I agree with what keith just posted about round ball penetration with pure lead balls. If you want better penetration try a 1:20 lead tin alloy. Full penetration on this buck using 90 grains of 2F Swiss, the hardened ball hit at the base of the neck where it joins the right shoulder and exited the left rear leg. This rifle is a 14 bore belted ball percussion gun by Wm Moore. Conventional wisdom says it should not shoot, twist rate is 1:32 but it shoots just fine.
Wow, Steve, that is a heck of a fine picture, thank you for sharing it. In every way. Nice mule deer, great original British sporting rifle...nice going. Send it in to DGJ. One thing about those British sporting arms from the 1850s-1890s is that they did all kinds of things that conventional wisdom and maybe physics said they shouldn't do. As you might remember (you sent me an early Lancaster bullet to study), I have aggregated a bunch of British double rifles in BPE and early nitro, and I have been experimenting for four years with every kind of mix of powder, wadding, and bullet alloy in each. Basically re-creating the wheel, but in terms I can understand and apply. This afternoon was another experimentation with a .450 BPE, comparing modern greased felt wads to Dacron, each over a Walter's vegetable fiber wad, and a mere two-grain increase in Olde Eynsford 1.5FG. Dacron wins again, hands-down, guessing because of powder compression. But the Brits used grease felt and "greased cloth" wads over the powder in their cartridges, some of them pretty thick, like 1/4", as opposed to the 1/16" and 1/8" thick felt wads and 0.030"- 0.060" fiber wads we mostly use today. And in fact, the two grains increase in charge actually meant something to the gun. Surprised me. I really do not know much! Nice to have help here. Thanks, guys!
