The other problem with conicals and bullets is rate of twist which can effect both accuracy and effectiveness if used fir hunting.
A maxi in a 48" twist which it will shoot pretty well in from all accounts. Still under stabilized and/or poorly designed bullets (and the Maxi is from the hunting standpoijnt) deflect easily. They may not track straight after striking the animal. I can assure the reader that this is a recipe for lost game or followup shots based seeing this happen with some other modern bullets.
The British Army surgeons found that the Minie ball fired from a 72 twist would deviate wildly from its course when striking a man sometimes turning 90 degrees.
The round ball actually has a pretty good reputation for tracking straight as do bullets like 300-400-500 grain FP 45 caliber bullets fired from twists between 18 and 22. A 50-70-450 bullet fired from a 36" twist (Sharps standard for 50) will shoot through a deer end to end on track and bones be darned.
But when we go to a little slower twist like a 48" 50 or 54 then problems can arise. Or so I have seen posted here by people who have used them. I read, either here or on another ML site the account of a mans wife shooting a deer with a 45 maxi and the deer was never found. She claimed it was a good shot but the deer was never found. Until next year when the husband shot the deer and found a well placed through and through fully healed wound in a buck he shot. This parallels a story Elmer Keith told of shooting a Coyote broadside with one of the 25 CFs and having it run off unhurt. Then sometime later killing a coyote and finding entry and exit scars in the hide then found healed wounds through the lungs.
Round balls track very well even from slow twists though near the end of their track, if still in the animal, they tend to deflect somewhat.
The failings of the ML conical for heavy game was well known by 1860. Europeans were still shooting Elephant with RBs well into the cartridge era (mid-1870s). The problem with ML bullets for heavy game was that they had to be SOFT to work in the rifle and being soft they did not work on heavy game. Th e RB was better since it could be hardened. The advent of large bore cartridge guns changed this allowing hardened bullets, smokeless changed it even more. But the fact is that the RB is very hard to beat as a hunting projectile when properly sized for the game and used within its limitations.
People really should read Forsythe's "The Sporting Rifle and its Projectiles" but of course it disagrees with the slick paper magazine writers a large number or which are greatly over rated in many things and MLs in particular. Hunting with MLs is another step down in quality.
As I have stated before I have shot or seen shot a considerable variety of most game animals in Montana, no Mtn Goats or Sheep but about everything else. Mostly deer and elk. Use within its range the RB will kill any of them cleanly and in pure lead will give about 30" of penetration if no heavy bones were encountered. But even then they work though penetration will likely be reduced. A 54-58-67 RB all penetrate about the same just bigger holes. Larger diameter balls (a .662 ball is the same weight as a 54 maxi but shoots flatter and makes bigger holes does not move off the powder and operates at much less pressure.
So far as "properly sized" bullets not moving. If "naked" they move too easy by the time they are seated on the powder they are no longer tight in the bore. Even more interesting is that most American rifles in the past had TAPERED BORES. They were very often loose at the breech choked at about 6" from the muzzle then cylindrical or perhaps slightly funneled to the muzzle. John Baird's "Hawken Rifle" describes this. So shooting a "naked" bullet in one of these in a hunting situation? BTW many of the ML slug guns were/are choked as well.
We know from the writings of the past and current experience is that bullets are special use target bullets. The picket in theory could be used except there was the heavy and FRAGILE starter. If the fitted nose on the piston is dinged its junk and takes lathe time to fix and money. Ding the edge of the muzzle and the starter may not fit on the barrel anymore. False muzzles are even worse being even heavier and complex and easily damaged or lost.
What we have is a significant amount of modern firearm inspired fantasy in the ML world that REALLY took off when the Rendezvous really took off and everyone needed a ML so the modern "Hawken" sprang into being for this and for the various ML seasons everyone suddenly discovered. Stocked more like a model 70 than a traditional ML. Then people could not seem to figure out the RB. Afterall it did not look like their 270 bullets did so they (and the gun writers and the people that made the guns) decided that with a bullet they could get rid of the patch which was apparently beyond some shooters ability to use and the bullet was long more like the 270 bullet. That it burned out nipples (so they vented these
) tended to fall out the muzzle and kicked like $#*! did not matter it was new and improved so it had to be better. The gun writers and editors, who live off advertising, decided the RB was useless and would hardly get to 100 yards much less kill anything.
So now we have people shooting plastic stocked "mls" with scopes and semi-smokless powder and saboted JHP pistol bullets (which often have very poor penetration on game) over running the ML seasons set in place in most cases by traditional ML shooters who often had to PROVE or the various Fish and Game divisions that the ML would actually kill Deer.
So the under-informed ML shooter jumps on the bullet bandwagon thinking that the RB just cannot work.
That the whole premise of modern ML bullets is complete BS matters not in the least. Most people become instant experts as soon as the rifle is in their hands and will then try to lecture the guy the BUILT THE RIFLE.
So if somebody wants a bulleted ML have a barrel made with a 20" twist in .455-.456 BORE diameter with a 30" barrel. This will allow bullets like the 456192 or the heavier 457193 to be thumb started with ease and they will shoot pretty well with no hoop jumping in the loading/starting process. 1:40-1:50 tin lead alloy will cast easy compared to pure lead and should shoot well too. But they still will not stay on the powder so carry a rod in the bore and push it down and then pull it out before shooting if its a hunting rifle .
BTW I built a rifle around such a barrel we had Ron Long cut about 30 years ago. Far more trouble than it was worth for the match we shot it in. Never dreamed of hunting with it. Ate nipples at an amazing rate with a 457125 and 70 gr of Goex. Another "plus" for the bullet ML That means that if someone were going to the west back in the day they would need to take a bag of nipples along with their other stuff. There is a mention by Garrard of a Hawken that shot a bullet and inch long, about right for a 50-54 Picket.
Dan
