Cast round ball, black powder and a 220 year old musket

[Big Goose]

Hope these pictures post OK,
Had a great day with a Liege, Belgium contract musket( French model 1777) that was manufactured right around 1800. a nice cow buffalo, used 88 grains of Swiss 1 & 1/2f, wasp nest wadding, and a patched .662 roundball, . as cast they weigh 433 grains, the recovered ball was almost through the hide on the far side, still weighs 427 grains. I think I'll hammer it round and use it for another hunt. It broke a rib on the way in punched through the right lung, top of the heart, left lung and took a little chunk out of the left shoulder bone on the way out. Distance was a little over 75 yards, shoots pretty well for an old smoothbore.
Big Goose

[geslayton]

That’s pretty cool!! Congratulations!!


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[Cosmic_Charlie]

Wow.

[white eagle]

Very well done
something about hunting with patched round ball
it just seems so simple yet so very effective
nice score, enjoy

[prisondoc]

Very cool [emoji41]. Thanks for sharing.

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[ttd444]

nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Kimber1911]

That is too cool!!!

[armoredman]

She's still got it...

[725]

Outstanding. Well done.

[GregLaROCHE]

Amazing! Congratulations. Were you using pure lead in that round ball or was it alloyed a bit?

[Markopolo]

can I get a steak?????

Awesome Job!!!! gotta love them RB!

[hawkenhunter50]

That is the neatest thing I've seen in quite some time, very awesome. Thanks for sharing. Enjoy those burgers.

[45workhorse]

But but it wasn't going 3,500 fps, and it is lead......

Nice rifle, and good shooting.

[ChristopherO]

Pure Magic how powder, lead and flint still work so darn well. Congratulations on a fine rifle and buffalo.

[Edward]

Hunting with a great gun and the method is outstanding (BP +patched RB) !/Ed

[trapper9260]

You done great and nice to hear what you used and out come of it all. Enjoy your work you put into it now. Glad for you .

[Beerd]

Well all righty then!!!
..

[quilbilly]

Now that is impressive! PRB strikes again!

[smoked turkey]

That is so awesome. I like everything about your hunt. A hearty and well deserved congratulations.

[obssd1958]

Dream hunt, Big Goose! Congratulations!!

[Ernest]

simply amazing. Smooth bore @ 75 yards! Congratulations.

[Iwsbull]

Very cool indeed

[Mark Daiute]

But but it wasn't going 3,500 fps, and it is lead......

Nice rifle, and good shooting.

this aint a rife this is a musket!

[T-Bird]

this whole thing has got "cool" written all over it. Not just a muzzle loader- a 220 year old musket from when that's all they had. Not just any animal taken- a bison! Not any modern "hitech" muzzle loading projectile- a PRB! Not blackpowder sub- real black! Too bad you couldn't find any old powder to use too!:bigsmyl2: well done sir!

[Big Goose]

Gosh, you know I could have... I do have about 10 pounds of very old Curtiss & Harvey fine sporting rifle powder. A friend of mine's great Grandpa had it. He said it was from sometime in the early 1920s. So not 19th century but still close to 100 years old. I have used it in my BPCR rifles( nice powder- shoots well, a little less velocity than Swiss, but softer fouling) and just didn't think about it for this hunt....
The alloy is very close to pure lead but does have some tin. probably 50/1 or so. I typically cast pretty soft boolets for the Spencers and second Allin Springfield at 30/1, and there was a couple pounds of that left in the pot when I fill it with soft sheet lead. The little bit of tin in the mix does seem to cast really well. Made a bunch of round balls and a bunch of .577 Minie boolets for the Savage Revolving Arms Co. contract 1861 Springfield musket..
But I really love the old flintlocks, don't have to worry about percussion caps, (or primers, or brass) just powder and ball. and the smoothies are handy for buck shot or fine shot as well...)

[gunseller]

That is beyond cool. The oldest rifle I have shot is a 1804. And only at targets. Where did you hunt. Friend of mine shot a buffalo last year and where he went he could only use a scoped rifle.
Steve

[missionary5155]

Greetings Big Goose and Double Congratulations !!
That is a fine looking Buff you have there ! And a very fine looking flintlock ! I salute you from afar ! Well done and thank you for the write-up !
You are a man after my own heart. We have a couple old flinters that have been hunting. The oldest so far after corn crunchers is an 1819 Hall in .54. A couple old muskets have only been out crow popping.
Can you add where and how you got the tag for a cow Buff ?

[lar45]

Most excellent, I like it! I like it a lot!

[thadfz]

That’s a neat hunt… happy for you [emoji106]


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[smithnframe]

Ver cool!

[barrabruce]

I proudly bow and tip my hat to you Sir.
Well done.

[tward]

Bison are always impressive! Thanks for sharing! Tim

[Daekar]

Am I the only one that is super impressed at the use of wasp nest material for wadding? I didn't know that was a thing, very cool.

[45workhorse]

this aint a rife this is a musket!

