In hunting with traditional black powder, can you use a Minie ball?

M

michael

Active member
Joined
May 11, 2008
Messages
2,105
Reaction score
0
Points
36
Cabala's carries a pretty good line of Black Powder stuff. I don't know about the civil war era Minnie Ball but they do carry modern projectiles that you can use instead of a round ball. These bullet shaped projectiles are just a more modern type of Minnie Ball. They are more accurate than the round ball.
 
I know round ones are the usual but is it possible that you could if you wanted to? Does anybody have any insight on how accurately they shoot and where you could get some?
 
Yes, minnie balls can and are often used over a blackpowder load. They are more accurate than round balls and have better range. You can obtain minnie balls from Thompson Center or find them online at Midway USA. A good starting load for a .50 caliber is 70 grains of FFg blackpowder or pyrodex, which is a substitute for blackpowder.
 
well a ball is extreme accurately at 80-100 meters but for longer shots raise the gun up but it depends it your rifle well if you use black powder the gun will have more dirt but black powder is the best powder its too strong but u must know how much to use it depend on the gun and diameter well shot guns 12 use 1/2 of powder well u use very little gun powder my granpa has used from a mortar its propolsion powder the shots were so good but i dont know if that will fAck up ur gun so better go and buy a book from a gun strore or order at ebay well as i told u the balls are the best for close distance.....
 
well a ball is extreme accurately at 80-100 meters but for longer shots raise the gun up but it depends it your rifle well if you use black powder the gun will have more dirt but black powder is the best powder its too strong but u must know how much to use it depend on the gun and diameter well shot guns 12 use 1/2 of powder well u use very little gun powder my granpa has used from a mortar its propolsion powder the shots were so good but i dont know if that will fAck up ur gun so better go and buy a book from a gun strore or order at ebay well as i told u the balls are the best for close distance.....
 
You could, but there's little point. Flat-based conicals work well and are widely available.
 
Yes you can use a mini-ball for BP hunting. However it won’t be accurate worth a damn if the rifling has the wrong rate of twist. BP rifles designed for round balls have a slow rate of twist like 1 in 48, a conical or mini-ball will not be stabilized unless the rate of twist is at least 1 in 32.
To find the rate of twist of your rifling take a cleaning rod and attach enough cleaning patch so it fits tightly in the bore. Now as you push that patch down the bore the rod will turn with the rifling. If it makes one complete revolution in 16 inches the rate of twist is 1 in 16. Meaning one revolution of the bullet in 16 inches. Some BP rifles designed for saboted conicals have a 1 in 16 or 1 in 18 rate of twist.
If you have a rate of twist to the rifling that’s 1 in 32 or faster you can use mini-balls conicals and saboted bullets.
Saboted bullets can create a faster bullet. Say your rifle is a .50 cal, you can get sabots for it to shoot .45 cal or .44 cal bullets that are lighter. I have used sabots to fire copper jacket hollow point .430 pistol bullets in my .50 cal BP rifle with a fast rifling twist with awesome results. It was more accurate and had much more range.

Hope this helps.
 
Back
Top