Anyone tried "buck and ball" loads?

[EvilGenius]

Just came across this video lastnight. (I like this guy's channel!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8ogJlaLi3k

Just got me thinking a bit. I know it's meant for smooth bore, but if you can patch a round ball and shoot it out of a muzzleloader. Why couldn't you wrap a slightly larger patch around said ball, maybe add some buck behind it and tie off the now sack and fire that?

A .45-.50+ cal muzzle loader should be good for short range but I wonder if something like what I described works would be more effective.

 

[BHP FAN]

I used to use the cardbard tube at the bottom of cheap wire hangers to load four 00 buck in my Jukar/CVA Kentucky rifle. At twenty five yards I'd get about a four inch spread. More recently I picked up an old Ultra HI flintlock Tower pistol for nostalgia reasons [I had one almost forty years ago] And I've been loading it with forty grains of 2F Goex, and about nine or ten .31 pistol ball, and it's a hoot to shoot.

 

[Patocazador]

Buck and ball was the standard load for American soldiers during the war of independence. The standard gun, however, was a musket (smooth bore).

 

[Panzerschwein]

I'd imagine a rifled bore would cause the buck to spread out dramatically, just like it will in a rifled shotgun bbl.

I was at one time in my life thinking about getting a smooth bore .69 caliber Model 1842 musket so I could shoot buck n' ball out of it! Would be fun!

 

[EvilGenius]

Yeah. I know shotgun loads spread quick in rifled barrel.

But I wonder if the slow twist on muzzle loader rifling would keep it from opening too quickly inside of 25yds or so.

 

[Panzerschwein]

I'm not so sure?? Only one way to know...

Test it!

 

[EvilGenius]

I dont have a rifle.

 

[Phantom Captain]

I have a replica 1842 Springfield .69 smoothie and I've shot tons of buck and ball out of it just for fun. It's a neat load and interesting to shoot from a historical perspective.

I make a simple buck and ball load by using newspaper and thread. I make a cylinder with the newspaper, about two layers thick, twist and tie off the bottom with some thread, add the ball and three buckshot, twist and tie off the top! Voila! Then it's just loading the powder as usual and ramming the "cartridge" down on top. It works just fine. The only thing is if I shoot them repeatedly I do have to clean the bore about every two or three shots. The newspaper is not conducive to easy loading once the bore starts becoming fouled.

 

[Phantom Captain]

Ack, please disregard my above post, I just realized you were asking about shooting it out of a rifle.

 

[Patocazador]

I dont have a rifle.

If you don't have a rifle, what do you have? This is getting confusing.

 

[4v50 Gary]

You don't want to shoot buck 'n ball from a rifle. That was a musket load.

 

[EvilGenius]

If you don't have a rifle, what do you have? This is getting confusing.

I have a couple of C&B revolvers.

I'd like a nice hawken, but gonna have to wait a while for one of those.

This thread was really more of a curiosity.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Buck and ball was the standard load for American soldiers during the war of independence

Actually Bob, the buck-n-ball load of the 18th century usually carried 6 buckshot, and it wasn't the standard load of the Continental Army. At the beginning of the war some of the militia cut musket balls in two, loaded buck and ball, and even drove a nail through the musket ball in some examples, this was discouraged by the Continental officers, as buck-n-ball loads took up metal that would be more effective made into single ball rounds, an iron nail added was thought to damage the barrel of a musket, and cutting the ball was less effective than using a single round...., and the British discouraged the practice by hanging or bayoneting any prisoner found with such cartridges on them or loaded in the musket.

Buck and ball is an anti-personnel round, but the British very quickly learned to charge at open order, NOT shoulder to shoulder where buck-n-ball works best, and to advance at a sort of "jogging-shuffle" speed... making the B&B load pretty ineffective. The Continentals weren't disciplined enough to wait until the last possible moment to fire, and the Brits would close to bayonet range before they could reload.

Not really sure where the load of 130 grains comes from that is mentioned in the video..., all the sources that I've read have the powder load for military rifled-muskets and muskets at 60-70 grains of 2Fg... and in the video he uses a scale while the powder should be volumetric measured....

LD