.54 cal Deer - mission accomplished.

Attachment 27230

My 2014 goal was to harvest a deer using real black powder and patch & ball. Well opening morning I shot this doe. The gun is a Thompson Hawken in .54 cal. I used 230 grain ball, .015 patch and 80 grains of FFFG.

Congrats, Thats an accomplishment!!

Well done and that is a real nice doe. Congrats

Good job man . Love the traditionalists myself . Have a .58 cal Zouve . Lots a fun .

congrates on a nice doe , same gun i used to shoot my bear this fall

Nicely done! Congratulations.

Congrats...Nice kill.

Did you get intersting info from the autopsy ? Was the shot a thru and thru, what distance, how much damage etc etc. ??

Nice...........

Thanks everyone.

MikePal....the shot was about 40 yards. The ball hit a rib and there were 3 or 4 small holes on the opposite side of the chest wall but not thru the hide. Maybe the ball broke apart or they were bone fragments?? I looked for the ball inside but could not locate it. To me it looked like all the energy was impacted in the deer and the damage was extensive. I concluded that the load was good for deer, but if I was moose hunting I should increase the powder charge to say 100 grains.

Thanks...looking at the carcass is how I evaluate a bullets performance...paper targets provide you squat info..it tells you where the ball is going...but totally misses what it's doing. :)

Chances are the ball will still be inside, just a little misshapen. It may have even rolled back into the center cavity and went out with the gut pile.

Yes I would think a .54 would handle 100grs easily. Give the ball a little more enery.