Bullet weight

[Doc Contender]

What are the heaviest bullets used or ever have been used for the 45 and 50 cal muzzel loaders.

I'm just interested in the transistion between the muzzle loader and the BPCR.

 

[musketman]

Let's see...
I know a 4 bore uses a 1'400 grain round ball (5 to a pound)

The .45 caliber MAXI BALL weighs 230 grains.

Lyman makes a .45 caliber muzzleloader bullet, #454612 that tips the scale at 300 grain...

From, "NO EXCUSE" bullets: http://members.aol.com/noexcusesb/page3.html
45 Caliber, 495 grain (45/495): Designed for large game including Elk and Moose. It's design (larger frontal diameter) provides for exceptional expansion and weight retention.

50 Caliber, 495 grain (50/495): A proven design that provides excellent accuracy and expansion characteristics.

The .50 caliber MAXI BALL weighs 370 grains falls short to these.

I'm sure that there are some custom bullet makers out there that go even heavier...

 

Hey Doc...

In my 45 Sharps and Ballard rifles I've used 420 gr., 450 gr. and now I use an NEI 480 gr. for hunting. My long range target bullet for my 45-90 is a 510 gr. RCBS mold or Lymans old tried and true 457125 which weighs in at about 520 Lots of guys use a Jones 550 gr. I'm not familiar enough with 50's to give you much info. Standard in the 50-70 was 450+ grs. I believe. The 50's are used so rarely for long range shooting because to get the same BC as 45's and 40's bullets have to be quite heavy and thus the recoil increases considerably. I do know the Browning 50 uses a 710 gr. bullet for most applications.

Vic

 

[Aline]

I don't know much about the custom bullet makers. But if we look at the most readily available conical muzzleloading bullets (TC, Hornady and Buffalo), I believe the heaviest .50 cal bullet on the market is the Hornady 490gr Great Plains Bullet.

Aline

 

[Deadeye]

White Rifles did, and maybe still does,make 600 gr
bullets for their .50 cal muzzleloaders. About 500 is as heavy as I've seen for the .45 ML.
Deadeye

 

[tg]

The mention of an interest in the transition from ML to BPCR suggests a historical slant to the question which would pretty much eliminate most of todays offerings in ML bullets, there are some folks who specialize in the late ML period bullet guns who have done the research to answer this question, I knew of a fellow who was into this, if I can find him I will put the question to him.