I'm looking for some reloading recipes for a "buck and ball" 12gauge load.and to see if anyone has actually made one. And if so, what kind of performance did you get? I tried the search function here, and Google and didn't come up with anything.
I'll admit, I haven't been hunting in about 10 years but am an unashamed phone-book and water jug blasting redneck. And just kind of looking for a round to mess up old PC cases and the occasional broken printer with. (I'm only half joking...)
Wikipedia tells me that the Civil War issue was a .69 caliber round ball and 3 "buckshot pellets" (size? O?). And they had a study that claims that while less accurate than a Minie ball out to 200 yards, the chance of at least 1 pellet hitting for the buck and ball was better.
Then again, maybe with modern (faster) rounds, buck and ball is a solution in search of a problem. Just stick with something like OOO buck and call it done?