There was a post I read on a different forum about a fellow in Canada. He was hunting Moose with a T/C Renegade in .54 caliber. His load was 90 grains of Pyrodex RS and a patched roundball. He shot a moose with the open sights, the ball penetrated the heart and the moose walked a few yards and dropped dead. The amazing part is the moose was 160 yards away when he took the shot. I have no reason to doubt the posters story as he was relating what he had observed. He really had little reason to stretch the truth.
My own case centered around me hunting out of a deer blind one late November morning. I was watching two trails that connected in the brush in front of me. Where they connected I was told was 70 yards. I suspected it was closer, but the person's blind that I was using claimed he shot the distances with a range finder.
Even though it was modern gun season I had my .54 caliber Renegade loaded with 80 or 90 grains (I forget the load now) and a patched roundball. I could shoot a buck or doe and had lots of tags to fill. Also so far, I was skunked for the season.
The person's who's blind I was hunting told me I would see deer all day so be selective. I had been in the blind about five minutes when I saw a deer walking down the trail towards me. It had a nice size body, but something looked strange about it. I took my binoculars out and checked the deer and discovered it was a forked buck.
I took my eyes off the deer to put the binoculars away. I then got the renegade up, cocked it quiet, and hit the set trigger. I got a good rest, took a bead on the deer's shoulder and a little behind, pulled the trigger and there were eight legs in the air suddenly.
The roundball went through the first deer and hit a second deer behind it that I never saw walk up. The ball dropped the first deer in its tracks, and had enough power to blow the spine out of the second one, a small doe. Two deer, one shot total about 80 yards distance.
Round balls are deadly...
