Most Prevalent Larger Calibers?

[GameStalker]

Greetings To All,

1- Can you all tell me the flintlock rifle caliber that's MOST prevalent,
among the folks who hunt white-tailed deer through black bear?
2- Can you all tell me, regarding the participants with flintlock rifles at
the big gatherings, [ https://sepr.nrlhf.org/ ] which of the big
calibers, [ .45 and up ] do you see the most?

I'm going to buy a flintlock rifle for the reasons above. I want to be
able to obtain the supplies to shoot it as easily as possible!

[DavidC]

Jaeger rifle or long? I'd say .62 specifically for a Jaeger and .54 for both.

Seems like a great middle ground but I've heard the balance of Kibler kits or any straight profile barrel is better in .58 because of the weight of the remaining steel.

I would say .54 to my observation as common at gatherings. The cost per ball if you're buying them is basically the same. Flints are the same, powder charge is similar. I'm not sure it matters if you get any such caliber so long as it isn't some odd antique in .56 or something.

[rich pierce]

Agree, .54 in rifles.

[smylee grouch]

F or target work 40 - 54 is popular but for hunting what you want I think 50 might be the minimum cal allowed in most jurisdictions if bear is on the tab. A 54 would be better than a 50 IMHO for bear but I use a 58, 62 and am working on a 66. A larger heavy ball has a better chance to make two holes for a bleed out on long hair fatty bears.

[Daryl]

Depending on where you hail from, average black bears can run from 200 pounds on up to 5-600 pounds, some, even more.
These heavy weighs oft times outweigh inland grizzlies, so I suggest .54 as a good starting calibre for both. Now, a .45 will
 kill both species quite handily, however an outsized critter will "carry" considerable fat and muscle - going larger is a good idea
I think.
.54's make nice rendezvous calibres as well. The "components" for about  any standard calibre are easy to come by, and moulds
of .530" to .535" are also commonly used for .54's.
www.trackofthewolf.com has everything needed. There are also other outlets.
Welcome to the forum, Jack.
To answer your second question about 'gatherings', I would suggest perhaps .50 is the most common calibre, but that might depend
location. Up here in Canada, .54's are REALLY popular, but I suspect in and around Tennessee, .40 might be very popular.
My own personal hunting rifle is a caplock in .69.  It is also my "target" rifle for rendezvous.

[GameStalker]

Thank you friends.
Your answers are very helpful and I appreciate the warm welcome to the forum!

[Jeff Murray]

For recreational shooting, 50 and 54 are probably the most common, although 58 seems to be gaining more attention lately.  You might also consider how much time you will spend firing shots for fun versus firing shots while hunting.  Once sighted in, I have never felt the recoil from heavy hunting loads while actually shooting large game.  Shooting in competition or at a rendezvous style gathering is a whole different story.  If you are recoil sensitive, you may find the larger calibers will not be as pleasant after several shots and may contribute to flinching.  Many experienced shooters can deal with it but for a shooter new to flinters, it is worth considering.

[GameStalker]

Thank you JM

[walt53]

I would go 54 or 58 and smoothbore type butt and you can shoot all day .Walt

[Daryl]

I would go 54 or 58 and smoothbore type butt and you can shoot all day .Walt

Yes indeed. An English or German rifle in a short gun, or in longrifle, hard to beat a nice Pennsylvania rifle.
This one is in .50, with a 44" bl. No recoil and easy shooting.

[alacran]

If you plan on Black bear, and also have an all-around rifle, .54 would be my choice.
However, rifles are like golf clubs one is not enough.

[mushka]

As far as flintlocks go I have a .54 cal rifle and a .62/20 smoothbore..  They call the .62/20 a smoothbore rifle because  it has a rear sight.  If I was going to hunt deer or elk with one of them it would be the .62 with a patched round ball, reason being is that it is a lot lighter than the rifle.  It's just too darn heavy in the nose to drag around.  I don't own a .50 cal MZ rifle.

[mgbruch]

My barrel source tells me that .50 and .54 calibers are the most common ordered from them.

[GameStalker]

It's Really Great to get all this info from you all!

[tecum-tha]

.62 is mighty good. For me it is actually less important to get full penetration especially on deer.
I have better results on deer with a .50 cal and lower loads than with a .54 and stout loads. It appears that I generally recover the ball nicely deformed which spun around in the lung cavity area and most of these deer walk 10 yards and fall over. Lead goes back in the pot. I am pretty sure the pioneers and longhunters used a similar approach due to resource recovery and powder preservation. With stouter loads I get full penetration but longer tracking with less blood. Based on this, I prefer the smaller load and see them fall.
We generally are not able to shoot past 60 yards in our denser woods.
 

