key. They all run. So shoot with something that is going to help you find them.

[BrownBear]

I agree , your statement of better blood trails is the key. They all run. So shoot with something that is going to help you find them.

Yup.  In my own choice of rifles from the rack, the thicker the terrain I'll be hunting the larger the bore I choose for the day. More blood is good when it's really hard to find blood trails.  Any limit in run distance is also good, but you can't count on it.

The one and only deer I ever lost was a smallish doe shot at about 40 yards.  And I popped her with a 62 caliber RB.  It was really dense brush and I spotted her through a tiny window.  Dunno what happened, but I found a spot of blood within about 5 yards.  Last drop of blood was found about 300 yards and 3 hours later.  I was able to follow her tracks another 200 or 300 yards, but ultimately lost those too.

Have to believe that the ball twigged in flight, but the long and short was a very limited blood trail and an apparently non-lethal hit somewhere on the fringe. 

No substitute for good shooting, and larger balls aren't necessarily an answer if you don't put them where they belong.

[blunderbuss]

 
 I've been hunting all my life with a muzzle loader and it's bullet placement, bullet placement, bullet placement. Chest shot as stated above is a 50 yard track, a spine shot will bring them down on the spot but you may need a second shot. A neck shot will kill them in their tracks,or you'll miss. I generally hunt with a .58 Jaeger or a 12 ga double the .58 is because it's traditional for that weapon (and we have hogs) BTW a soft lead ball will go completely through a 300 lb pig.

If that bear at the first of this topic was charging I would prefer a double 8 pounder 

[hanshi]

I've killed a lot of deer with both .45 and .50 cal rifles using prb.  I did have several DRTs with both and at least 3 (1- .45 & 2-.50) that did NOT hit any bone.  Also had a DRT via a .54.  I could see no difference in the blood trail between the two.  And yes, most ran about as far as any of the cf deer I've killed.

[catman]

A .54

[Flinter]

I have been hunting with the .54 caliber since the mid 70s, and I am supprised at the number of deer that run off as stated in this thread. All the deer I have taken dropped were they were shot. I shoot the deer in the front shoulder. 

[Daryl]

Shocking the bone structure is a good way to have a short trail to follow.  They don't seem to be able to handle that.  Shooting them behind or below the bone is what causes runnoffs.  I haven't had this particular event happen, but I've read here and elsewhere that a heart shot whitetail is an amost gaurantee of a mad dash of 100 yards - with about any rifle. My deer have all dropped within 20yards with lung shots & on the spot with a shoulder shots and neck or head shots, of course. The neck shot was on purpose, but missed the spine by 1/4". The .45RB dropped the deer, but tried to get back up - reloaded and missed it's flinging head with my second shot, then finished it with my wife's rifle. What a comedy of errors - trying the neck shot to start with was the first error. Had I planted that ball 14 or 15" lower in the high chest, it would have spined him from the front = DRT.

[bob in the woods]

I shot a deer with my .62 cal, and failed to notice that I had banged my front sight, and it was off centre.
I hit the deer too far forward, cutting the windpipe. It just stood there with it's head down. I reloaded, aimed at the back end, and hit it through the lungs. That was the end .  I'm not sure what the effect would have been with the first shot had I been shooting a much smaller ball . I have shot more deer with a .50 than anything else, but I just don't think that bigger is a bad thing when shooting round balls.  I don't like shoulder shots on deer, cause they are tasty !  Hitting bone there with even a .50 ruins too much meat for my liking.  A .54, .62 or even a .75 through the lungs doesn't make much difference in meat loss, but the bigger balls IMO do drop them faster.

[Kopfjaeger]

Here in Southwestern Pennsylvania I use a .50 caliber for deer and black bear.

Small game like squirrel, turkey, rabbit, I use my .32 or .36 caliber.

Plan on buying a 40 caliber or 45 caliber next for coyote.