.40 cal loads
- Thread starter sduve
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My tenn mt rifle used 40 grains of 3f for a target load and some have used up to 60. Use the max amount you can without burning through the patch and still maintain accuracy. My rifle has a green mt. barrel.
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sduve said:
I just checked my Green Mountain Pamphlet and they do not show load restrictions for the .40 caliber barrel. Personally you are about as low a caliber barrel for deer as possible. So for that reason you want the charge as powerful and accurate as you can get. Shot placement will be critical because you are dealing with a very small ball. Also distance will become a critical factor. Not that I do not feel the rifle can do it. If you get the right shot and can place that ball it will take a deer. People have been killing them with .22 rifles for years.
I'd hate to even guess as to what the max load for the rifle is. I too have been interested in a .40 caliber GMB for target and varment shooting. I will be interested to hear how it shoots for you... Perhaps call Green Mountain and ask them what is the max load that barrel will handle. Good luck with the rifle. I will be waiting to hear the results...
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I agree with cayuga. Keep your shots close and put them in the ribs not the shoulder and you will have dead deer. That round ball will lose energy fast but out to 50 yards or so will work.
sduve
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Just shot my .40 cal. My load for this weeks deer season is prb over 60 gr over 777 3F. It's sighted in at 50 yards. Holds a nice group. My son shot my chrony so bad with an arrow that it is finished. Am guessing velocity at 2000 fps. It's a GM barrel in my TC Renegade.
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cayuga said:
The book that came with my 32" GM .40cal barrel, which I have installed on an Investarms Hawkens stock, is the same one that came with every other GM barrel I have gotten. That book just carries the the same warning about not loading over 120 grns of Ffg, which I'm sure is just for liability reasons and is by no means a suggested maximun load for the 40cal.
You would like the .40cal, cayugad. My GM .40cal is a tackdriver, but so are all my GM barrels. However, it might be the most accurate barrel I have. With no wind, it will easily shoot quarter sized groups, or less, at 50 yds, from the bench. I use a .395 ball, .016 pillow ticking patch lubed with Stumpy's moosemilk and 40 grns of KIK Fffg. It is a heavy rifle but because of this, it just doesn't have hardly any recoil. For squirrel hunting, I used 30 grns of Fffg and you could literally shoot them in the eye from within the 30-40 yds from which most of my shots occured. I have shot up to 75 grns of KIK Fffg, with the groups only opening up slightly, still easily within a 3-4" circle. Again, this is with no wind because a breeze will really move the little ball.
From my experience, I would say one could use the 75 grns of Fffg blackpowder for deer hunting and have great accuracy. I'm not sure how much velocity, or energy, this would produce but you should be able to put the ball where you want it, within 50 yds, and I wouldn't shoot beyond that. A .40cal ball is pretty small. Here in Illinois it's not even legal for deer so I won't have the opportunity to try it.
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sduve said:
I just received my new Blackpowder Hunting magazine and there is an interesting article, by Sam Fadala, about the caliber requirements of different state's hunting laws. He wrote quite a bit about his opinion of the .40cal minimum that is used by many states and basically states that he thinks it is too low and gives the reasons for his opinion. FWIW, I agree with his opinion.
