Starting Loads

[Coueswhitetail]

Recently purchased an Austin and Halleck mountain rifle in .50 with a 1/28" twist. I'm wanting to use this for hunting deer and elk out here in the west and want to work up an accurate load. I've bought some 410gr hornady great plains conicals but need some suggestions on powder and caps. Im new to BP but a novice rifle reloader and know that certain powders work well with certain calibers and there are max and min charges, etc. In muzzleloading, are there specific powders suited to specific situations? I'm wanting to shoot as cheaply as possible so I can spend more time practicing as I believe that plays a bigger role in accuracy than premium components. I'm looking at goex FFg, is this a suitable powder for accurate hunting in the 100-125 yard realm? Are CCI #11 caps suitable as well, or is there a cheaper alternative? Lastly, in testing for accuracy what should my starting point be with powder? 80 grains? What increments should I step up each time and at what point should I stop? Thanks in advance. I always appreciate the wealth of responses and knowledge I gain when I read posts on here.

 

[mooman76]

I usually start at equal amounts of powder per caliber i.e. 50 gr. Work up in 5 gr increments. Working up loads is half the fun. Since you are trying to cut costs, I would start out at 65 or 70gr. CCI caps are fine. With conicals in a 50 I wouldn't probably go above 100 and really you could probably stop at 80-90 gr. Just an educated guess but I you will probably fine around 70 as you most accurate load give or take a little. You could use fff or ff and be fine. with fff you could use a little less powder. You are correct, placement is more important that the amount of power. Idaho Ron took a Elk this year at over 200y with only 80 gr. He didn't just wing it either, he's put in the time and work to make it possible.

 

[Frontier's]

80gr 2fg goex sounds like a perfect starting point for a 1:28 twist with 410gr conical. My charges usually fall right around that range.

 

[user 48679]

My A&H Mountain Rifles get pretty good accuracy with FFFg (3F)

 

[Coueswhitetail]

Good to know. And if I start casting, for lying my bullets am I to understand I can simply create a 50/50 beeswax/crisco concoction and rub it on the grooves with my fingers? Also, how necessary is a wad between powder and projectile?

 

[mooman76]

Yes on lube. If too thick like maybe winter you can add some olive oil. There are hundreds of lube recipes out there. Over powder wad isn't usually necessary but sometimes it improves accuracy.

 

[dennyntx]

Recently purchased an Austin and Halleck mountain rifle in .50 with a 1/28" twist. I'm wanting to use this for hunting deer and elk out here in the west and want to work up an accurate load. I've bought some 410gr hornady great plains conicals but need some suggestions on powder and caps. Im new to BP but a novice rifle reloader and know that certain powders work well with certain calibers and there are max and min charges, etc. In muzzleloading, are there specific powders suited to specific situations? I'm wanting to shoot as cheaply as possible so I can spend more time practicing as I believe that plays a bigger role in accuracy than premium components. I'm looking at goex FFg, is this a suitable powder for accurate hunting in the 100-125 yard realm? Are CCI #11 caps suitable as well, or is there a cheaper alternative? Lastly, in testing for accuracy what should my starting point be with powder? 80 grains? What increments should I step up each time and at what point should I stop? Thanks in advance. I always appreciate the wealth of responses and knowledge I gain when I read posts on here.

I usually load 75-100 grains 2f in my 50cal. 80 grains seems to be the best load wouldn't go over 100 but if you really need to get out there you can.

 

[GAHUNTER60]

First, If you found some .50 cal., 410-grain Hornady Great Plains bullets, I hope you bought a lot of them, or still have a source to get them. They were discontinued some time back and the remaining inventory are much coveted by Colorado elk hunters who must, by law, use a full bore bullet -- and it was/is a good one! Hornady kept the 385 grain Great Plains bullet, which is what I shoot in my 1-28" Green Mountain barrel for whitetails.

I shoot 90 grains of 777 in that gun behind the .385-grain Hornady's. It is very accurate and devastating on deer-size game, however many consider the hollow point design to lack proper penetrating properties for elk (though it gets used a lot).

If you can't find any more or the Hornadys and need a similarly designed bullet, No Excuses makes a great one. They start with a 420 grain in .50 caliber, and go all the way to 600 grains, with several in between weights. I have not personally used them, but should I ever draw another muzzleloader tag for elk, that is would be at the top of my list as far as bullets are concerned.

 

[Carbon 6]

First, If you found some .50 cal., 410-grain Hornady Great Plains bullets, I hope you bought a lot of them,

Make sure to save a couple, so you can have a custom mold made.

 

[CapPopper]

100 grs of ffg and a 360 minie will put 3 shots in one hole at 50 yards out of my rifle and really puts the whuppin on the deer..... I just have a kfc container (red lid clear plastic) I carry with lube in it (50/50 beeswax/crisco) just scrape the bullet across the surface on a few sides and load it...... Fouling stays super soft also. Using regular cci #11s kicks pretty good in my light gun but I don't plink with them..... Traditions fix river fifty with a 1:48 twist. Now if it would just shoot a patched ball half as well.....

 

[Coueswhitetail]

They only had the one box! I would've though. I'll have to look at getting that mold made if they shoot as well as everyone claims. So that flat point works good on elk? I thought I read that the bullet design was good for accuracy but poor for lethality.

 

[Coueswhitetail]

Also, where to I go to get a custom mold made for a this bullet?

 

[mooman76]

Check out Idahoron and what he does for accuracy with his.

 

[CapPopper]

Flat is good for cast bullets. Larger meplats leave larger wound channels. That's The while idea behind hard cast bullets in those hand guns we don't talk about...... A heavy for caliber bullet with a sharp flat nose (usually to hard to expand in the unmentionables) will drive deep and straight and leave a decent wound channel (slightly larger than the diameter of the bullet would suggest) and the bullet design acts in a manner to create a large permanent wound channel. Of course they are large holes to start with usually (.429+ usually) but cape buffalo have been taken with 200gr 10mm bullets at 1100-1200 fps without any lack of penetration or lethality..... Naturally shot placement is the most important factor but very few of the bullets were recovered in such a large animal..... The flat point really adds some thump to the impact.

 

[GAHUNTER60]

Seriously, if the Hornady's shoot good, and you don't want to go to the trouble of having a mold built and casting your own (which is not cost effective unless you intend to shoot a whole lot, I think I read the break even point is 1,200 rounds a year), the No Excuse bullets are very similar, have a fantastic reputation, and are quite cheap! Here's their website:
https://www.muzzleloading-bullets.com/

 

[Coueswhitetail]

Good to know. I went down to my local gun store and they only had pyrodex. If this gun shoots good I'll buy a bulk order of goex but for the time being I'm wanting to keep my initial investment low. Will rounds fired with pyrodex be indicative of how shell shoot with traditional BP? Also, does the granulation of charges cross over, or does pyrodex have to be loaded a little lighter?

 

[Grenadier1758]

You do have to load by volume measure.

Pyrodex is less dense than real black powder, but is designed to be pretty close to black powder performance when measured by volume. When it goes off it is slightly more energetic than black powder. It is indicative of the performance of about 5% to 10% more black powder or Old Eynsford powder (a more energetic brand of black powder). Or you might want to use 10% less Pyrodex.