Chasing the wind

[Nobade]

I just spent a most enjoyable afternoon on our club's highpower silhouette range with my 1863 Springfield replica, a big bag of .570" balls, and a can of Diamondback FFg. I wanted to see if it was possible to hit the targets with that rifle and see what it takes to learn to read the wind for shooting balls. At first I was hitting way off, but as I shot more and learned just how far a round ball will drift in the wind, I had a lot of really close shots and even a few hits. The wind was switchy in direction and speed, so it made the practice all that more interesting. I burned up most of that can of powder playing around and now have a lot of respect for what a large round ball can do at really long ranges (for balls anyway.) And yes, they will knock over the rams if you hit them.

This was a very fun and educational outing. If you have a chance to shoot your round ball gun somewhere you can see the hits and tell what is going on, give it a try. You may be amazed at what you can do with some practice!

[DIRT Farmer]

I managed to wack the 200 yd chicken with my 40 Friday. The wind was swirling 3/4 value to direct head wind and the little ball was crawling all over the place. It's a lot of fun even with a rifle that dosen't have enough to knock them over but will still ring them.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

We had our 4h Muzzle loader shoot Sunday , our range is an old gravel pit , wind was all of over the place , and blowing hard , but in that hole in the ground the firing line would have a steady 20mph wind but he 50 yard line would be near still , and swirling at the targets , it was blowing over rams and turkeys

to make it even more interesting the kids have to use a patch round ball and a max of 60gr of powder

it made the ring of dropping a ram all that much more sweet

if they clip the ram in the hind leg , it looks like the target is spinning in slow motion before it goes over