This has been a very interesting and "informative " discussion. although it wandered a little off corse from the basic theme, I think a disscussion like this can bring out muc vital information
It appears we wound up talking about the killing effect of 100% pure lead projectiles to those containing alloy that keeps the expantion to a much lessor degree. I know many here also do now or have in the past been high-power cartridge rifle shooters. Before the high speed camera became a factor in external ballistics. The experimenting was on water jugs,jello blocks ,phone books, pine boards and animal flesh. Some of the pioneers in this field were Jack o'conners Col. atkins Elmer Kieth and a few other old guys. Both the goverment and ammunition producers paid close attention to what theres old guys were doing. They would have an idea about penetration and expansion and roll their own bulletsn and put it to the test ( sort of like were doing here).
Most here i'm sure know why "ball' or full copper jacket prjectiles were agreed on by the Geneva convention. The ballammo would put a soldier out of action but still do a minimum of bone flesh trama. and up untill Korea it took at least two other soliders to stabalize and remove the wounded person to an aid station. This thery didn't hold true when the n.koreans charged , they just left the dead and wounded on the field and usrd them for traction.
Sorry, I got wandering. The point I'm trying to make is , many here have different theory s as to what is the best kind of wound to inflict to put an animal down as close to the point of impact as possible.Like all subjects in black powder muzzloading we all have our own pet theroys. We are restricted more by bore capasity and the law of dimminishing returns in muzzleloadding than in modern cartridge guns This being the case we should be able to work up what suitsa us as an individual with less experimenting.
There are those of us that feel rapid expansin of the projectile will impart the greatest trama to the animal and tthis is a desireable trait. there are those who feel deep penetration is the way to go. Its my opinion that a combination of the two is best. As with the "ball" ammo used by the military the wound channel is basically the same dia. and the projectile nearly alwas exits near the same dia. as it entered. This would be the case with projectiles cast from ww or lintype. We must also take in consideration that in general we are limited in the largerbore muzzloaders to velocitys UNDER 2500 PSI. Now if we were to look up the tests done by Ed Yard and a few other researchers we will find that to try to drive a large bore muzzleloading projectile beyond this will end up destroying accy. and getting severe punishment on the butt end of the weapon. This is where balance comes into beeing a factor.We need to cast a projectie that we fell will give some expansion and deep or complete through penetration with acceptable accy.
Say we settle on stright ww lead and cast with it. the projectiles will be just slightly lighter than pure lead. We patch and lube with our favorite materials and set up our target at 25 yds. put in a moderate powder load of ,say 130grs. 2f and fire a five round group. if it looks to be good up the charge to 135grs. etc.etc. untill the groupstarts to expand. in the 62cal this may take place at 150 to 160grs. at this point drop back 5grs. and now we are going to check for penetration and expantion. Gather up all the phone books and pack them ia box back to back and fire your new accurate load into the ohone books. measure the number of books or part books it cut through. This test can also be done with pine boards but phone books are cheap. Now if you feel that the penetration is less than what you desire .Cast some more adding lintyp yo the mix and try the penetration test again.
This sounds like a lot of time and work but if you are seeking the ultimate load projectile combination than this is how its done. Remember no matter how much powder you stuff in the bore you reach a point of bore capacity or diminishing returns. Personally I like pure lead and moderate loads. If I;m looking to have a bruised body I'll get kicked by a mule.
