What are you shooting in your muzzleloader?

[Alex]

I shot my doe this weekend with a Browning Mountain Rifle in 54 caliber. My load was 110 grains behind a patched .530 round ball. It was a 90 yard shot and I was a touch higher than I should have been, but the ball completely severed her spine dropping her on the spot. I doubt any other projectile would have done a better job. The other people I was hunting with were using Cabela's Hawkens all in 54 caliber and all with the same load. My group got 4 does on Saturday with this load, they were all clean one shot kills. I've used roundball loads for target shooting for many years and find them remarkably accurate, so don't rule out this option. It's cheap, effective, and once you find the right load capable of target accuracy.

 

[HiWayMan]

364gr Cast Maxi-Ball (10% Tin, 90% Lead) over 90gr Pyrodex RS out of my .50 cal. Knight Wolverine. Dropped a buck at 100yds with it last year. Broke both shoulders.

 

[30Cal]

Lancaster Co pattern Flintlock in .50Cal. I shot a .490" patched RB (0.015") on top of 60grs ff blackpowder (80 for hunting).

Ty

 

[cookhj]

i shoot a 300 gr hornady red tip with 150 grs of goex clear shot powder out of my .45 omega. groups wonderfully at 100 yds

 

[Gatofeo]

Tinker:
The NEW, totally awesome Xtreme Titanium Belted Copper Core X-Max Turbo Dino-Slayer Semiwadcutter Hollow Point Belted Magnum Nylon Driving Banded X-300 Modern 21st Century Spitzer Ridiculously Short SSM Incendiary Tracer Armor-Piercing Saboted Leviathan Crumpler will be available in RealTree pattern next summer.
The makers of the NEW, totally awesome Xtreme Titanium Belted Copper Core X-Max Turbo Dino-Slayer Semiwadcutter Hollow Point Belted Magnum Nylon Driving Banded X-300 Modern 21st Century Spitzer Ridiculously Short SSM Incendiary Tracer Armor-Piercing Saboted Leviathan Crumpler recognize that not only should firearms and the shooter be camouflaged, but the projectile as well.
After all, the glint of sun upon a NEW, totally awesome Xtreme Titanium Belted Copper Core X-Max Turbo Dino-Slayer Semiwadcutter Hollow Point Belted Magnum Nylon Driving Banded X-300 Modern 21st Century Spitzer Ridiculously Short SSM Incendiary Tracer Armor-Piercing Saboted Leviathan Crumpler might very well spook game as it passed through the air at its magnificent, testosteronic velocity.
The developers of the NEW, totally awesome Xtreme Titanium Belted Copper Core X-Max Turbo Dino-Slayer Semiwadcutter Hollow Point Belted Magnum Nylon Driving Banded X-300 Modern 21st Century Spitzer Ridiculously Short SSM Incendiary Tracer Armor-Piercing Saboted Leviathan Crumpler have finally perfected a system whereby RealTree camouflage encircles the entire projectile, without affecting its aerodynamic, hydrodynamic, pinetreedynamic and biggamedynamic attributes.
Initially, there were ignition problems with launching the NEW, totally awesome Xtreme Titanium Belted Copper Core X-Max Turbo Dino-Slayer Semiwadcutter Hollow Point Belted Magnum Nylon Driving Banded X-300 Modern 21st Century Spitzer Ridiculously Short SSM Incendiary Tracer Armor-Piercing Saboted Leviathan Crumpler but the newer rifles have a newly designed ignition system that employs a .44 Magnum case loaded with 40 grains of Bullseye smokeless powder and a few Rosebud Strike-Anywhere matchheads for good measure.
These new .44 Magnum ignitors are sold in convenient, triple-sealed-in-plastic packs of five ignitors, in RealTree camouflage, of course.
The good ol', yer buddy, ol' pal, folks at Gatofeo Demented & Bonkers Firearms look forward to serving the (pathologically imagined) needs of sportsmen, semi-sportsmen and game hogs in the great outdoors of game farms, leased farmland and snooty hunting clubs.
Thank you very much. That'll be $5. No checks.

