best muzzleloader bullet?

varmint_sniper24

varmint_sniper24

New member
Hey ya'll was wondering if yall could help last sun i took my new t/c omega out to sight in and see how i like it was useing a 350gr hornady hollowpoint,150gr 777blk powder pellets and a rem kleen bore primer to make a long story short i seen and ols deer carcess in the field and seen somethin was at it so i snuck to with in 75yrs and took aim with my open sight center chest and i shot after the smoke cleared i seen my yote was d.r.t so i went over to look him ove he had the begenings of mange but what really blew my mind and his chest was my 350gr hollowpoint the entrty hole was so big i swear i could have shoved his whole head inside it and not blooded the fur on his head my ????? is what type and grain bullet do yall recomend for yotes and fox with a 50cal muzzleloader? i like the big bullets for deer/wild pigs but i kinda wanna mount a yote and put in in my liveing room lol g/f is gonna love it cuz she wont know till she comes home and see it lol thanks for the help guys ya'll are great...will
 
Please tell me you ment 150 grains of 777 pellets and not 150 grains of loose 777 powder. If you are shooting 777 loose powder you should not exceed 120 grains.

Slow the powder charge down and try a Hornady XTP mag bullet or one of Cecel Epps lead bullets sold by Cabelas.

Hoggy
 
If you dont want a big hole, just use a patched round ball. Plenty accurate for that 75 yard shot. That's all I use in my flintlock and have taken deer to 80 yards. My father in Law takes deer with his in-line, 100gr of pellets and patched round ball.
 
Talk to anybody in this county, and they'll all tell you the Powerbelts are junk for deer....the don't expand at all, and you get no blood trail. I can testify to that 3X with 100 gr powder. I still have a stockpile of them left, so I'll try them on deer this year with 150 gr. powder. Might be the ticket for whackin a 'yote with and not blowin em to smithereens. I don't know that for sure...I'm just speculating.......

Good Luck.

GJ
 
I can say that the .50cal 245gr powerbelts and 150gr powder will expand. I have whacked alot of deer with them at various ranges. Usually they won't exit and almost always it is just a massive wound cavity with totally fragmented pieces throughout, sometimes a small part of the base will be under the other side hide. Almost every doe would drop right there when hit, never had to trail any.

Have since got a smokeless savage, and am using barnes copper tmz's....that finally expand with the higher velocities now.......before, with 3 pellets, the solid copper bullets were not expanding much at all, just pencil'd through everything.

If I were going to shoot a coyote with a ML, and wanted a not so expanding bullet I would try the barnes spitzer boat-tail, I'd bet that it would poke right on through, leaving a .45 hole in and out, nothing more.
 
I only shot one coyote with the M-L but I like to keep things simple. I use the Hornaday 250grn SST for everything. We had 3 one shot kills last weekend deer hunting. I know shot placement trumps bullet type though. I'm also not really a pellet guy. I've always done loose powder, right now B209.
 
I've read & heard reports that Powerbelts are junk, but that has not been my experience...

Up until this year, I'd been using .50 cal 295gr Powerbelts in front of 150gr 777 with DEVASTATING results on some large bodied whitetails (120-160lbs dressed weight). Most did not take a step and those that did all dropped in sight.
Not many exited and slugs that I recovered were absolutely mangled and shredded. They definitely expanded. More like exploded. Either way, I never even came close to losing a deer...

This season, I wanted to stretch the shots out a bit so I picked up 2 boxes of 200gr TC Shockwaves. They offer a much flatter trajectory than the 295s so I gave them a try...

After settling on 100gr 777 for charge, 2" groups @ 100yds and checkin' drops out to 200yds, I have taken two deer with the combo this season. First was a large doe (135 lbs dressed) taken @ 147yds, lasered. Shot was a perfect standing broadside into the breadbasket. Complete pass-through and she ran about 90yds on borrowed time...

Second was last weekend on a decent 6pt buck @ 60yds (140lbs dressed). Shot was quartering to from a treestand angling down and back. Also a complete pass-through taking out the far side lung on the way. That buck dropped like bad habit and didn't flinch...

