60 cal load

[G Bekelja]

So I just finished a 60 cal with the intention of going after Alaskan moose this fall. It has a Rice Light Hagga barrel with .016 round grooves at 1:66. I talked to Jason at Rice and he said probably 120 grains max not a problem. I’ve started with .580” ball and 12 oz denim with mink oil over 100 grains 2f. It loads snugly but ok with just the hickory ramrod. Need to use my short starter over the rod just for the last inch or two seating on top of the charge. Recovered patches look good. Took 12 shots without needing to wipe. Probably could have kept going. Fouling didn’t seem to be an issue. Tried 10 oz denim and recovered patches did not look as good. Tried .595” balls and 10 oz denim and no go without pounding a range rod and I don’t think a thinner patch would hold up based on what I saw with the 10 oz. I’ve only been messing around at 50 yards off the bench and a little closer off hand. Still lots of shooting to do but my question is if 100 grains 2f and a 290 grain ball is enough for these critters out to about 75 yards.  I know shot placement is most important but if broadside shot ends up being more of a raking angle, do I still I have enough juice to get it done?  I’ve killed a mess of whitetails with 45 to 54 cal flinters but that’s where my experience ends. Thanks

[smylee grouch]

Shot placement IS key but IMHO you have a good load if it's accurate. I have taken Moose with a 570 ball and 110 gr. Swiss 1&1/2. 

[Daryl]

In that size. with the .580 and 12 ounce, you've got it covered quite well. The deeper grooves make it difficult to load with a typical .005" undersized ball, for sure. There is ore lead to "move" when
seating it into the muzzle.
The smaller ball and thicker patch is the way to go.  I am sure you will find a good load. I would suggest Jason's suggestion of 120gr. is a good one. I might even be inclined to go higher, if accuracy
dictates. You will not be producing high pressures, even with 130gr.  The anatomy is very similar to deer, except moose have about a 28" diameter kill zone. The lower part of the 'cage' contains the ticker.
Good work, you are doing well.

[G Bekelja]

Thanks for the info fellas. I’ll keep going with that patch and ball combo and try a little more powder.

[Bsharp]

and for a second shot...... you need some of these

https://rjrenner.blogspot.com/p/tapered-paper-cartridges.html

[Brokennock]

Its just an opinion based on what I have seen others accomplish, but I think that should be sufficient. Ron LeClaire took a bison with a .62 smoothbore, so maybe a slightly heavier ball than yours, but I seem to recall he was inky shooting 90 or so grains of powder. They are both big animals, and I could be wrong but think the comparison viable.
Best of luck on your hunt.

[Daniel Coats]

Plenty of gun for a broadside shot. As said before shot placement is what matters. It's easy for some to over gun so their odds are better on marginal shots. They'll never make a gun big enough for the guy that can't hit the broadside of a barn so be prepared to come home empty handed if quartering shots are all that come up.

My moose was taken with one shot using 80 grains under a .530 ball. I took the broadside shot resting against a tree at 100 yards. That wasn't marginal for me because in practice I could shoot the back end out of a coffee cup in similar conditions.

Good luck on your hunt!

[Pukka Bundook]

To add to what Daniel says above,
A moose is a lot easier to shoot through broadside than an elk.
An elk is built like a saddle horse, but a moose more like a fish fillet. both his sides are comparatively closer together.
He is also a lot easier to knock down than an elk.

[Daryl]

If you get both lungs you are guaranteed a kill.  I watched a moose kill with the shot at a lasered range of 170yards.
Were I guiding that person, I would not have allowed the shot. As luck would have it, the hunter made a lucky hit. In
camp, he was barely able to keep them on a 100 yard target at 100yards- from a bench.
The calibre was .54, with .535" ball, .020" patch and 100gr. of phony powder. The moose was holed through to the
off side, including the heart & both lungs. It ran 40yards and piled up while running - ran out of gas. I figure the
impact velocity was in the 800fps range, about like a decent pistol load at point blank range. Moose are not hard to
kill if you get both lungs. One lung AND you don't chase it, it will lay down inside 75yards from where it was shot
- and die.  Push too soon and you might not find him. The fat will move over the entrance slit (usually not a hole) &
external bleeding stops.
Larger is better when it comes to our largest ungulates. My .69 staggers them & they might walk 20yards - done, while
buddy Keith's .75 anchors them on the spot.  We both use WW alloy balls. Hit a leg bone and mine stays inside. His don't.
We  both use well over 100gr. of powder. For us in BC, it's about trajectory, shooting across meadows or cut blocks might
be the shot needed. Rainbow trajectories due to low velocity makes such shots difficult.
Our moose have been shot & killed with .45 calibre round balls at 50yards, as well as with 11 bore rifles & smoothbores as
well as everything in between.
Like Danniel said, it's shot placement.

