Modern bullets now legal in WA. What is good?

[Steve P]

Modern and sabotted bullets are now legal in WA.  We used to have to use traditional style balls or conicals for hunting.  We can now use sabots and as of this year, sabots with jacketed bullets.  Anyone have opinions as to the best 50 caliber hunting bullets for muzzle loaders?  I have a couple of knights and use 100grs of 777 powder with my TC Maxi-ball.  Would like to try some of the sabot bullets with up to 120gr 777 in prep for a N MX elk hunt.  Suggestions?

Someone was saying don't use Power Belts.  Why?

Steve

[sabotloader]

Steve P

Congrats... wish Idaho would see the light..

Someone was saying don't use Power Belts.  Why?

I would highly suggest not to use Power Belts... the really are nothing more than an elongated round ball.  They 'blow-up' really easy if you shoot them to fast.  Your normal 100 grain load will push them to hard.

but,

They are a ton of bullets out there that would work very well, from high priced premium bullets to standard off the shelf bullets.  One of the most popular lines of inexpensive bullets are the Hornady XTP's.  Premium bullets like Nosler, Barnes, Lehigh, and any of the pointy bullets such as the SST/SW.

If you are just hunting whitetails I would suggest you look at the Speer Gold Dot line of bullets.

The .452/250 grain Gold Dot is deadly on deer.  I shoot it to 175 yards shooting dead on at the animal.  At 200 you will have to make some elevation compensation.  The other one that a lot of folks use because they want the higher BC and more weight is the .452/300.

I shoot ML's all year in Idaho so when I am hunting in the regular rifle season I normally use a Nosler Partition, but this year I am trying a new brass bullet manufactured by Lehigh Manufacturing.  Both of these are 'premium priced' bullets...

Would like to try some of the sabot bullets with up to 120gr 777 in prep for a N MX elk hunt.  Suggestions?

If it were me, I would use a .458/300 grain Nosler Partiion in a MMP HPH-24 sabot.  The .458 is a 45-70 rifle bullet and works very well on elk. But at the same time so will the 300 grain Speer Gold Dot

Here is a picture of some collected Gold Dots - that I torture tested...



Click on the picture to increase the size...

This is an elk harvested with the Nosler..







Send me a PM and I can give you more information if you want... Where are you at in WA - I am in northern Idaho - Moscow

[Buckskins & Black Powder]

i love the Thor conicals  www.thorbullets.com





Nothing wrong with powerbelts at all! Just got to pick the right one for the powder charge / game that you are hunting.

[simonkenton]

For deer I love the Hornady 250 SST.
For elk you ought to try the Hornady 300 XTP, the regular one not the bonded one.

Also for elk you would do will with the big 300 grain Barnes all copper bullets. Those guys are expensive!

[Cuts Crooked]

I've been pretty happy with the 240 grain XTP for deer with 100 grains of 3F black powder. However I found that the 250 Grain Shockwaves give me a bit more accuracy when I up the powder charge to 120 grains. Donno about the terminal performance of the Shockwave yet because this will be my first season using them...but the accuracy leaves NOTHING to be desired! 1 inch and 3/4 inch groups have been the norm from my gun at 100yds with the Shockwaves.

[1sourdough]

 I like the 250 grn SST/Shockwave, maybe 300 grn if I was elk hunting. I also use the newer Blackhorn 209 powder, you should try some in your Knight. I use 115 grns in mine with a 250 grn sabot.

[AlleninNM]

I have had very good performance with the 290gr Barnes Spitfire TMZ on elk.  Big holes, and on the one recovered, picture perfect expansion.

[Steve P]

Thanks for the replies.  Looks like I have some load work ahead of me.  My hunting partner wants me to work with some of the bullets that we cast to see how they perform first.  We have WFN LBT molds in 44 and 45 cal.  I also have some 300 grain partitions and several of the heavy Hornady bullets for my pistols that might work. 

Time to hit Wallyworld for after season red tags to pick up a couple of pound of powder...........

Steve

[TommyD]

The last 3 years I have used Hornady 300 gr XTP bullets in MMP black sabots in my Savage 10 ML II. Two bucks and a doe. All 1 shot kills with no need to track them. 3/3 and never a failure. Accurate and hard hitting in my rifle. Last one was 130 to 140 yards away and crumpled on the spot.

Full penetration and never recovered a bullet. The 300 grain bullet slams them hard and has enough weight to fully penetrate. Nothing fancy about this bullet. Subtle as a sledghammer. But it gets the job done.

Entrance and exit wounds are posted below.

Tom

[Jim47]

I appreciate the testimonials on the bullets, especially the Speer Gold dots, but I am curious how you can shoot dead on at such a great range? I've never even test fired at that range but I know its possible with the .50 sabots of today.

Would you care to share a little more info on that please? Such as what is your sight in range and other thengs that may apply.   

[Jim47]

By the way, I'm not new here, I just lost my origional user name and gave up on trying to get it back