62 Caliber

[Dancy]

What is a minimum hunting load that would provide adequate trajectory in a 62 caliber rifle? I have no experience with the larger bores and would need a decent hunting load as well as a light plinking load that would be easy to shoot. I was thinking maybe 120 grains FF and then a half charge of 60 as a starting point. Thoughts on twist rates would be appreciated too. Oh, I would not be shooting much over 100 yards, maybe 120 at the most for hunting.

James

[bob in the woods]

I shot a bear with 100gr FFg  Worked fine!  I plink with 80 gr, but, honestly don't plink much with them.
I've got other rifles for that.  When hunting, I usually load 100 to 120 gr FFg

[Michigan Flinter]

Where I hunt here in Michigan seventy yards is about the longest shot I will have.I use sixtyfive grains of two "F" Goex .604 ball and .020 patch with bear grease for lube.Most deer are dropped in their tracks. I use the the same load for woodswalks  don't care much for paper punching.  Eric D. Lau Riverdale Mi.

[Greg S Day]

I plink with 100 grains FF and hunt with 120.

[roundball]

I have no experience with the larger bores and would need a decent hunting load as well as a light plinking load that would be easy to shoot.
I was thinking maybe 120 grains FF and then a half charge of 60 as a starting point. Thoughts on twist rates would be appreciated too.
Oh, I would not be shooting much over 100 yards, maybe 120 at the most for hunting.

For my hunting eastern whitetails in here in the the woods of North Carolina, my typical shot is 40-50 yards...longest ever was only 70 yards down a logger's road with a .54cal...so "long range" trajectory wasn't a very big issue and I just went with a mid range powder charge of 100grns Goex 2F (or 90grns Goex 3F) in both my .58 & .62cal rifles.

Always got complete pass through, except for one time I shot a buck straight in the chest as he was approaching me head on...the ball traveled the entire length of his body and stopped, bulging the hide out on the back side of the right ham.

I don't plink with big .62cal balls so I have no target load so to speak...if I did, I suspect I'd use 75-80grns.

[northmn]

Lots of folks shooting the 20 ga smoothbore use about 90 grains for a hunting load and do OK up to about 50 yards and hunt Black bear over bait with them.  Most have proven effective with very moderate loads. I built a 62 for a person and I don't think the finish was even fully dry when he shot an 8 pointer with it.  He claimed to have used 70 gr 3f at about 25 yards.  More than a couple of guys I know use about 90 grains in a 58.  One of the advantages of the big bores is that even thugh they may start a little slower they retain velocity better such htat hey will shoot a little flatter than a small bore at the same MV.  Looking at the LYman tables a 45 going at 1900 fps will hit at the same velocity at 100 yards as a 50 at 1800fps and a 54 the same velcoity as a 50 at 1800 fps at the muzzle.  Some issues of accuracy, which tend to be unique to the barrels may enter in.  I had a 58 that really did not shoot well unless I used 140 gr of 2f.  You may have to experiment for accuracy, but for large game hunting some tend to get a little carried away.  One inch groups are not needed at 100 yards for a deer load if that is you max range. 

DP

DP

[SCLoyalist]

J.D. with respect to trajectory, with 60 gr of powder I'd expect you to get around 800 fps of muzzle velocity;  1100 fps mv with 80 gr and maybe 1200-1300 fps at the muzzle with 120 grains.    If you were to sight in to be zeroed at 50 yds with a 60 gr charge for paper punching, you'd hit 2" high at 25 yds, dead on at 50 and 6 or 7 inches low at 100.  If you up your powder charge to 80 grains for 100 yard paper punching you'd maybe hit an inch or two low at 100 yds.

The more you increase powder charge and muzzle velocity to compensate for drop at 100 yds and hit 'dead on' at 100, the higher your bullet path is going to be at the middle ranges.


Since your question was about trajectory, you might try the RB ballistics calculator at this link:
http://www.ctmuzzleloaders.com/ctml_experiments/rbballistics/rbballistics.html

It seems to work pretty well, although I think the "Drop" it computes is more properly "Bullet path" (the difference between line of sight and the bullet's trajectory at a given distance).   If you had a good chronograph to see what muzzle velocities you're actually getting, rather than book estimates, it would really help your analysis.

Good luck, SCL

[BrownBear]

I confess a small measure (my wife says "large") of laziness.  I have a particular 90 grain powder measure I really like, and I use it for hunting loads in my 50, 54 and 58 caliber rifles, Goex 3f all.  I'm contemplating a 62 cal at the moment, and without a doubt I'll try it first with that measure.  While longer shots are offered, I hold mine to 75 yards.  Sighted in at that range the 50 cal is barely an inch high at 50, the 54 is much the same, and the 58 is barely over an inch.  Sight height comes into that, and I try to keep mine fairly short.  With tall sights, I'd expect more "rise."

[40Haines]

120gr is pretty stout - on both ends

most folks use 85-90 gr ff or fff

I have used 55ff in my Tulle - with no sights, trajectory is not an issue - about 60yds is max

It usually ends up like this:



Deer don't take much kiilling

[smylee grouch]

Someone more in the know than me tells me that alot of original hunting outfits with chargers and gun point to about 25% of ball weight for the size of the charger. This would work out good for close range and give you alot more power with the double charge if you think you would need it.   Gary

[omark]

i have used a 62 for yrs, and i like 50 gr 2f goex for plinking and 100 for hunting. farthest shot ive made was about 135 yds on a 2 point (western count) buck. hit him right where i wanted, in the chest, full penetration of course. he went about 35 yds. mark

[BrownBear]

J.D. with respect to trajectory, with 60 gr of powder I'd expect you to get around 800 fps of muzzle velocity;  1100 fps mv with 80 gr and maybe 1200-1300 fps at the muzzle with 120 grains. 

