Don't Underestimate My Big Lead Balls!

[floridaheat]

So as some of you remember I have a very large flintlock… About .91 cal. Well I finally got around to "testing" some round balls. And by testing I mean shooting random things. First off was a 15lb propane tank (empty of course) and sadly I do not have a picture, but the whole side of the tank caved in and there was a 1 inch hole in both sides.

Next was a poor pumpkin.
http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu328/wiswarsniper/2015-11-16_18.32.42-1_zpshzrfsw9x.png

Just kidding, here it is:

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu328/wiswarsniper/pumpkin_zps9g6o3i4k.jpg

No pumpkin explosion, just a 1 inch entry and 2 inch exit. Oddly anticlimactic.

So by this point I was getting desperate for something cool so I shot a tree. It was about 4 inches across and now has a clean hole through.

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu328/wiswarsniper/Screen%20Shot%202015-11-16%20at%205.59.38%20PM_zpsrjr98qdt.png

My friend decided to bet me $5 that his military surplus kevlar helmet could stop it. After the previous shots I was sure I would be a Rich man. Well I lost. Not to say I went quietly, the helmet got launched about 20 feet and was all but flipped inside out. Yet the ball, which was cast from pure WWs, did not even penetrate a layer.

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu328/wiswarsniper/DSC_0291_zpswqrbkzyl.jpg

So lessons learned: Round balls may not be fast, but the energy retention is insane! Momentum kills. Keep your ranges to reasonable distances, that helmet was hard to hit the first 3 times. And as always, heavier is better when it comes to big balls. :bigsmyl2:

Oh, and recoil is fun… More so at other people's expense...

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu328/wiswarsniper/ezgif.com-video-to-gif_zpspxi4pcea.gif

[pworley1]

That looks like fun. I enjoyed your post.

[M-Tecs]

Looks to have a little push.

[floridaheat]

Looks to have a little push.

It throws you around, but isn't really hard on the shoulder until you start to load above 175grs of powder

[rodwha]

Nice!

What does a pure lead ball weigh?

Any idea what kind of velocity you are getting?

Intend on doing any hunting with it?

[floridaheat]

No idea on the pure lead weight, but my WW balls cast at 1050grs. Velocity is about 650 fps at 150 grs and a punishing 720 at 200grs. No hunting as of yet, but I plan on taking something in the future.

[rodwha]

Do post your results when you do! Might not even have to gut 'em with that thing!

[floridaheat]

I actually don't think the results will be THAT graphic. The ball expands to about 2 inches, but it mainly.just punches a clean hole... Albeit a very large one

[PbHurler]

Yeah baby, LOVE the slow-mo!

Thanks for posting this

[Hickok]

Thanks for the great post.

It always amazes me when people today bemoan the fact that during the Civil war, "Butchering doctors cut off the arms and legs of soldiers hit with lead minie slugs and round balls." And yes there were a lot of large caliber roundballs used in that conflict too.

Fact is, the massive damage done by large lead balls and slugs propelled by blackpowder would yet today require amputation by modern medicine if an arm or leg were hit. Bone and muscle damage done by these lead projectiles is extensive.

[GhostHawk]

Great post, keep em coming.

[imashooter2]

Might not have penetrated, but the head in that helmet would be a little worse for wear...

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Yes, I think you got the wording wrong on that bet. It is a remarkable performance, since the helmet is supposed to be an improvement on the steel helmets used in the World Wars, which usually left a man unhurt after being hit by a shrapnel ball of about 5/8in. diameter, from the sort of shell that shoots them like a shotgun in mid-air. When you consider that that imparted velocity is added to what they had in the shell, I don't think they could have been much slower than yours.

Round ball from a smoothbore of this size is surely far better than trying to make an elongated slug work, and being out the cost of a very expensive mould if it doesn't.

[big bore 99]

Thanks for posting. It looks like fun for sure. I just can't take that recoil anymore.