Needless to say, I am thoroughly impressed with the terminal and ballistic performance of these little 200gr Shockwaves! I won't be switching back to Powerbelts any time soon, but still can't say anything bad about them...
 
been using 245 gr power belts for years with 90gr of pyrodex(3 30gr pellets)and just smokes whitetails....complete pass threw on all of mine but one doe....high shoulder shot,busted both shoulders,went 20 feet....last was a spike(when we could take spikes in VT),complete devastation,in the heart and lungs....easy to track as there was blood 5 feet into the trees and opposite arrows of blood in fresh snow.....if it had not been a 15 foot cliff where it was standing it would have been DRT....
 
#1 - 150 grains of 777, either loose or Pellet form is gonna hurt somebody. 120 gr of 777 is equivalent to 150 gr of pyrodex. Call hodgdon and ask for yourself. It is NOT recommended to shoot more than 120 gr. of 777.

#2 - if any of you are having trouble with AeroTip Powerbelts expanding, pull out the tip. They fly the same either way. I shoot nothing but hollow point powerbelts in my 50's and I can assure you they expand. Aerotips are "iffy" though in my experience.

#3 - you'll be real lucky to get a patched round ball to fly out of that Omega. The 1:28 twist will be way too fast for it. Most guns that shoot round balls are twisted slower in 1:48 or 1:66. Try a maxi-ball for fur instead.

bownut
 
With all the chronograph testing I did with 777, you'd be hard pressed to get anywhere close to they're advertised velocities with just 120gr. Called hodgdon and asked what was up and they sent me a whole box of they're standard pyrodex pellets and said sorry for the trouble. Maybe they got the 777 worked out now?
 
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Powerbelts are the way to go. Been using them for years, killed several deer with them.



The powerbelt jacket is to thin and the "Lead" is to soft, almost no antimony to harden it.

Depending on where the powerbelt bullet impacts on the deer a powerbelt bullet will eventually fail.

Very rarely do your read about a hunters complaint on a bullet "FAILURE" using a Hornady SST or T/C shock-wave (same bullet) and there is a reason for it....quality design, construction and quality components used in the bullets manufacture.

Call Hornday 1-800-338-3220( Doug Derner) and ask them how far the powerbelt bullets "penetrated" their gelatin tests.

Manufacturers always test their competition's product.

Hoggy
 
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Never used a Hornady bullet in Muzzleloader. Alwasy used powerbelts and have always been satisfied with them. They haver always taken down animal just fine. And i have hit shoulder before too. Not knocking any bullet, just saying my experience
 
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With all the chronograph testing I did with 777, you'd be hard pressed to get anywhere close to they're advertised velocities with just 120gr. Called hodgdon and asked what was up and they sent me a whole box of they're standard pyrodex pellets and said sorry for the trouble. Maybe they got the 777 worked out now?



they have a new 777 that advertises high veloctiy 777 loadings. Supposed to be over 2000 fps. Don't know how many "grains" you're supposed to use. Haven't looked into it though.

bownut
 
Quote:

The powerbelt jacket is to thin and the "Lead" is to soft, almost no antimony to harden it.

Depending on where the powerbelt bullet impacts on the deer a powerbelt bullet will eventually fail.

Very rarely do your read about a hunters complaint on a bullet "FAILURE" using a Hornady SST or T/C shock-wave (same bullet) and there is a reason for it....quality design, construction and quality components used in the bullets manufacture.

Call Hornday 1-800-338-3220( Doug Derner) and ask them how far the powerbelt bullets "penetrated" their gelatin tests.




IMO, the SST's and shockwaves I've tried have all over penetrated deer from 50 yards to 150 yards with max bp loads. When a bullet stays together, to me that is bullet failure. A bullet that comes apart, delivers all it's energy, however if it comes apart to early then that is also bullet failure. The powerbelts seemed to be just right for deer, delivering all they're energy within the width of the deer, sometimes just exiting and most of the time not. Why would you want it to hold together and waste that extra energy available? 50 cal/250grn, 120 to 150 gr pyrodex and shockey's powders. Alot of times, if I would have timed it right, I coulda got two does with one shot, but wouldn't want to risk that bad hit on the second doe.
 
the only argument for bullets that pass through is that 2 holes in an animal bleeds twice as much and leaves a better blood trail. I'm with you though..most times if the bullet stays in, the animal drops on or near the spot and you have no need to blood trail.
 
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