Daryl,
my info on the effectiveness of round balls v. conical ones in the Civil War may be a bit apocryphal. Now that you press me on it, I think it was Thomas Kenneally's novel 'Confederates'. Respected writer he may be but I guess novelists don't always make great historians. But then maybe it's me that got it back the front.

If I may show my ignorance yet again: by the time trajectory becomes important in hunting shots,
wouldn't superior wind resistance properties in conical bullets generally see them hold up better than round balls? I ask this because I grew up with the truism that high velocity shotgun cartridges don't carry the shot faster for very long, because of wind resistence properties of round balls, but are favoured because they open up the patterns from overly choked gun and allow them to hit more game.

Thanks for your explanations.
- Paul