Thread: Muzzleloader Hunting

Cheers @Tasbay that was a good solution to the practice shooting and small game load.

40 grains Triple 7 FFFG and the 175 grain round balls are basically in the same location at 50m as my 395 grain conical's
Grouping nicely and man its gentle on the shoulder
I'm sure a rabbit or hare won't have a clue how much slower its going when it hits them !
Well greased patches were almost intact and the lesser greased ones were still fairly ripped, but it didn't seem to affect where they landed.

Half the lead, half the powder a fraction of the recoil !!

Nice

What type of patch material are you using? (try ticking from a draper). What lube are you using on your patches? (try olive oil). Also 777 burns hotter than Black and could be part of your problem, I`d go back to BP for round ball and 777 for Conical. Using Black powder I always wipe the barrel between shots with a spit patch then a dry patch. After loading I now wipe the bore once more with a dry patch down to the ball, I do this to get the gun shooting from as clean a barrel as possible every time. Muzzleloaders are known for throwing the first shot or two. Now we just have to get you making your own powder!!!

Originally Posted by Tasbay

Now we just have to get you making your own powder!!!

That's a little unlikely as I have way to many projects on the go already !!
But it's great to know there are guys out there doing that sort of thing .... just because they can

Don`t underestimate the killing power of a pure lead round ball. A lot of deer are taken in the U.S with a patched 180gr 50 cal round ball and 45-60 Gr of black powder. My load with a round ball in 50 cal is 80gr.
I have shot a lot of Red Deer with a suppressed 38 special spitting out a 158gr hard slug at 990fps. I`d take on a deer out to 75yds with a 50 cal round ball and 45gr of powder, will probably still get pass through.

Any way you look at it they are fun guns and have that tinker factor.

Originally Posted by Tasbay

Don`t underestimate the killing power of a pure lead round ball.

@Tasbay I'm certainly not underestimating the round ball killing power.

But I really mainly want to use the round balls for practice and the conicals for big game and I'm happy with how its all going now.
The terminal performance of the 320 grain Lee conicals was very impressive and I expect the 395s to be even better.
The 320s started to spray considerably after multiple shots on the range, but the 395s don't seem to be as fussy about bore fouling.
Although this is not a big deal as multiple field shots will not be the norm !

I used to use a fully suppressed 44 mag a lot ( still have it just don't use it so much ) with 240 XTPs and always got full pass through at any range I ever used them at.

All I was really searching for was good 100m accuracy and killing power for ethical reasons.
I missed an easy shot at relatively close range on a red hind last winter ... all I could see through the open sights was red hair ... so I aimed an nothing and hit nothing !!
Then I wounded a red hind due to poor shot placement and spent a whole morning on her trail, but every time I got within 100m of her she slowly moved on and managed to keep the gap just a little bigger than I could hit her with the open peep sights.
That triggered a major re think about how I could make muzzleloader hunting practical for my hunting applications and I'm now close to where I want to be.

I'm now sorting out my 'field gear' and an 'in camp service kit' with a few extras like a spare stock key, nipple and CO2 ball remover etc.
Cast another 200x 395s yesterday.
And have two fly South Westland guiding trips ( for koha ) coming up in the next few months and intend taking the muzzleloader on both of those.