 

[birddog]

CVA Optima, shooting 2 Pyrodex Pellets (50 gr each) behind a Powerbelt 245gr Aerotip. Accuracy-wise, it's great out to 100 (perhaps further, but untested) and the Powerbelts I've dug out of the sand bank had massive expansion.

I have as yet to field-test it on a whitetail, but I am hopeful. Our NY muzzleloader season is open right now & for the next few days.

 

[smokemaker]

Hey Joel,
How do you like that Optima, anyways? I've heard mixed reports on those guns.

And just how do I get a box of them new bullets from Gatofeo?? They sound awesome! As awesome as the concept of spinning a round ball to make it fly true... Ya' know, when they introduced rifling, so many years ago? And I'm sure there was some grumpy "traditionalists" out there carryin' about it then.
That being said, I still love my round ball shootin', smoke belchin' walnut stocked .54.

 

[birddog]

Smokemaker,
I like the Optima a LOT. I won't lie to you and tell you I'm a die-hard muzzleloader guy, and only get out a few days each year (rifle, shotgun and bow take most of my time up) with the frontloader, but I've owned 4 of them, two older CVA's, a Traditions In-Line, and now this Optima. By far it's my favorite of the bunch. It's topped with a Tasco World Class 4X scope (dirt cheap closeout at Johnson's) and it's dead on accurate. Good trigger, and it's also very ergonomically designed, and pleasant to shoot. Best of all, that break-open action is very easy to clean. And you can't beat the price.
Joel

 

[Tinker]

Gatofeo,

You cannot imagine the relief I felt when you told me that the NEW, totally awesome Xtreme Titanium Belted Copper Core X-Max Turbo Dino-Slayer Semiwadcutter Hollow Point Belted Magnum Nylon Driving Banded X-300 Modern 21st Century Spitzer Ridiculously Short SSM Incendiary Tracer Armor-Piercing Saboted Leviathan Crumpler will be available in RealTree pattern next summer. Now, by God, they'll never see what's a'comin'. For sure.

I shoot an ol'timey style sidelock and it's less-than-instantaneous ignition between trigger pull and hammer drop is causing the deer to "jump the trigger" on me. I would suggest adding a "precognitive" fuse igniter system to the NEW, totally awesome Xtreme Titanium Belted Copper Core X-Max Turbo Dino-Slayer Semiwadcutter Hollow Point Belted Magnum Nylon Driving Banded X-300 Modern 21st Century Spitzer Ridiculously Short SSM Incendiary Tracer Armor-Piercing Saboted Leviathan Crumpler to counter-act this ignition delay in traditional styled smokepoles? Shouldn't add much to retooling costs at Gatofeo, Inc. Amertization and poplarity of this new product with have you sippin' Margueritas on your own private hunting reserve island in no time.

 

[mohican]

Even though T/C has touted the maxi hunter as the deer bullet and the maxiball for max penetration, I have had more success with the maxiball.

I shot several does with maxihunters, and I figured at the time that even with a bullet designed to mushroom a bit, with 430 grains it would punch both sides on a broadside shot. Not the case. Then I tracked a doe to a gut pile, *@#$@! road hunting poachers, anyway. Maxi Hunters punch through and through.

IMO, expansion may be important when you are hunting deer with a 25-06, but when you are shooting deer with bullets say 40 cal and up at pistol or traditional muzzleloader velocities, then expansion is not as important.

Similar to some of the new shotgun sabot slugs or attached was slugs. I don't need a 12 guage slug to expand, it already has a big hole. It needs to make two holes. I don't buy into the "dumps all energy into the animal" theory :banghead: . If it dumped all it's energy into the critter, maybe it needed a bit more energy?

T/C .54 Renegade - 110 grains 777, 430 grain maxihunter (I still have the molds that T/C used to sell) The heavy powerbelt bullets work well, also.
I use the musket cap nipples.

Knight .50 DISC - 150 grains pyrodex pellet load or 150 grain loose 777 load, 348 grain powerbelt (is this overmax?) It shoots well.

T/C .50 scout - 370 gr maxihunter, 80-90 grains 777

T/C .45 Hawken - 275 gr maxiball, 90 grains 777, has a 209 ignition system

 

[smokemaker]

The DISC rifles can take 150 grains of 777, with no problems.