Muzzleloader coyote load

For an easy shooting fur friendly load, try a Hornady .50 cal sabot designed for a .44 cal bullet and load it with a .440 or .445 round ball. 50 or 60 grains will have it moving along pretty quickly.

All the conventional wisdom regarding round balls in fast twist barrels don't always prove out at the range. I hunted with a young guy who was shooting a .54 fast twist gun loaded with a patched ball over 90 grains of pyrodex. In an informal midday shooting session he showed of some fine accuracy.
 
Originally Posted By: LongcruiseFor an easy shooting fur friendly load, try a Hornady .50 cal sabot designed for a .44 cal bullet and load it with a .440 or .445 round ball. 50 or 60 grains will have it moving along pretty quickly.


I will try this, thanks. Didn't know you could put the round ball in the sabot, but then again why couldn't you? I'm always searching for something better.

Thanks again
 
I killed one last year at 150 yards with just the same elk load I would normally carry.

300 gr. Hornady XTP with 100 gr. of BlackHorn 209.
 
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Originally Posted By: VanceI killed one last year at 150 yards with just the same elk load I would normally carry.

300 gr. Hornady XTP with 100 gr. of BlackHorn 209.

Any expansion? or did the bullet not even open up and just clean pass through?
 
Any of a number of hardcast bullet designs in a sabot would do the trick just fine. Ridiculously cheap, too.
 
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I have killed coyotes with a muzzleloader as targets of opportunity. This past season I dropped a big male with my deer load. He was dead on the spot. The harvester 260 PT Gold did a job on him. If I were to intentionally use a muzzleloader for coyotes, I would use a round ball in my .45 Cherokee which is twisted to shoot round ball and conicals.
 
I too have killed them with ML only as a target of opportunity. Two with. 50 and round ball. They were both the most fur friendly hits ever.

I think your consideration of the .45 is excellent. Maybe the ideal side lock choice.
 
Originally Posted By: jimmypI remember reading a story once about a group of guys (injection molding engineers) that were making custom sabots, and stuffing them with a 6mm projectile and getting some pretty amazing results.......

Likely untrue, unless with a custom-purpose barrel. Any 6mm bullet I've seen required a twist rate far surpassing any I've ever seen for a ML (I've never seen a 1:12 ML barrel). I tried 125gr 30cal bullets in turned down 50 BMG sabots and got keyholes and minute-of-plywood "groups" at 20 yards.
 
I was pretty amused by a 325gr Hornady FTX over 135gr 777. Not exactly fur friendly though…I'd post a pic but the forum rules may not like it.
 
I shot a coyote last year with my TC Omega using 2 777 pellets and a 250gr SST bullet. Quartering away shot at about 35 yards. He ran about 20 feet and the bullet did not exit. Entrance wound was small.
 
Originally Posted By: stacky43if its good deer load its a great coyote load. no need to complicate what is a simple solution. guy

He doesn't want to blow-up the hides.
 
Hope to have a field report on my FMJ loads shortly, I don’t get out and night hunt as much as I’d like to.

I had a miss @ 125 yards the first time I brought it out, which is what got me to create this thread in search of a better round (initially I wasn’t getting great groups but I used it anyway, short on time). Come to find out the bullet I’m using is pretty darn accurate, and the lack of accuracy initially was attributed to me trying to lighten the powder charge & the level of barrel fouling. I go more into detail on this in my last post about load redevelopment.

Anyhow, thanks everyone for the input. I’m sticking with where I’m at currently, I feel confident in the accuracy. Might try the round ball in the sabot if I don’t like the field results of the FMJ.
 
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