Question for may far north countrymen

[Fly]

Will a .54 cal patch round ball take down something as large as a moose or brown bear?

Fly

[Dean D.]

IMHO it would be the smallest caliber I'd pick. If it were me I'd pick a .62 or a .58 at least. I'm not expert though.

[waksupi]

I'm with Dean.

[Hickory]

Just one of those lifestyles that might disqualify you from Obamacare.

[junkpile]

I'd go with at least a 58, preferably larger. Save the 54 for caribou. A friend of mine was looking for an inline a few months ago, was having a hard time finding anything above 50 for some reason. Ended up not finding what he was after.

[mooman76]

They don't make too many inlines in bigger than 50 cal. I think the 54 would do ok for moose as long as you do your job. For Browns I would want as big as I could get at least a 58.

[starmac]

I would not think a guy was undergunned at all for moose with a 54. For brownbear, it is quite possible a guy might just have one chance to find out.
All that said, I am seriously wanting to move up to 58.

[Hickory]

I had a 58 caliber H&R Huntsman back in the 70's.
Got a frontal shot on a whitetail, it went clear through,
and left a fist size hole in the hind quarters.

Maybe I'm getting old, but, I don't think I'd use a 58 on a moose.
If you don't get a good shot on it, they can get really upset.
And might want to do a Mexican hat dance on you.

[ElDorado]

Lewis and Clark used 54 caliber rifles. They killed quite a few grizzlies, but it doesn’t always kill them right away.

http://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu...gard.01.04.xml


"Every shooting of a grizzly was a highly risky undertaking. One enormous 600-pound male required ten shots to bring it down. On May 14 six men set out to kill a grizzly bear. Although all six lead balls hit the bear, it attacked, and only after two more bullets struck it, one in the head, did it finally collapse, just before reaching its closest human target."

http://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu...1805-07-02.xml

From Lewis’ journal:
”After I had completed my observation of Equal Altitudes today Capt. Clark Myself and 12 men passed over to the large Island to hunt bear. the brush in that part of it where the bear frequent is an almost impenitrable thicket of the broad leafed willow; this brush we entered in small parties of 3 or four together and surched in every part. we found one only which made at Drewyer and he shot him in the brest at the distance of about 20 feet, the ball fortunately passed through his heart, the stroke knocked the bear down and gave Drewyer time to get out of his sight; the bear changed his course we pursued him about a hundred yards by the blood and found him dead; we surched the thicket in every part but found no other, and therefore returned. this was a young male and would weigh about 400 lbs. “

[Wayne Smith]

Ned Roberts, in his "The Muzzle Loading Caplock Rifle" tells of a bear hunt or two. Realize that these were black bears. His conclusion is that he would never go bear hunting with a single shot. He used a double rifle.

While you ask a good question I think you are undergunned no matter the caliber if you only have one shot!

[OverMax]

Will a .54 cal patch round ball take down something as large as a moose or brown bear?

Absolutely if the shot is dead center of where you want it to be on moose. Within 50-75 yards. I wouldn't hesitate using my 54 and patched ball for the purpose {no brown bear experience and but I've seen huge blacks here.} Haven't shot a black with my 54 either. I don't intentionally hunt bears. Their more of a nuisance for me than anything else.

[waksupi]

I think you should just have me build you a .62!

[KyBill]

If I go Grizzly Hunten I know to take 7 hunters with me

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

I am not saying I wouldn't bring a backup gun , but sure , a friend took a black bear with a 50 cal muzzle loading pistol and a conical , a 54 round ball at 40 yards is going to have more thump than a pistol. just maybe not standing on the ground with it , he was in a tree stand shooting down on the bear but said he was very surprised with the penetration for a pistol.


other wise a , maxi or real from a 54 would sure do the trick

[starmac]

I think a 54 especially with a conical is plenty to kill a grizzly. The problem is grizzlys often don't realize they are dead for a while and can wreak havoc till they figure it out.

[Dirty30]

Your .54 will kill a moose easily with good shot placement. I've never shot a brown bear, so I cannot speak to that. I load PRB over 90 gr. of FFFG, and it does the trick, but I'd say that's your starting load on anything elk and larger.

[nhrifle]

With proper shot placement it should work fine but for either of those critters I would definitely want a quick backup shot or two. Moose and bear are very tough and have attitude, and if they get riled, the hunter can quickly become the hunted.

[Zymurgy50]

In hunting dangerous game, you dont have to be faster than the lion, just faster than your hunting companions.........

[idahoron]

I have complete confidence in my slightly hardened paper patched 460 grain 500 S&W bullets. I have no doubt that a moose would be toast., but it ain't gonna yank the rug. On the Brown Bear I would not think twice about it. I would shoot it in a heart beat. I would like to have a back up, but in the end I trust that load even with my life. Ron

[Lead Fred]

We take down elk with 54s all the time. They be big critters.

45/70 is what was used to take down buff, yeah its a heavier round (405) but its going WAY slower that a PRB