.50 cal muzzleloader loads

[FatBoy]

I can't find my old muzzleloader thread and it's time to tune the CPA up and finalize my load and holds for the upcoming season. Last year I took two but I had zero expansion on the bullets (TC 240gr XTP) and thus, no blood trail. Upon recovery and quartering, .45" hole in and out and one passed through both shoulder blades heart and lung with zero expansion. Hollow point .45 acted just like a FMJ.

I am looking for a DRT bullet that will work with 2 pyrodex pellets. No magnum loads, etc.

 

[Carolina Man]

Get yourself of 50 cal round ball and 80 gr. 3f black powder.

 

[CaptainMal]

One thing you are not mentioning is what configuration of the rifle. Is it in-line, cap, flint etc.?

For my scoped in-line TC I make grapefruit-sized groups at 200 yards and have multiple kills to 160 yards. Been using 85 gr ( BY VOLUME) of Blackhorn 209 with TC 250 gr. Shockwave bullets.

Unfortunately this right now is the end of muzzleloader in Georgia where I hunt. Due to a death in the family it looks like I am going to miss the entire season. After tomorrow's funeral I hope to get there on the last day, Friday and at least get in an evening hunt.

 

[FatBoy]

In line CVA. The TC240 I'm using is plenty accurate. My MV should be right were it needs to be, but they aren't expanding. They kill deer, but you get no blood until you're standing over it.

Our ML opens Nov5, the day after I find out if my Tibia stress fracture is healing. Supposed to stay off it so I am missing bow season, though it was 91°F today in Nashville. Nothing is moving so "missing" is may be a bit optimistic.

 

[Berger.Fan222]

For many years, my go-to deer load was a 240 Grain Hornady XTP (0.429). This is a 44 magnum bullet in a green sabot sold in a red box. 100 grains of Pyrodex in the early years, then 100 grains of Triple Seven. It was accurate in every muzzleloader we tried it in, expanded reliably, and killed a bunch of deer.

A buddy used the same exact bullet in his 44 mag handgun hunting loads and it performed well there also.

We also loaded up some 180 grain .357 mag bullet (Hornady XTP also) in a .45 cal muzzleloader for the kids to hunt with, and this load also performed well on deer with 80 grains of Triple Seven.

Sorry to hear of your injury. Hoping and praying you mend in time to hunt.

 

[XTR]

Chris, I have had great luck with 250gr Thompson Shockwaves and 100 gr of Triple 7 (2 pellets). Before I switched to a MLII and smokeless I used to pour 100gr, not pellets, but the same result (give or take) as 2 pellets. I killed a bunch of deer with them. I always shoot off of the shoulder, I got lots of double lung shots behind the shoulder, none ever went more than about 30 yards, most within about 20. Killed deer from point blank to 150 yards. They expand well a lower velocity. Inside of 75 yards they tend to break up, but they destroy the lung cavity.


I quit using them when I switched to my smokeless ML. I think it pushes them too fast, the explosion effect was just a bit to much when you get them around 2000 FPS or so.

 

[FatBoy]

I just re-checked my data. I wasn't using the XTP, I was using the spire point(shockwave). I must have bought the XTPs after I skinned those deer. Damn CRS is getting bad these days. I need to get out next weekend and make sure it's accurate to 100 and I'm going out, even if it's on crutches.

Appreciate the good wishes. Just one of those things. Training for a Spartan Race next year and pushed too hard, too fast.

 

[XTR]

I have a thought on blood trails and gunshots, just from what I've seen.

Almost all of the deer I've killed have had a chest cavity that sloshed when I got to them, but not a ton of external bleeding until you rolled a hole down then it poured out into a puddle. Definitely not the massive trails like you see with an arrow. I think a lot of it is that the holes are high enough, and the internal damage great enough, that most of the blood stays inside. Esp if the lungs are collapsing and creating a big empty cavity to hold whatever is leaking out.

I like to take my shots right behind the point of the shoulder. I don't aim down and try to get heart shots.

 

[savagedasher]

I firmly believe in braking bone is the only way to shoot . Never a blood trail .
Larry

 

[snert]

I like Barnes Bullets and 2 Triple Seven in my Knight. I like the tipped versions, and they shoot well, open up and poke a big hole in both sides.

 

[savagedasher]

I like Barnes Bullets and 2 Triple Seven in my Knight. I like the tipped versions, and they shoot well, open up and poke a big hole in both sides.

I like the same bullet but use 209 . Larry

 

[timeout]

Get yourself of 50 cal round ball and 80 gr. 3f black powder.

My wife and I shot some informal muzzle loader competition many years ago with 50 cal. patched round balls. Had some great accuracy around 70 gr. of triple f black powder. For deer, the round ball is IMHO, a terrible choice. I lost 3 deer before finally recovering one. When I opened him up and recovered the round ball, it could have been reinserted into the muzzle and fired again. That put me to working on bullet penetration and expansion tests. I tried various handgun bullets, maxi balls and buffalo bullets. The buffalo bullets performed best. Thereafter I switched to them over 100 gr. of fff. With today's inline ml's barrels and twist rates, all that is out the window. I would recommend testing a few different saboted combos in newspaper or gel blocks prior to hunting. Smokeless ml's are another matter with their custom barrels and higher mv's.

