favorite .50 cal load

[sharpshooter94]

what is your favorite .50 cal ml load. I'm thinking about starting with muzzle loading and I want a ballpark load.

[Lumox]

Target shooting? Hunting, deer, elk??? What kind of rifle? Round ball, conical, sabot?

[sharpshooter94]

you people are all so fandangled with what kind of rifle, use , ect................. Jeez. I guess hunting deer with acceptable groupings on paper. any bullet out of a modern in line ML.

[Twanger]

My favorite load for the ...
Encore 209X50: 240gr Hornady XTP in Green Sabot with two pyrodex pellets.
Hawkin 50 / 1:48: 385gr Great Plains Hollow Point conical over 70gr T72F
White 45-cal M97 Long Gun: 460gr Hunterman Magtip over 70gr T72F
White 45-cal Javalina Pistol: White PowerStar 350gr 45/40 sabot and 60gr T73F
White 41-cal Javalina Pistol: 410gr NEW conical and 40gr T73F

[LE]

Have to back Twanger on his Encore load. Use the same in my Omega. It works & is all you need.

[Rattus58]

I shoot essentially 70 or 80 grains for all of my guns with my roundball 58 up to 90 on occasion.

Aloha... :cool:

[captchee]

sharp shooter . IMO the question was sound and needed to be ask , not becouse of any disagreements but becouse its basicly a need to know
rB rifles normaly have slower twists . 1 in 48-----1 in 120
conical rifles 1 in 48 and less
the 1 in 48 being the so called middle ground

also there are many diffrent types of rifling , which also plays a part in the load .
also know that just becouse you may be looking at a modern design , that doesnt mean suddenly your rifle will shoot the same as someone else with a given charge or load .

then you have rifles , that are designed to shoot sabots better then full bore conicals.

i dont own a modern gun so i wont leave you a load .
just know that even with modern muzzleloading , there most times isnt simply a 1 size fits all

[Just a Hunter]

1:60 typically a primitive styled muzzleloader which will likly work best with a patch and ball. 70-80 grains of powder depending on your rifles preference.

1:48 This is a rifle that can be used with patch and ball, but your likly to find it may have a preference for conicals. Some rifles with this barrel twist may group well with a sabot but there is no guarantee. The rifles Ive owned with this rate of twist were safe to use with 90grains of loose powder and this gave there best accuracy. My Marlin muzzleloader would keyhole Hornady sabots, but would stack 370gr T/C maxiball conicals together very nicely

1:28 This is a twist rate that will prefer a sabot or conical, but I would refrain from using a patch and ball. My T/C Black Diamond has a preference for 245gr powerbelt bullets and 110grains of loose powder.

The rage these days are the preformed powder pellets, and you will find them often sold in both 50 and 30 gr loadings.

With a blackpowder rifle you really have two main things in which to work with in assisting to gain the best accuracy. One of these two things would be your bullet and weight, and the other would be fine tuning of the powder load your rifle prefers.

Those that use the pellets give up the ability to fine tune there loadings for the convenience of quick easy loadings.

My TC BlackDiamond will shoot fairly well with 100grs of powder, but with 110grs it will shoot nearly as well as many of my centerfire rifles. You will need to determine on your own how much you wish to tinker with your rifle, but for me thats part of the fun.

[Scout]

I've had two Omega's, one Encore and one Knight that all like this load:

2 pellets of 777 behind a 250 gr. bonded TC Shockwave with the Easy Glide sabots.

[ncboman]

I'm no ML expert but I've killed some deer.

These .50cal Knights I've got doan wanna shoot my favorite load, a 385gr buffalo bullet in front of 80gr of Pyrodex. :mad:

funny, 370gr maxiballs shoot ok. :confused:

I've killed a handful with the Knight bullets and I've killed some with 240gr jhp of various makes.

The Knight bullets are probably better because I've never had one stop in a deer.

Knight bullets (http://www.knightrifles.com/catalog.aspx?catid=leadbullets)

:)

[DaveP]

For the last 10-15 years, we've stuck with Knight 260 gr ALL LEAD hp, over 90 gr Goex 2F in inlines.

50+ deer and maybe recovered 2 bullets. Had problems before switching to them with Hornady 240gr JHPs-jacket separation,etc

Slowtwist/RBs I use Hornady .490, 0.15 patch, over 90 gr Goex 2F.

Here's one of the recovered Knights with a new one.
JUST under the skin on off shoulder.

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k249/Dave2006_02/2005_012211-24-078pt0012.jpg