Front stuffer help...

[HskrVern]

I'm looking to pick up a lyman great plains hunter in 54cal but can't decide if i want to shoot balls or conicals (the 1/32 twist or the 1/60 twist). I'll be primairly hunting elk (sometimes deer) and would like it to reach 100 yards. Will the balls do that or is that stretching the limits a bit too far. The conicals seem kinda cool and I'd love to launch a 500gr plus projectile from http://www.prbullet.com/. Thanks for the help yall.

[Divernhunter]

Conicals will work much better and with the 32 twist you can still shoot balls if you want. I went to conicals then barnes sabot combo in both my 54 and 50 cal BP rifles. I really like the barnes with the big open HP bullet. Taken deer out to 187 yards with no problem with the barnes and out to 125yards with the conical using pyrodex.

[HskrVern]

Conicals will work much better and with the 32 twist you can still shoot balls if you want. I went to conicals then barnes sabot combo in both my 54 and 50 cal BP rifles. I really like the barnes with the big open HP bullet. Taken deer out to 187 yards with no problem with the barnes and out to 125yards with the conical using pyrodex.

Thank you for your input. I was leaning towards the 1/32 because of the conicals. Have you shot balls out of the faster twists? How were your groups?

[Divernhunter]

I have a T/C Renagade with a 1-28 twist and it shoots balls fine. It shoots them as well as I can shoot with the open sights. Both the 54 and the 50cal(inline Knight) shoot the conical but really work great with the barnes saboted bullets on game. IF it is legal I would strongly suggest the big HP barnes bullet with sabots. The 4 deer I have taken all droped like struck by lightning with the saboted barnes bullets. The 3 taken with conicals did not drop as fast and one well hit deer had to be tracked quite a distance. Only shot 1 with round ball and it did not do as quick a kill as the others. Never lost one with any of the different projectiles.
I was not permitted to use a scope in Nev while hunting deer with BP. I had a peep sight on the inline which was much better for accuracy than the factory open sights on either rifle.

Hope that helps