[GameStalker]

Interesting to note!

[walt53]

Hears a question for ya,Have you ever seen how fast a black bear can get up a tree ,woundedor just a little bit unhappy.l have a 54 and would opt for bigger but then are bears are bigger,just saying... WALT

[Hungry Horse]

I’d go .58 just because its easy to get a heavy mini bullet  mold for those times a round ball isn’t enough.

  Hungry Horse

[Bill Raby]

Tanner can get you any size mold you want in a few weeks. Making a cleaning jag is very easy. Availability of caliber stuff does not matter. I have a 4 bore. That is about as oddball size as you can get. I have no problem at all getting supplies for it.

[Daryl]

My buddy Keith has a rifle Taylor built, just after Keith saw my .69 in 1986, except this one followed Track's Rigby or Purdey pattern, seems to me.
Keith's rifle is in .75 cal with a deep groove Don Getz bl.  Keith has shot a lot of moose with it and is having a bear hunt with his sons this spring,
all of them using ML's.  They will end up with 3 black bears - pretty much guaranteed. The boys will be using commercial .54's, most likely & hopefully
patched round balls. They will do the trick very well.
Keith's .75, shooting .735" balls with 120gr. 2F, has been a moose killer par excellence - for 16 years, both in the regular season and in the special
weapon's season up North of here.  He started with 200gr. 2F, then year after year, reduced the load until he could produce a ball - that was at 120
gr. 2F.  A black bear will not stop one of those balls.  He uses nothing but alloyed (hard) lead in the .75, but commercial swaged Hornady or Speer balls
 in his .54's.

[Dphariss]

Greetings To All,

1- Can you all tell me the flintlock rifle caliber that's MOST prevalent,
among the folks who hunt white-tailed deer through black bear?
2- Can you all tell me, regarding the participants with flintlock rifles at
the big gatherings, [ https://sepr.nrlhf.org/ ] which of the big
calibers, [ .45 and up ] do you see the most?

I'm going to buy a flintlock rifle for the reasons above. I want to be
able to obtain the supplies to shoot it as easily as possible!

Back in the day the most common calibers were 44 and 50. This is born out by the writings of Col. Hanger and J.J. Henry during the American Revolution. There were bigger calibers. But they apparently were not common. Cost too much to shoot.
I would go with a 54 caliber. 50 is a great deer killer and my favorite caliber for most hunting. 58 is an option too but in 54-58 stock design gets a lot more important. Its easier to get a flat trajectory with the 50-54.
45 caliber is not a large bore in a FL or any ML. Its big enough for deer but the ball is pretty light.

[Dphariss]

Commenting on Daryl's post. RB rifles over 58 are the real power houses. But I would not make and "American" rifle over 58. Bigger than this is English Sporting Rifle land.
A 69 caliber rifle is suitable for Indian Elephant with hard lead and 137 grains of powder. This from "The Sporting Rifle and Its Projectiles" by James Forsythe who hunted extensively in India with a "14 bore", 69 caliber, rifle using a "#15 ball".
This a fairly heavy rifle (for an English rifle of this caliber) using a "#16" ball (one ounce) and 140 gr of FF. 1600 fps. Stock design has to be right.



This is 4-5 gal jug if water at about 40 yards.

[GameStalker]

Thanks for the videos, especially showing how the shooters bodies move after
firing the 16 bore rifle! And thank you all for the supply of details that you've
provided to me in this thread. Nothing beats experience, and when you share it,
you really are being quite helpful.

[Daryl]

Here's a mere 140gr. 2F with the .69 and a .682" ball.
Note in Dan's video, as well as my firing picture, how the shoulder is driven back and down, with the face lifting off the comb.
My rifle is almost at the peak. Taylor "caught' the picture an inch or 2 below it's top travel.
No cheek smack with this 'English' design. The German Jaeger is very similarly stocked as to comb and heel angles.
These guns do not hurt, due to the wide butt and 9 to 9 1/2 pound weight. In Forsyth's day, the 14 bore  double barreled rifles
weighed in the 9 1/2 pound range.

[Ezra]

The old saying that .50 caliber is the big side of small and the small side of big, I think puts that very handy caliber in perspective.  I have a .50 & .58.  I used the .58 on a muledeer a couple of years ago and I will just say, it was quite effective.😳. 

Ez