A while back I picked up a .454" round ball mold and I've been trying to find a useful load for my RNV. My last round ball experiment with 45 caliber round balls in my RNV showed some promise so I gave it another try. This time I used 6 grains of Red dot which averaged 730 fps out of my 5.5" Ruger New Vaquero. At 25 yards the load prints about 8" lower than point of aim (POA).
The25 yard Round ball group is below the target on the cardboard. The group in the bull is a 255 grain Lee bullet over a slightly off the reservation load of SR4756 (~925 fps).
To be useful in the field for plinking and small game it would need to print closer to point of aim but even at 25 feet the group was lower than what I would consider practical for field use.
25 foot target - 5 shot 255 grain load in center of the bullseye, the RB load (2 shots) at the bottom of the bull.
The cases came out sooty but not as bad as they came out of my Marlin 1894CB.
After the serious work of testing was done I decided to have a little fun and see how the RNV and the 255 gr load would do at 100 yards. Shooting at an 16 x 16 inch target paper I would aim just above the target and the shots would print on the lower half I estimate that load drops about 12" at 100 yards. It takes a while to get there. Blast....thud.
Good fun day at the range!