First muzzleloader hunt!

[Bushfire]

Just want to kick off by saying thank you to everyone for being very helpful with all my questions and I'm sure I'll have plenty more to come.

Anyway went out this morning and worked on the load, thanks to some advice I knocked it back to 90gn black powder. Got her shooting about 3" groups.
Went out for an arvo hunt at one of my fallow spots with a mate and long story short managed to tummy crawl into about 90yds and got a lean on a tree. I put the open sights on the shoulder of a broadside young doe and squeezed the trigger. In the midst of the smoke I lost sight of her but thought she looked hit. As I got up there I found no blood and decided I must have missed. Went another 35yds and there she was, hit perfectly through the shoulder and lung, picked up the bullet on the opposite side under the skin. Very happy!

I prefer meat in its original packaging

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[BuckDoeHunter]

Re: It's muzzleloader hunt!

Congrats! :applause: Nice shooting.

How did the bullet look? I can't remember which one you are shooting.

Looks like a nice one for the grill.

 

[Bushfire]

Re: It's muzzleloader hunt!

This was the 240gn hornady xtp mag. I was expecting a full pass through but didn't get it. I'll take a pic tomorrow of the projectile and post it up.


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[d.winsor]

Re: It's muzzleloader hunt!

Congratulations on the kill.

I have some 44 Cal 300 grain XTP that I am going to try, they expand from 825 to 1900 FPS, I wanted the 45 Cal 300 grain, they expand from 800 to 1700 FPS, but they are hard to come by. I figure with 100 grains behind the 44 Cal it will break bones if necessary for a pass thru. I am going to try them with a Harvester Crush Rib Sabot and the MMP Sabot.

 

[cayuga]

Re: It's muzzleloader hunt!

congratulations on the hunt. That looks like a lot of fine meat there. And that was an excellent open sight shot. It is kind of cool the way they disappear in the smoke cloud. And then the excitement of the hunt for them. Those 240 grain must have expanded so much it never made it through. Think of the energy that round released inside that animal. Again, congratulations.

 

[03mossy]

Re: It's muzzleloader hunt!

You have come a long ways in a short amount of time. Congrats on your first smokepole harvest!! Enjoy them backstraps!

 

[edmehlig]

Re: It's muzzleloader hunt!

Congratulations on your first ML hunt. You are going to probably wind up like the rest of us and be hunting with your smokepole more and your centrrfire rifle less.

 

[rwbaker]

Re: It's muzzleloader hunt!

Nice job ! :wink:

 

[d.winsor]

Re: It's muzzleloader hunt!

Right as you shoot, lift the gun and look under it, the smoke will rise and you can see your game quicker.

 

[StewTCB]

And a fine looking dog there too!

 

[03mossy]

Re: It's muzzleloader hunt!

Right as you shoot, lift the gun and look under it, the smoke will rise and you can see your game quicker.

Intersesting... gonna have to try that

 

[dave19113]

Congrats


Nice shooting

 

[Bushfire]

Recovered projectile


I prefer meat in its original packaging

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[ShawnT]

That Bullet looked like it performed the way it was supposed to. Congrads on your first ML hunt. :applause: :yeah: Blowing smoke just makes the hunt a lot more enjoyable for me.

 

[Bushfire]

It's definitely more fun for me! With a centrefire I do a fair but of medium range to long range hunting so anything under 300m is just point and click, I still love bow hunting but it's near impossible to train a gundog and hunt with a bow I've found so blackpowder is the perfect inbetween.
Only thing with the projectile is I would have expected it to hold up better on a fallow because they're so small in te body, smaller than a whitetail for if imagine. Hoping it stands up well on a sambar which are more solid than an elk.


I prefer meat in its original packaging

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[ShawnT]

Did you weigh the bullet to see how much weight it lost? Remember these are pistol bullets (44mag in this case) and we are pretty much operating in the same velocity range. For heavier game you would probably be happier with a 300 grain bullet. I know it is tough for you over there, not great here at the moment too, but you might be happier with a 300 grain bullet when you can find them. For real large game like the Red Deer Stags and Elk, I would look for something like the 300gn Speer Deep Curl, 300gn Nosler Partition (They might be hard since they were discontinued), 300gn Swift A-Frame or the Barnes. The Swift is very similar in construction to the old Nosler Partition, but they are a bit on the expensive side, but are a great bullet. I used a 300gn Swift A-Frame on the 430lb Black Bear in my avatar. It broke his neck and slid down the neck a ways. He dropped where he stood. My Guide was amazed. It performed just like the Nosler Partition with expansion down to the partition in the bullet then the expansion stops, but it kept going. 8)

 

[d.winsor]

Kick your powder charge up to 100 grains, test it on your range and make sure it is still accurate, then try it hunting again. I would think the xtp mag would have had a pass thru. I don't know what the max charge for your gun is, maybe you can increase charge a couple times if needed. the 240 gr xtp will expand between 900 and 1800 fps. You might try a 240 gr JSP I use to hunt with them and always had a pass thru with 100 gr of black powder, good blood trail too. Some people call it a flat point, with a little exposed lead above the copper jacket. good luck

 

[Bushfire]

Nah I didn't weigh it mate, it has a fair bit of bone stuck in there so wouldn't get a true representation.
I definitely agree about heavier bullets. It's a bit of a saga, I ordered hornady fpb 300gn projectiles because I couldn't get Barnes (they won't import them here). The useless bloke I ordered them through ended up never ordering them at all despite telling me they were in. In the wait of 9 months for my rifle to arrive he lost his dealers license so once my gun arrived and I found out about the projectiles I got the new dealer to order tem for me and they're arriving in august. In the meantime I tried to get some swift 300gn a frames, none in the country! So we made more calls and all that was left in Australia was one 20 pack of the 240gn xtp's.

When I get my fpb's definitely will be kicking up the charge I just don't have the projectiles spare at the moment to work on a new load.


I prefer meat in its original packaging

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[d.winsor]

We take too much for granted in the states, If I order something and don't get it within a week I am disgruntled. I think I'll appreciate things more here.

 

[d.winsor]

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