Caliber question

[skeet]

Originally Posted by Adam Helmer

skeet,

My hunting muzzleloaders are .50 and .54 since I prefer to use roundball for deer. When I take the .45 flinter out, she is stoked with 245 grain Maxis because I feel .45 RB is a bit light for deer.

Adam

And I would have to agree with ya on that . I shot a deer once with a 45 Roundball. Wasn't a long shot but I felt the same way.. 45 Maxi was probably much better. Ya know to be really honest.. I never got the maxi fever. Never got 'em to shoot all that great. I had a TC Hawken that had a roundball bbl with a 66 twist(IIRC) and it was a couple of inches longer. It shot RB really well. 50 cal and it shot 490 RBs in a thing called a poly patch?? Well... it was green and it held the roundball. It shot a lot better than a patched round ball for some reason. Sure easier to load too. BTW I liked Black rather than Pyrodex too. Never cared much for them pellets either. About the most I ever used was 100 gr of 3Fg..Would recock the hammer some of the time..but it was more accurate than 2Fg. A pain in the A$$ to clean. For some odd reason when the first muzzleloader season came in I really liked bein out there...Cold snow and pretty much alone..but that was the way it was where I hunted anyway. alone.

[GoodOlBoy]

Yeah been looking at Goex and Swiss prices online today alot, trying to sniff out local spots to buy... Not a lot around but I would imagine I can dig some up somewhere... Hope I can anyway.

GoodOlBoy

[Larryjk]

I have a Hawken Half-stock 1864 I had made by a fellow that knows muzzleloaders. It is .54 caliber and really shoots well. I have used Goex, Pyrodex and Black Mag-3. Pyrodex is like shooting a flinter; never if it is going to go bang. Goex is dirty. Black Mag-3 is wonderful, but I don't believe it is available since they had the explosion last year. I have a couple others here that I want to try. Fun load is 80 grs of Goex and a patched ball. To clean up is 80 grs of Black Mag-3 and a patched ball. A 430 gr. maxi-ball and 100 grs of Goex is 14 inches low at 100 yards and hell on the shoulder if you aren't careful how you hold it.

[quigleysharps4570]

Originally Posted by Mr. 16 gauge

Minimum caliber requirement here in MI is .40 (where they came up with that, I don't know.....I don't think I've ever seen a .40 cal muzzleloader).

Kansas minimum is .39 caliber, .390-.395 roundball...which would be a .40 caliber. My little .40 longrifle with 70 grs. of 3f Goex and a .395 patched roundball kill deer. Not my choice though.