 

[2506]

I have been successful with 120 grs FFG and a patched ball in a CVA Mountain Rifle because it had a 1-66 twist and would not shoot anything else. You have to push that round ball pretty hard and 80-90 grs is not enough in my experience if you do not put it through the shoulders and hit the spine. Next up with faster twist barrels was the T/C Maxi ball 90-100 grs worked well but as I learned with the round ball I shoulder shot my deer. BANG FLOP. Sabots came along and magnum rifles and the best sabot combo I found was the MMP/Hornady high pressure black sabot and a 45 Cal. 250 gr Horandy XTP and as I was hunting where I had some 200 ish yard shots I used three Pyrodex pellets (150 grs) lit by a Musket cap out of a Night T-bolt Magnum rifle. I did not hunt for a number of years with a muzzle loader and still had the T-bolt in the safe and one day I ran into a conversion kit dirt cheap to change it over to use 209 primers. After I changed to the 209 priming my old load would not shoot accurately and as my time was short and a hunting trip was on top of me I found that 90 grs of Pyrodex Select and a Powerbelt Copper Aerotip 295 gr bullet shot accurately at 100 yards. Since that would be the longest shot possible where I was going hunting I did no further experimenting. It worked, was like shooting a deer with a shotgun slug. But again after killing a few hundred deer over the years, I helped my hunting buddy do crop damage control for 15 years on a big east NC farm where we had to take 100 deer a year, I learned to shoulder shoot deer if you don't want to have to trail them. When you really get down to it there is not that much REAL meat on the shoulders of a deer and where a deer can be lost easily due to thick cover or when on public property where someone else tag may be on your deer by the time you trail it up I will sacrifice the shoulders for a bang flop to DRT shot. Good luck on your hunt.

 

[fredo]

I can't find my old muzzleloader thread and it's time to tune the CPA up and finalize my load and holds for the upcoming season. Last year I took two but I had zero expansion on the bullets (TC 240gr XTP) and thus, no blood trail. Upon recovery and quartering, .45" hole in and out and one passed through both shoulder blades heart and lung with zero expansion. Hollow point .45 acted just like a FMJ.

I am looking for a DRT bullet that will work with 2 pyrodex pellets. No magnum loads, etc.

Seen the 250 Shockwave mentioned above. My buddies shoot them with a 150gr charge, and they work real well.

I shoot the 200gr Shockwaves with 100gr (two pills) of 777. Lighter recoil, and excellent terminal & ballistic performance!
The 200gr is still plenty of mass& energy to schwack deer, and they shoot several inches flatter @ 200yds than 250s.
Those bullets are plenty tough, too. If you want DRT, aim right on the shoulder. When the smoke clears, your deer will be laying 3ft lower than it was standing.
I eat my deer, therefore shoot for vitals when taking a meat animal. Always get a pass-thru, and they don't ever go more than a couple-30yds...

Good luck!

 

[CaptainMal]

Used to use Pyrex and Triple 7. Always a mess and needed cleaning sometimes after as little as one shot but rarely could even get three. Switching to Blackthorn 209 gives me lots of shooting and no cleaning except to keep the flash hole clean. I have shot more than 20, yes that's twenty, shots in the same place with easy bullet seating and NO cleaning.

Use less powder for the same velocities but the stuff is packaged in 10 OZ. containers.

 

[Berger.Fan222]

I always liked the shoulder shot for DRT, but had much better success with a centerfire than a muzzleloader, especially on windy days. A broadside double lung with a 240 grain XTP will leave the deer within 50-100 yards even when they run. I have enough red-green color blindness that I've learned to find the deer if it is within that distance even if I can't see the blood trail. But I do like bullets that leave a good blood trail, and hunting buddies that can see the blood on the ground.

My hunting buddies nicknamed me "bloodhound" because I usually work ahead of them and find the deer first using alternate tracking skills. I've only been consciously aware of smelling them a couple of times. I think it's mostly just a sense of where wounded deer want to go, combined with practicing it hundreds of times.

 

[Shaggy357]

100 grains of 777 and TC Maxi-ball. Done done in one shot. My last elk was only a spike, but where he was standing was huge blood splash and trail 50 yards to where he dropped was like following a small stream. Those Maxi-Balls have been accurate in everything I have shot them in. I have CVA sidelock in 50 and 54 cal for traditional seasons. I have Knight inlines in 50 and 54 for modern muzzleloader, and I have a TC Encore with scope for open class muzzle loader. Rainbow trajectory, but very accurate....

Steve

 

[FryeGuy]

I have had great luck with harvester ribbed sabots (red) in my cva accura. Blackhorn, 90 grains, and a hornady .45 cal, 250grain XTP. They open up every time, and if the deer do run, they typically leave a blood trail that is pretty short and easy. I usually go for the double lung or heart shot. Won't hesitate on the shoulder shot. I hunt really thick stuff, so I take what I get.

 

[savagedasher]

I have had great luck with harvester ribbed sabots (red) in my cva accura. Blackhorn, 90 grains, and a hornady .45 cal, 250grain XTP. They open up every time, and if the deer do run, they typically leave a blood trail that is pretty short and easy. I usually go for the double lung or heart shot. Won't hesitate on the shoulder shot. I hunt really thick stuff, so I take what I get.

I have shot a few along the cypress swamps. Bone is your friend unless you like cotton mouth snakes they love a blood trail . Larry

 

[FryeGuy]

Savagedasher, I would agree 100%. I ran across one when I lived in Nashville bowhunting once. Those are pissy little peckerheads. I taught him a lesson. I don't hesitate on a shoulder shot, it knocks the wizzz right out of a deer. Now that I'm in VA where I am, I don't worry about snakes a ton, unless you step on one they let you walk right by. The bears are a different story!!