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451whitworth - Glad it works for you.

The slug shooters I've seen merely wounded everything they shot at (moose)- almost without exception. That cost us our primitive weapons season.

The round balls shooters, on the other hand, killed everything they shot at (moose or deer), & with one ball, whereas the slug shooters here, used up to 4 to kill a moose. Those were the guys who actually went after them, tracking them from bed to bed, litterally shooting them "limb from limb".

I need to edit this- obviously.

One fellow used a PH Whitworth or Volunteer rifle with 480gr. soft cast FN bullets and got his moose on that special weapons trip, every year for several years until it was cancelled. The last straw according to the game branch was due to scope sighted Knight inline rifles shooting pistol bullets.

He, as you, was using a proper bullet for the job and a rifle designed for shooting bullets. The fellows who seemed incapable of killing a moose with their slugs, were shooting TC Maxiballs in TC rifles & the Italian TC knockoffs. On moose, their bullets did not travel in a straight line after impact as they bounced off bones, deflecting all over the soft tissues. A rib shot usually deflected back into the guts, or forward into the leg, or even followed the hide underneath the animal, never entering the rib cage - it was a horrific waste of moose. I heard "I got maxi's into 3 today".

"After the season" flyovers, plus metal detector examinations, convinced the game branch that muzzleloaders could not kill moose. The scoped inlines were merely the last straw. I still hate them.

The game guys sat in our camp drinking coffee the last year of that hunt. It was around -40F and a bit might chilly to leave the tent. We sat, drank coffee and they talked to us about our sport. They told us of checking 3 trucks ont he way in, everyone with a scope sighted, bolt actioned muzzleloading rifle. They told us this was the last season that it was going to be cancelled. They told us every bullet they removed from lost moose, was a lead slug with really big, deep grease grooves, and a cone point that collapsed instead of expanding. They told us the bullets they'd found, were never in line with the entrance hole, that they had bounced off the bones and didn't break any, even ribs. They told us they NEVER found a lost moose with a round ball in it, but had started finding what looked like short pistol bullets. They asked about pistol bullet shooting Knights.

They told us if everyone was hunting with guns like ours, with round balls, the season wouldn't have been cancelled. As we were the only ones out of some 25 hunters in that at that time, the season was now lost. In camp was a .69, 20 bore and a double .58 - all round ball guns, of course.

In the 1800's, for hunting purposes, slugs did not become popular until they could be loaded into ctgs. Slugs in muzzleloaders in the 1800's had a tendency of sliding up the bore and then blowing the gun up when it was fired. Slugs and muzzleloaders did not work well together in America or India for that matter. Most were hollow based in the pattern of the minnie and made for guns of all bore sizes. Those who tried them in India, quickly went back to round balls, even Samual Baker, who stated that slugs almost got him killed on several occasions with dangerous game - such that "I at length gave up the conical as useless". As long as a round ball will go through and through an Elephant's head, I see no reason to risk the 'shaking' the stock nor of the extra recoil to the shoulder.

The Whitworth, a small bore military rifle was pretty close to the only one that was suitable - if loaded with the appropriate bullets - then and today - for North American game shooting.

Back then, it was deemed too small for serious game shooting. They were right, as serious game shooting meant dangerous game. It's bore was too small to be effective. Now, there are other rifles like the Lyman with 28" twist in .50 and .54 cal. that is also suitable for NA - but there few people willing to do what is necessary in testing to make them effective.

Edited by Daryl_S (15/02/12 05:08 AM)