[Tackleberry41]

.91 cal, I guess being a flintlock gets it around some of those odd ATF rules?

It may not have penetrated that helmet, but doubt if someone was wearing it they would survive. A .91 cal hole or their neck broken, they would still get a huge chunk of energy from that ball.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

.91 cal, I guess being a flintlock gets it around some of those odd ATF rules?

It may not have penetrated that helmet, but doubt if someone was wearing it they would survive. A .91 cal hole or their neck broken, they would still get a huge chunk of energy from that ball.


broken neck , caved in skull , who needs a hole

[floridaheat]

In layman's terms the ATF isn't bothered by traditional muzzleloaders. I am not a lawyer.

Also, he distance that helmet flew was shocking. Would have snapped a neck for sure.

[gunauthor]

I'm not much into muzzleloaders, but that one looks like fun. Keep us up to date when you go hunting with it.

[Beerd]

If that helmet was strapped to something solid so it wouldn't move, like a tree stump, I'll bet you would have had at least one hole.
..

[rfd]

next time, instead of w-w's, cast a few pure lead balls and watch what happens on impact. :bigsmyl2:

[Win94ae]

Very cool!

[TCLouis]

Next time cut a small hole in the pumpkin, fill it with water, then shoot it and report the results.

I'm thinking had that helmet been strapped on a head, the result would still be the person wearing it would be dead, head trauma or broken neck.

[floridaheat]

next time, instead of w-w's, cast a few pure lead balls and watch what happens on impact.

In the helmet picture you can see the WW ball nearly flattened. It was almost 2 inches across!

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Thanks for the great post.

It always amazes me when people today bemoan the fact that during the Civil war, "Butchering doctors cut off the arms and legs of soldiers hit with lead minie slugs and round balls." And yes there were a lot of large caliber roundballs used in that conflict too.

Fact is, the massive damage done by large lead balls and slugs propelled by blackpowder would yet today require amputation by modern medicine if an arm or leg were hit. Bone and muscle damage done by these lead projectiles is extensive.

Civil War medical services were surprisingly good, when they weren't overwhelmed in the big battles. The army didn't want brilliant reconstructive surgery on one, at the expense of losing ten. You can't wait until it becomes obvious that a major war is going to last, and then start training extra doctors for it. They had laudanum and ether and understood antiseptics, and some say Lincoln might have stood a chance if they had dragged in a young military surgeon from the street, rather than letting the Surgeon-General have a go. Survival of hospital admissions with penetrating wounds of the skull was astonishingly good, partly because I too a lot more than a helicopter trip with a saline drip and morphine to get admitted. Even Napoleon's Dr. Larrey, in his memoirs, stands out as a gifted surgeon rather than a limb-lopper, when he had the chance.

Severe shattering of the major bones was indeed an almost inevitable amputation case. The Minié ball was found more likely to cause that damage than the round ball, at least when fired from far enough away for the latter to have lost much of its velocity. A long-range round ball (which meant one hitting more or less by chance) had more chance of glancing off, and at any range it was less likely to sever the resilient walls arteries have when they exit the body trunk.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

In the helmet picture you can see the WW ball nearly flattened. It was almost 2 inches across!

Yes, I think softer or harder lead would both have been more likely to fly off in fragments, leaving a shallower dent and the subject only slightly dead. There are few situations in which that would really matter. Hitting a Cape buffalo on the horns, perhaps, but do you really want to do that?

[Geezer in NH]

Dead is dead period. No such thing as overkill by the way, repeat first sentence.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Dead is dead period. No such thing as overkill by the way, repeat first sentence.

Nor underkill either, unless it is the non-fatal kind, which doesn't seem likely in this case.

[BigEyeBob]

Awesome , looks like fun .Interesting fire arm any history to it?
An associate of mine , has a Tolley four bore double rifle that's fun to shoot , not a muzzle loader but runs on BP and launches 1/4lb conical lead projectiles
He machines the cases out of brass on his lathe for it .