Missed my whole point, but to make it better, nice Liege, Belgium contract musket

[BlackPowderLove]

You are my hero, Chris!!! I still want you to adopt me as one of your sons... I promise to not knock anyone in the head with a bess... unless they need it

[Low Budget Shooter]

Wow!

[RickinTN]

Geed deal! And a lot of good eating ahead. I can see a little burger but I think she should be fine for steaks.
Good Job!
Rick

[waksupi]

Send me the tongue and marrow bones!

[Big Goose]

Howdy all, been a while , busy with fall harvest, hunting and all, figure I should say thanks for the comments and follow up on some...
Oh Waksupi, you think like I do... the tongue will be cured and smoked( possibly the finest delicacy that exists) and the marrow bones have already been cracked and rendered. Rendered marrow fat is better than butter.
the steaks are excellent, and yes plenty of burger and some choice "chunk 'o hump" roasts..
Isaac, you became Colton's big brother the moment he head butted your Bess buttplate....( and your primitive hunting endeavors match anything we've done)!
Yup, wasp nest makes great wadding under a patched ball, or as a cushion wad over a card wad with a shot load. Great time of the year to find and harvest some right now. A football sized nest will yield a good supply of wadding and its free.
This hunt was on a Reservation in Montana; in 2020 because of Covid most tribal communities were locked down pretty tight and all non band member hunts were cancelled, and it was pretty much the same this fall.. but there was an exception for folks experienced with bison( so as to be able to accommodate social distancing and be independent of a guide pointing out a specific cow) and having a vaccine and negative Covid test to be able to take a cull cow.
That is more challenging than it might seem to some, as there are some 900 animals on over 30,000 acres and to select a single old cow that isn't all bunched up in the herd is pretty tricksome. I wound up (after several failed stalks and/ or ambush sites) hunkered against the steep cutbank of a coulee downstream of an old earthen dam. The herd is like to move through that natural swale and I was literally standing on a deep rutted buffalo trail. I heard buffalo grunts right at the top of the bank above me and when I stepped out a bit to take a peek, I saw the shaggy top knot of a big old cow not 15 to 20 feet away. she saw me about the same instant, her eyes rolled and she wheeled to the north. rocks and gravel came spattering down the bank. At least several dozen buffaloes followed that old cow and though they were less than 20 yards , they were running and quartering almost straight away, no chance for a shot at all. I just tucked back against the bank and waited , sure enough a big part of that herd came galloping to my left , on the opposite side, running towards the top of the old dam embankment. At the nearest point they were only maybe 60 yards away There was that nice old alpha cow out in front, and she slowed to a trot and then a walk. She was a couple of buffalo lengths in front of the nearest one following and about 75 yards away from me, but at that point getting farther with every step. I had the old flint musket up and tucked the front blade so I could just barely see the forward barrel band , lined it up with the right edge of the tang screw slot, and swung the muzzle so that the blade was just above and a bit forward of her shoulder. That huge lock sparked like a dragon and the fine powder in the cavernous pan flashed, almost instantly the musket belched a dull orange flash and cloud of white smoke; I could hear the ball strike flesh(almost like a hand clap). sort of a keerboom-splat. She kicked in the air like a donkey kicking at a bee sting and leaped over the far side of the embankment. I reloaded with a paper cartridge with buffaloes streaming past... pretty awesome moment. She only made two big jumps towards the dry reservoir on the far side of the hill and collapsed. The ball had punched a thumb size hole through the top of her heart and she had expired quickly.
There are several tribal nations , as well as private outfits that offer bison hunts. Covid has thrown a wrench into that for now.. but I recently noted that the Yellowstone herd is being reduced and many of those will likely go to one of the quarantine herds in the Intertribal Bison Cooperative. After several years in a quarantine and tested regularly those animals are released on various tribal lands.
.
Anyways, here's a couple pics of the deer I got during our muzzle-loader season.( Hope they post OK) Used my 1861 Springfield Savage Revolving Arms contract musket made in 1863. .577 old style Minie boolet ( 515 grains) over 60 grains of Olde Eynesford 2 f, blackpowder. Just a shade over 100 yards. My wife asked me to shoot a nice fat nubby buck or doe, I thought this was the biggest doe ever, but turned out to be a big old skinny buck that had already lost his antlers. She was so disappointed, but you know he's pretty good tasting.. not "bucky" like I expected. and a big fellow for sure, without the hide, head or lower legs weighed just over 190 pounds on my balance beam meat scale. got 60 pounds of burger besides the hams( going to turn them into venison pastrami) and loin steaks.
Nice way to end the season!293274293275293276

[Beerd]

NICE!
ya can't beat fun for a good time!
..

[thadfz]

@Big Goose. That was a great read!! Thanks for sharing [emoji1662][emoji106]


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[Smoke4320]

Just goes to prove what killed 200 years ago will strill do the same today.
Congrats
loved the story and the pics

[pilot]

Thanks for posting the story. Sounds like a fantastic hunt. Congrats on the buck, too.

And that pastrami recipe... Please feel free to post it. :grin: