How accurate is this gun suppose to be??

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Thanks guys, I appreciate it! I can shoot pretty good on the bench with my custom and regular rifles, but a rifle this is NOT. lol. Was wondering about that powder. Now I have my answer, thanks. Any idea why? I have shot approx. 8-10 different bullet combos thru this and have only two set ups get about 1 1/4"- 1 3/8" three shot groups. I hate to see it beat me. I take it personally. But, I think I need to move on to another gun with some more magnification other than a 5 power scope. I am thinking I have unrealistic expectations from this gun.
I read that triple 7 got its name from 77.7 by weight = 100 by volume. Now granted each lot # may be different to a point. Scotts98rt you must be around 90 grains then? I will have to try working up to that load for myself as well. Do you mean XTP? Not PTX? Hornady does make PTX products.
 
Scale broke yrs ago, l measure by volume. I do mean ptx. Just bought because they were like 5.00/100 a few yrs ago.
 
You must be talking about the guns like savage that take regular gun powder? I could not find PTX. Can you post a pic of a PTX? What's the deal with those bullets?
 
A ptx looks like a xtp with a red poly tip that's rounded not pointy. A mk85 is considered a plunger type gun. No bolt that rotates into a closed Position.
 
OK, I get it now. I was looking up PTX under Hornady not TC. I have the Harvester 54/45 red sabots. The same as yours? I think you said pink. Just want to be sure is all.
 

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I have the red as well. They load the same, look the same other than color.
 
According to what I see,....those bullets are no longer availible but the shockwaves and XTP are about the same. So, maybe I will give them a go. I will have to look thru my targets, I think I shot 250-XTP's and shot decent. I will see.
 
My first in-line was a MK-85. I had better luck with the larger diameter projectiles and 80 grains of Pyrodex RS. I was able to get 3 shot 1.5" groups at 100. I believe the optic was a $100 Bushnell 3 x 9 x 40. I should have kept it but I doubled my money on it and I wanted to get into T/C Encores.
 
No one out there does anything with free floating the barrel on these muzzleloaders do they?
 
Knight54 just want to throw in my 2 cents. What's good for the goose ain't necessarily good for the gander. I've had and still do have a bunch of muzzleloaders both inlines and sidelocks. I've been shooting them since the early 70s. I don't claim to know everything about them and that's the beauty of these forums. We all get to learn something through the threads. But one thing I do know from experience is that every muzzleloader has its own favorite bullet/sabot/powder combo that shoots the best. Why? Not all are treated equally. You will find a lot of variance in bore diameters from one to the other. My Knight Disc Extreme bore is so tight I need to use thin walled sabots or crush rib sabots to even attempt to get a bullet down the bore. Yet the same combo will basically fall down another.
Experiment and enjoy. But if 1.5" groups may be all that you can get so be it. That's plenty good enough for 99.9% of hunting situations. Especially if its consistent.
 
Just curious if you have done a search on the forum for Mk85 54Cal loads or something like that? If not, I highly recommend it. There are numerous recommendations for using a 54 cal sabot (purple) and a 50cal bullet such as the Barnes 325 gr mentioned above and for Speer 325gr loads. Some also say the 50cal Speer 270gr and a 300gr 50 cal SOCOM bullet. If you run across ShawnT's posts on his results with a 54cal, I bought the 54 cal MK85 he posted about from him and it's a damn fine MK85.

Just don't want you to limit your options.

John
 
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Yes, I did do some searches just again this afternoon and it seems that from what I have found the XTP's seem to be very favorable as well. Spent an hour or so going thru my targets and see that back in the day (2006) the 300 xtp mag bullets shoot under an inch. Wished I would of seen that before. That's on me though. Should of looked more closely. I was trying to go with a high ballistic coefficient as I wanted to shoot farther 150-200 yards max. So I found the Precision Bullets 340 gr. They shot well and had a good bc, but after shooting and googling it I found out the bc rating is very skewed. So,....I will hunt this season with the load I have with those and then next year go to XTP's or lead. We have a few tree houses with adaptable benches on the windows, and sand bags if you can believe that and was wanting to be able to make it count if the buck I am after happened to be out far.

I have tried umpteen Barnes with the purple sabots and a Speer or two with zero luck with Pyrodex, black, and 777. My gun just despises them!

After reading Idaholewis's posts and video, I started looking into lead. Only seem to be able to buy mass quantities unless I am not finding them otherwise.
 
Sounds like you have done your research! Great, I recently ordered a 50-488M mould from Accurate myself to play with next year in my sidelocks
 
I Will likely get the No Excuses and give them a try along with the XTP's......if I can find them. Seems XTP's are currently in short supply. I will try the thinner jackets as well as the thicker jackets.
 
I've found Nosler 44mags with Harverster (Green) and the same load of 80grs of T7 shoot the same as XTPs. However, I haven't shot Nosler's at a deer. I have killed eleven deer with XTPs 2 with my muzzleloader and 9 with Ruger Redhawk.
 
Have you tried the Barnes in the red sabot? My 54 Remington shoots the purple sabot and 385 core lock ultras well. Those platinums sound nice.
 
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