Killing a deer with my .40

[Eric Krewson]

I have killed a deer with every muzzle loader I own except for my .40s, I have two of them, one Tn. rifle I built and a genuine Bogle rifle a great friend gave me. Although not a vintage Bogle rifle it was made by my friend Joe Bogle, a 5th great grandson to the first Joseph Bogle gunmaker in about 1810 and is a dead ringer for the original.

My Bogle rifle;



My Tn. rifle;



Although my friend has killed a pile of deer with a patched round ball out of his .40, I have always felt the .40 ball is just a little light for deer. Of course, any ball in the right spot is lethal. My experience with small diameter patched balls is the deer dies but runs a way before they do, I like short blood trails.

My Tn. rifle has a Green Mountain barrel with a 1 in 48 twist, the Bogle rifle has a 1 in 70 twist. One of Joe's friends has the same barrel on his gun that I have and shoots a 38/40 conical pistol bullet with great accuracy and plenty deer killing power. The same load in my rifle produces 5" groups at 50 yards and not what I want for deer hunting. These bullets weigh 180 gr, a .40 ball weighs around 90 gr.

I have tried several other conical styles in my rifle but didn't get great results. Joe let me borrow the mold for the 38/40 bullets, I cast a bunch of them yesterday.

I have seen the incredible long-range accuracy on you tube by Idaho Lewis using paper patched bullets so that is what I am trying next. After a little research on how to make paper patched bullets, I have made a few; I will give them a try when the next cool front moves through; it is 90 degrees and muggy here now.

[JW_Halverson]

Things I think work in favor of the shooter: 1) bullet placement, nuff said 2) enough energy to pass through and enough to get the projectile to "upset" and expand 3) a deer that doesn't know you are there and is unpressured.

My standard load for my .50's has been 70 grains FFg and a patched roundball. That's really an underpowered load according to many folks that are supposed to be very knowledgeable. I dunno if they are the sort of folks that are making 200 yard shots, but that ain't me. A majority of the deer I have shot have been at 40 yards or less. I got one at 8 yards, Pappy's "sweet spot" for arrowing them!

I'm not a great shot, so I've worked at getting close, being patient, and shootin' when their head is down. None have run far and I consider that a blessing since I really suck at tracking!

Eric, I have a feeling you have enough woodswalker experience in you to be a bit ghostly in the woods, so I know you can catch a deer unawares. I think your .40 ball with a moderately stiff load will certainly pay the freight. After all, .40 and even .36 were common calibers for the longhunters in the Middle Ground.

[Eric Krewson]

I was surprised when my friend Joe said "Ace", the friend who shot cloverleafs with the conicals, only shot 50 gr of 3f behind his bullet. He killed deer out to a hundred yards and probably further on a regular basis, he was also an amazing shot with his rifle.

Joe only shot 45gr of 3F behind his patched ball and got a passthrough at 90 yards on the last big doe he shot.

I have always been in the a bigger is better camp even though I set up my ambushes to me more like traditional bow shots than high power rifle shots. The longest shot I have taken with black powder in recent years is around 50 yards. I load 80-85 gr of 2F behind a .530 round ball that weighs 226 gr. Even with that stout load deer didn't always drop in their tracks even if hit perfectly but they wouldn't go over 25 yards.

When I started shooting a flintlock I was shooting a .44 that had been shot out to almost a .45. I shot a .490 ball pushed by 70 gr of 3F, I killed every deer I shot with that rifle at but one, the one I didn't kill was when I shot offhand, flinched and completely missed the deer. I killed 7 or 8 deer with this rifle before I build myself a Lancaster in .54.

This might be the biggest doe I ever killed, I killed her with the .44, she went 50 yards after the shot like all of the rest.



It is always were you put the ball or bullet that determines your success, not so much what you are shooting.

[PaulN/KS]

50 grains of BP behind a 405gr conical was the accepted 45/70 carbine load for the US Cavalry.
I'd say a 40ish caliber paper patched conical would work just fine with a load along those parameters.