Unless there's a HUGE drop in velocities for moving from 58 cal to 62 cal, there's something wrong with those #'s.  I'm getting 1522fps average velocity from 90 grains of Goex 3f in a 36" barrel and 1235fps from 60 grains.  With 120 grains of Goex 2f I'm getting 1670fps.

[SCLoyalist]

Brown Bear,  I based those numbers on data from  the Lyman BP Handbook, and there is apparently considerable difference between their printed data and what you're reporting.    Their mv for 90 gr Goex (in a 28" barrel) for a .560 RB is 1150 fps (compared to your 1522 fps).    They don't provide data for a 62 cal ball, but for 7/8 oz lead shot out of a 32" barrel, 20 ga, say 82 grains will give 1150 fps.

I'll concede chronographed numbers trump printed tables.

SCL

[BrownBear]

Interesting! I just cross-checked, and it's apparent you're using the old manual (1975).  The newer one (2005) shows 1166 for 60 grains of 2f Goex from a 32" barrel with .570 balls, 1392 for 90 grains and 1625 with 120 grains- once again, all 2f.  I'm using Goex 3f for my 60 and 90 grain charges, and I note that the second manual uses a 32" rather than 28" barrel in addition to the .570 rather than .560 ball.  My barrel is 36" and rifled.  

All in all, I bet both our numbers are within line, allowing for the differences in barrel length and ball diameter and 3f versus 2f for two of the loads.  So many 62 cal barrels are on the order of 42" and smoothbore, so those would be factors in comparison, too.  

Aint guns (and reloading manuals) a marvel!

[bob in the woods]

I gave a range of 100 to 120 gr FFg 'cause it depends on what I'm hunting. If back of the house; deer, bear etc 100 it is, but when out for moose I load 120 gr. I know that 100 will kill a moose, but I like the little better trajectory , just because moose are so big that I've judged them closer than they really were more than once.  Once past 100 yds, the balls drop pretty fast not to mention the alder twigs the ball sees and I more than likely didn't. 

[BrownBear]

just because moose are so big that I've judged them closer than they really were more than once. 

Ain't that the truth!!!! 

I whacked one years ago with a modern handgun, sure as I could be that it was about 30 yards away.  Good thing I was young, optimistic and well-practiced, because I misjudged the distance a wee bit.  Imagine my surprise when it paced off at 92 yards.  Tunnel vision?  Me?  Nah.   

[Dancy]

Thanks all for the information!

 How about rate of twist? How fast do you need to shoot the light loads accurately and still work well with the heavy loads?

[digger]

I shoot 80gr of FFF in my Tulle for everything. .600 ball and a .015 patch seems to do the trick just fine. As far as rate of twist , I just go with a smoothie, and never have to complicate matters. At 75-80 yds, anything with vitals over the size of a small pie plate is dinner. I am a firm believer that bigger is better with round ball on game. Not to say a 45 or 50 for deer isn't just fine, because it is, I just like the bigger hole.

[roundball]

How about rate of twist?

When Ed Rayl made my .62cal rifled barrel, he suggested 1:72" as the all-around .62cal twist, and sure enough it was a tack driver as the old saying goes...so I assume that's probably the typical twist rate

[buffalo]

i just picked up a tulle and a mold from a long time shooter, he only shot with 65 gr of 2f goex, i made about 90 roundballs an they were good but i put them in a tumbler for a couple hrs, they look great, measure .602,took off all the imperfections, but i caught a lot of static from him ie do not tumble roundball,  anyway i ordered stuuf from track to shoot shot an i,m looking for info on shooting  balls an shot, thanks in advance

[Dancy]

Wow! Got a lot of big bore fans here. Sounds like all are happy with their performance. I have to admit the 62 I saw at the TN show looked pretty intimidating to me, thus my interest in a setup to shoot light loads too. Thanks SC for the link to the ballistics calculator. Anybody else have thoughts about twist? I'm sure Roundball's Rayle barrel does great with standard loads as stated, but not sure if 1:72 is fast enough for 50-60 grain loads?

[BrownBear]

I'm sure Roundball's Rayle barrel does great with standard loads as stated, but not sure if 1:72 is fast enough for 50-60 grain loads?

Based on experience in other calibers, it would never occur to me to worry about that.  In 50, 54 and 58 cal, all my slow twist barrels really thrive on light loads... as in 30-35 grains of 3f Goex.  I use all of them for head shooting snowshoe hares, and they'll cut ragged hole groups at 25 yards and virtually that small at 50 yards.  Best of all, with the guns all sighted in at 75 yards, they put the groups exactly to point of aim at 25 yards.

I'd be downright shocked if a 1:72 62 cal doesn't perform the same way!

[roundball]

Yes, and actually Rayl's questioning of my intent and purpose to use the .62cal was to decide between a 1:72 and a 1:104" (something just over 100)...his discussion never entertained anything faster than 1:72"

[Dphariss]

My 16 bore rifle, .662 ball, makes 1600 with 140 gr of FF Swiss. 30" Barrel.
A 20 should do close to this with 120.

Dan

[Dancy]

OK, so 1:72 would be considered somewhat of a fast twist for a 62 round ball shooter then.

If 120 grains would shoot close to 1600 fps, that's all the speed I would ever need then. Good to know.

James