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Free Trapper
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Morning brothers and sisters,
Well I officially got three and three quarter gallons of oil off my bear! that has to be some kinda record. A couple of things about soft lead round balls that I have been shooting for years I would like to impart to you. Some may already know this some may not and find this information invauable.
I have recovered many round balls over the years from animals I have harvested. I use between 100 and 110 grns of FFG and FFFG Goex black powder for my 50 and 54 cal large game rifles.
I try never to hit bone with a soft lead ball first and for most.
I will get into that in a bit.
My 54 cal Leman with 110 Grns of FFG Goex chronographs at 1860 FPS and will give me flat trajectory out to 100 yrds. At 30 yards or less on a heart/lung shot my soft lead ball flattens out to a quarter and will stop in the first lung. At 60 yrds the ball will not disrupt/obturate and you will get clean pass through( my favorite for blood trails) at 100 yrds( the farthest I will shoot a lg game animal) the ball will not disrupt and will be caught by the hide on the opposite side the animal was shot on. So as your ball slows down and does not hit bone it will pass through vital organs and will not flatten out as it does at higher speeds and goes farther into the body of the animal creating more/quicker blood loss.
Hitting bone with a soft lead ball is a bad idea IMHO, but I have done it and recovered the ball and the animal. A few years ago I killed a elk in high winds at 90 yrds. The wind deflected my ball into the shoulder blade and I only caught one lung. The ball was almost cut in half.
This year I shot my Bear in the side of the head as she was popping her teeth and swaying her head back and forth. The ball caught her right in front of her ear going through her brain and into the neck and spine. I was shooting a 54 cal round ball with 110 grns of FFG Goex. I was hoping to recover the ball but all I found was lead fragments in the neck. THE BALL HADE COMPLETLY DISINTERGRATED! the shot was at 20 ft. Note the 54 cal roundball infront of the bear skull and the hole it made.
Now on a seperate topic. This fall and most falls,summers and winters I sleep in my bed roll and do so in cold weather very comfortably.
One of the secrets is my canvas rock bag. As a young boy all I had in the woods was a surplus wool blanket. My grandfather told me about what he and all the old times did back in the day and that was to have a small heavy canvas bag and before you get into your blanket you put a double fist size rock in the fire and when it's hot enough you take it out and cool it until it passes the spit test. That is where it does not sizzle any more when you spit on it.You then wrap it in your canvas bag and put it in the bottom of your bedroll,blanket,hide etc.. I have used this method all my adult life and have been warm even on the coldest nights. I used this method at a winter camp on the old CO land with the RMO and after the first night I had converted more than a couple of brothers to this method. A lot of you know this some may not.
Adios for now.


slow is smooth, smooth is fast
 
Posts: 197 | Location: the backwoods of Gunnison CO | Registered: 04 July 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Good info. Interesting. Thanks


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.
 
Posts: 1296 | Location: Cherokee Land, Tenasi | Registered: 06 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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VERY good info,thanks.....The WIFE will bring a hot water bottle to bed in the Winter.In spite of the fact that we have no heater/woodstove going through the night,and my wife is kinda cold-blooded,we are always comfy.Getting out of bed the next morning to get the stove/heater going is a trial,but it's something I can deal with,I grew up with it...


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Graybeard
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Good info!


Experience is the best teacher, hunger good sauce.
Osborne Russell Journal of a Trapper
 
Posts: 212 | Location: SW Montana | Registered: 17 December 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Free Trapper
Picture of TurkeyCreek
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Nathan,
Thanks for all that hard won information! And congrats on all that wonderful bear oil.
I too use 110 grains of FFg Goex as my hunting load in my .54 flinter and it has never failed me.


"They do not live their lives 'by your leave'! They hack it out of the wilderness with their own two hands, bearing their children along the way!" - Cora Monroe - "Last Of The Mohicans"
 
Posts: 186 | Location: Turkey Creek on Cimarron Drainage | Registered: 10 September 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Hivernant
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This has been a great story, with excellant info! Thanks!
 
Posts: 101 | Location: Davidsville , PA | Registered: 10 August 2016Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of wattlebuster
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Good info Nathan. Experience talking


Nothing beats the feel of a handmade southern iron mounted flintlock on a crisp frosty morning
 
Posts: 354 | Location: Heart of DIXIE | Registered: 18 November 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Congratulations, looks lie you have enough bear oil to last a while. There is a guide in AK whose wife makes him hunt black bear so that she can render out the lard, she uses it for baking and wants nothing else.
 
Posts: 353 | Location: Pocono Mts. in PA | Registered: 12 June 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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I shoot 65 grains of 3f and a .490 ball in my Lancaster. It has a 44" Colraine barrel. I have shot deer from 20 to 80 yards with this load. Always a clean pass through.
 
Posts: 552 | Location: SC | Registered: 03 May 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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