Hiya. I have a traditions deerhunter rifle with a twist rate of 1/48". I have been using T/C maxi-balls in it, and it is very accurate with them. I'm thinking of trying hornady great plains HPs as alot of people seem to like them for both accuracy and killing power. I've never used my T/C's on meat targets, so I have no idea how well they kill animals. I plan on hunting the muzzleloader season (all three days of it :roll: ) and I'm thinkin of making the leap to hornady. Anyone else use Hornady (or even T/C) and what were the results?
I understand shot placement is most important, above all else. I just don't want to have to track a wounded deer all day, especially not thru heavy brush. What I"m using now aren't hollow points. I saw 410gr 50cal Great Plains bullets at the local shop, but read online they're the solid point version of the 385grain hollow point GP. I guess I'm looking for reviews. :lol: Thanks!
in case anyone was interested, I tried the Hornady 385gr HPs. seem accurate enough. They aren't fun to load, though. The way Hornady designed them was to take the rifling going into the barrel. So it takes a Herculean effort to get them in, but once you clear the muzzle, its smooth sailing.
I also tried Triple 7. I don't really understand this much, but regular pyrodex doesn't smoke all that much, but T7 does. If I get a shot on a deer, its going to take about 15 seconds before the smoke clears, and I can see if I hit or missed. :lol: cleanup was nice and easy, though. It wasn't a greasy mess like cleaning black powder, or pyrodex. it was like cleaning a smokeless powder gun. suits me fine. :wink:
..... cleanup was nice and easy, though. It wasn't a greasy mess like cleaning black powder, or pyrodex. it was like cleaning a smokeless powder gun. suits me fine. :wink:
I friend and I tried alot of different bullets and sabot/bullet combos and I must say that the Barnes bullets combo(with the large HP as I have not tried the other) was the best for hunting mule deer(and I suspect other game) and very accurate with pyrodex. I have a Knight wolverine and used 150gr loose select. I have taken several deer and all went down like hit by lightening. No other bullet or sabot combo has been as consistant and deadly as the barnes. I highly reccommend the barnes(Knight also sells them as the Hot Shot bullets).
Gee, Dex, you take all the fun and challange out of hunting with a muzzleloader.
I stick to flinters with only the real BP. Swiss when I have it but teh Schuetzen stuff seems pretty good.
Cleaning a ML is easy,just forget the fancy modern chemicals and stick to hot water and moose milk.
The best bullets I ever tried in a flinter were the Lyman HP cast bullets.
I had some that were a few thousandths under for my .54 so I used a thinker pillow ticking and they worked great.
Accurate at 100+ yards and drop those pesky PA whitetails where they stand.
I'm a flinter too and use the old round ball load. I shoot a .50 cal. Kentucky. Works fine for whitetail with charges as light as 75 grains. Bullet placement id what counts. 75 yards or less is an easy shot. Cleanup is dishsoap in hot water and a bunch of patches followed by some light gun oil. Doesn't take any longer than a good job on the centerfires.
I have excellent luck using the Hornaday Great Plains bullets in TC Hawken rifles in both 50 & 54 calibers. At 50 yards both rifles will shoot these bullets into one hole groups. Not bad for iron sights and 61 year old eyes. These bullets also work very well on deer. I've used the 385 gr hp in the 50 cal and 390 gr hp in the 54 cal. If you use a felt wad under bullet (TC bore buttons) it will cut your group size a fair bit.
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