[Hungry Horse]

 Daryl is spot on about double lung shots. I don’t care how big a critter is, no wind is as good as meat in the freezer. An old friend of mine took his last elk with one of my junk parts trade guns. Heck it didn’t even have a 30” barrel because I had used them all up. His gun only had a 28” barrel. The only parts that weren’t either recycled, or home made was the lock, and the serpent side plate. He loaded the little rascal with 80 grains of 2F, and a .580 ball wrapped with pillow ticking dipped in hot venison tallow, and bear oil. The shot was about 85 yards, and the impact turned him completely upside down. He never got up. The ball was under the skin on the opposite side. He was a five by six fully mature bull.

 Hungry Horse

[Daryl]

My second last one, side stepped away from the ball's entrance dropped his butt to the ground at the impact, then gained his feet and turned around to head back the way he had just
come from.  I had loaded (paper ctg. as Bruce showed) & thumped him on the side presented. That one smashed the off-side leg above the first impact and stopped under the hide. both balls
stopped under the hide, one on each side, yet had both gone through 3" diameter leg bones. The first shot, although stopping on the hide, was more badly damaged than the WW ball.
.682" (466gr.) WW ball and 165gr. 2F driving the second, initial patched pure lead "shot".
I had practiced with the paper ctg. to where I could fire, load, cap and fire an aimed shot again in 8 seconds.
Paper ctg.s work REALLY well in the larger calibres. Bruce, I think it was, found them to work well down to .54 cal.  At some point, the breech pressure blows past the ball and ruins accuracy. Up to
that point, they shoot about as well as patched round balls. Mine and Dphar's did, as well as Bruce's in his big gun.
I've carried some in my parka pocket all hunting season, undamaged. I did not lube them, some guys do. I was able to get off 10 accurate paper patched ball shots, before having to load a light 80gr.
charge with a wet lubed pure lead ball as a cleaning load. Then, I could fire another 10 accurate shots with the paper ctgs. I always used my hunting load of 165gr. 2F GOEX in the paper ctgs. or with
patched round balls, when hunting moose. That is the long range "accuracy load" in my rifle. It kicks a bit.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I have used several rifles in the .60 cal. range for hunting moose.  The last one I shot was a broadside shot at 85 yards with a .62 cal tightly patched pure lead ball over 127 gr. of FFg GOEX.  The ball passed completely through, spraying the bushes with lung blood on the off side.  Even so, the moose managed to go about 80 yards through a shintangle of downed trees and ended up in a nice clean grassy area on the edge of a small lake.
As for the .60 cal., my Jaeger rifle has a .60 cal Getz barrel and likes 86 gr. FFg GOEX, a .595" pure lead ball and .023" cotton denim patch with mink oil lube.  The only moose I shot with this rifle was a head shot at close range, which I would never recommend because of the good chance of a poor hit, but in my case, the moose was DRT.  Speaking of moose and big calibres, my first moose was a 100 yards shot with a Brown Bess musket which has a .75 cal bore.  I used 100 grains of FFg, a .735: pure lead ball, and .030" patch with grease lube.  In this case, I got a perfect double lung hit on the broadside moose and it staggered about 20 yards and collapsed.  I recovered the ball on the offside under the hide.  An interesting observation on this one...since there was no exit wound, there was no blood in the snow between the spot I shoot it to where it dropped, except for that which came from it's mouth.  The meat and fat and hair plugged the entrance hole so no blood from the bullet wound.  But on gutting it, the entire lung cavity was full of blood.
Though I advocate big bores for big game, I have seen my friends shoot moose with .50 cal rifles and 70 gr. powder.  Shot placement is always your trump card.

[G Bekelja]

Thanks all.  Sounds like my initial run at the load has at least put me in the ballpark. I’m going to keep practicing with my current load as it sounds like it would be lethal. This load seems to be shooting as accurately as my sighting and shot execution allows. I need to more practice. Will experiment with another 10 or 20  grains as I start extending my practice range and see what happens in terms of accuracy and recoil.