40cal out of 50 cal

[ingramjets]

Wondering how many shoot 40 cal bullets out of 50 cal? Would there be any benifit to doing so for deer size game? Looking for pros or cons. I’m shooting a knight mountaineer 50 thinking of giving it a try. I need to be talked into or out of this idea thanks

 

[MrTom]

I tried a 200 grain XTP out of my 50 cal Accura v2 and it did not fare too well so I vacated the idea. Maybe heavier .40 bullets will work better, but I never went back and tried any.

 

[rangerod]

I've never gotten a decent group out of any of my 50's with the forty.

 

[Saxtonyoung]

I harvested several deer with this 40 caliber 225gn slug in both a 50 caliber Knight DISC Extreme and a 45 caliber Omega.My furthest shot was 150 yds with the 50 Knight. To prove this combination I practiced out to 175 yds which is about as far as I could shoot on my range.

 

[ingramjets]

What kind of slugs you got there and what was your load? Did you gain any velocity from using the 40’s?

 

[HC]

I tried the 40 cal fury’s in a mountaineer and accura both 50 cals. T totally a waste of good bullets and powder.

 

[jims]

I never got good accuracy with the 40/50 combo.

 

[Saxtonyoung]

I had Mountain Molds make me a mold to pour these bullets. I used their online calculator so the bullet would shoot out of a 1-28 or 1-30 twist. My load is 100gn of 777 2f loose powder. Mountain Molds is no longer in business but Accurate Molds has a 240gn mold that would put out the same length as my 225 but with a wider meplat.

 

[ElDiablo]

I’m sitting here looking at a couple packs of .50/.40s I picked up yesterday (for the bullets) thinking maybe I’ll give them a go in a .50. Probably could get ‘em screaming. I’m not sure I recall ever trying them. I do know I never got 50/44s to shoot all that well. But who knows.

 

[Saxtonyoung]

Another bullet I had excellent success with is the Lyman 403169 sized to .400. With the same dose of powder. The mold is rated at 240gn but mine was producing 250gn.

 

[Whokalouie]

The 240 gr XTP is excellent on targets and whitetail out of our 50ca LK-93's.
Duh me, I forgot to state......... with 85 grains of 2FF Dupont BP.
Almost always double lung pass throughs as almost all our shots are under 50 yards.

 

[Saxtonyoung]

I remember when the gun writer were talking about the 45 caliber muzzleloaders they were using 150gn of powder and bragging about 2600 fps. I tried those high doses and accuracy was out the window .After a lot of experimenting I settled on 100gn and found it shot equally well out of a 45 or 50 caliber with the 1-28 twist. Its been a long time since I shot over a chronograph but if memory serves me correctly it was in the 1900 fps range.

 

[LBAhunter]

When I had my CVA Optima V2 50, I had the best accuracy with 45 caliber bullets. I tried 40 and 44 caliber bullets

 

[ingramjets]

I’m sitting here looking at a couple packs of .50/.40s I picked up yesterday (for the bullets) thinking maybe I’ll give them a go in a .50. Probably could get ‘em screaming. I’m not sure I recall ever trying them. I do know I never got 50/44s to shoot all that well. But who knows.

Keep us posted on how they do

 

[LBAhunter]

What kind of slugs you got there and what was your load? Did you gain any velocity from using the 40’s?

The only way you gain velocity is lower bullet weight (going from 250gr bullets to 200gr.) or increasing powder charge (80gr(V) to 100gr(V)). A 45 cal 200gr bullet is going to be around the same velocity as a 40 caliber 200gr bullet. With BH209, it usually does better with heavier bullet weights. Just take a look at BH209 load data, compare them. In some cases, you not gaining to much in regards to lighter versus heavier bullet weights.

 

[ElDiablo]

The only way you gain velocity is lower bullet weight (going from 250gr bullets to 200gr.) or increasing powder charge (80gr(V) to 100gr(V)). A 45 cal 200gr bullet is going to be around the same velocity as a 40 caliber 200gr bullet. With BH209, it usually does better with heavier bullet weights. Just take a look at BH209 load data, compare them. In some cases, you not gaining to much in regards to lighter versus heavier bullet weights.

Yes, the Bh209 .50 data doesn’t show much of a difference for the .40 200s.

 

[Saxtonyoung]

What's appealing to me about shooting a smaller caliber bullet out of large caliber muzzleloader is for the accuracy and less recoil to handle the required job. In my case a 225gn bullet started at 1900fps in a scoped rifle zeroed at 150yrd .The bullet travel is never higher or lower than 3" out to 175yrds and still has over 1300lbs of when it arrives at that distance which worked out good for me since I was deer hunting over farm fields when I had my bullet mold made. I picked the 40 caliber instead of 45 so I could have a less stubby bullet for the intended weight which I believed would travel better at those distances. As mentioned earlier I also wanted a bullet to work in more than one caliber and fortunately they make both 50/40 and 45/40 sabots. I also bought sabots before I had the mold made to get measurements on the pedal lengths to see how much would be holding onto the bullet. Looking back now I probably could have made a longer heavier bullet and still had success.

 

[The long rider]

I had shot .40 cal bullets out of my .50 Knight rifle years ago looking to gain velocity and shoot flatter. I shot a few deer with them and for me the 40 cal. bullets just didn't put-em down like a 45 did. That was before Blackhorn 209 powder.

 

[michiganmuzzy]

I harvested several deer with this 40 caliber 225gn slug in both a 50 caliber Knight DISC Extreme and a 45 caliber Omega.My furthest shot was 150 yds with the 50 Knight. To prove this combination I practiced out to 175 yds which is about as far as I could shoot on my range.

Are you using those brown 45/40 sabots, shown in the pic? I never had accuracy, with them, as good as the light blue sabots, or even the beige sabots. I cut all the petals off my brown sabots to use the bases under full bore bullets.

 

[Saxtonyoung]

Yes I've had good success with the brown 45/40 sabots. Perhaps I was just fortunate to find the right bullet/sabot/Charge load/muzzleloader combination.