Got the bug awhile back to start chasing with a frontstuffer. I have a few sidelock tc's but a buddy recommended a Knight. So I picked up a nice old mk85 with leupold 3-9 scope. Never could get scope dialed where I wanted so I took it off and discovered that it had the wrong bases on it and too high of rings thus making me run out of elevation on scope. So instead of new scope bases I followed Sabotloaders lead and found a Williams FP and front sight ramp and hood. Love the combo btw. Talked with another friend that shoots Sharps rifles a lot that coached me on how I was shooting irons wrong and boy did it make a difference. Anyway, I got a muzzleloader cow tag for NM in dec and needed to dial in my load and pick a bullet. I was wary that a pistol bullet would be good out to 200yds without pushing it fast with BH209 which I couldn't do, so I decided to try the No Excuse conicals. Talked with the owner on the phone and he said he would recommend the .503x460gr. I read that they like having a wad under them sometimes so I picked up some fiber wads. First load I tried was 90gr Black MZ, fiber wad, 460 no excuse and a no 11 cci magnum. Sighted it in 4" high at 100 and it was dead nutz
Thursday a buddy called and said he was covered up with does if I wanted to come try it out. Loaded up 3 speedloaders and the rangefinder and headed his way. At about 7:05 a nice doe stepped out and made it to 74 yds. Id never killed a deer with a muzzleloader before and only shot a deer with iron sights with an oold mauser 8mm when I was 12 or so. Not gonna lie, my heart starts racing with does just like bucks. Figured Id wait for her to get a hair closer. Then out setepps another doe and a yearling. Id already sighted on the big doe but was hesitant to let my heart calm down and maybe her get a bit closer. She turned and eased back toward the woodline. When she reached it she turned broadside again. I ranged her at 96yds. Put the front firesight at the junction of the back of front leg and body, flipped safety off breathed out and figured if Im gonna miss now is the time to try it. Black MZ smokes a might more than pyrodex to me and the box blind was clouded for what felt like 2 minutes. I expected to see her laying in a heap. No deer. I honestly figured id shot under her. So I eased down and headed over. No blood, no hair, just a scuffle mark. So I walked about 20 yds to the woodline and looked in and saw her white belly shining. Bullet was clean pass through with very little bloodshot meat. Nice and clean perfect through the lungs and she responded just like a normal lungshot deer does. That bullet may still be going.
I am very impressed with the NO excuse bullet. It shoots very well in my rifle and did exactly what I was hoping it would do. I Like 2 holes in an animal. I knew if that 100lb doe could stop that bullet, I didn't want to use it for my elk hunt. But if it shot clean through id feel confident it would be up to the task. Sorry for the long story. Might be kinda dumb to some but I was more excited shooting this little doe with the muzzleloader and iron sights than a lot of bucks ive killed. I think I'll be using the frontstuffer a lot more and leaving those scoped high powered guns in the safe.
Thursday a buddy called and said he was covered up with does if I wanted to come try it out. Loaded up 3 speedloaders and the rangefinder and headed his way. At about 7:05 a nice doe stepped out and made it to 74 yds. Id never killed a deer with a muzzleloader before and only shot a deer with iron sights with an oold mauser 8mm when I was 12 or so. Not gonna lie, my heart starts racing with does just like bucks. Figured Id wait for her to get a hair closer. Then out setepps another doe and a yearling. Id already sighted on the big doe but was hesitant to let my heart calm down and maybe her get a bit closer. She turned and eased back toward the woodline. When she reached it she turned broadside again. I ranged her at 96yds. Put the front firesight at the junction of the back of front leg and body, flipped safety off breathed out and figured if Im gonna miss now is the time to try it. Black MZ smokes a might more than pyrodex to me and the box blind was clouded for what felt like 2 minutes. I expected to see her laying in a heap. No deer. I honestly figured id shot under her. So I eased down and headed over. No blood, no hair, just a scuffle mark. So I walked about 20 yds to the woodline and looked in and saw her white belly shining. Bullet was clean pass through with very little bloodshot meat. Nice and clean perfect through the lungs and she responded just like a normal lungshot deer does. That bullet may still be going.
I am very impressed with the NO excuse bullet. It shoots very well in my rifle and did exactly what I was hoping it would do. I Like 2 holes in an animal. I knew if that 100lb doe could stop that bullet, I didn't want to use it for my elk hunt. But if it shot clean through id feel confident it would be up to the task. Sorry for the long story. Might be kinda dumb to some but I was more excited shooting this little doe with the muzzleloader and iron sights than a lot of bucks ive killed. I think I'll be using the frontstuffer a lot more and leaving those scoped high powered guns in the safe.
