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Late season round ball tips?

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Ozarkwoodswalker
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Late season round ball tips?

Post by Ozarkwoodswalker » Tue Dec 04, 2018 6:13 pm

Our muzzleloader season is dec22 to Jan 1st. My little stainless .50 call is going to be a hundred yard gun...or less..(in my hands) have never had great luck in late season. Any tips or ideas. I don't have access to any good food plots or particularly concentrated food sources . Any ideas? Afternoon hunts better? Or???
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JEBar
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Re: Late season round ball tips?

Post by JEBar » Tue Dec 04, 2018 6:33 pm

what I can say for sure is that my 50 cal classic TC Hawken sending a round ball down range ain't nowhere near a 100 gun .... for deer hunting, it does well at 25 and passable at 50 .... beyond that its accuracy and consistency drops off rather quickly .... I've been told it would do better with sabots but havne't ever tried any .... my self imposed rule for deer hunting has always hunt with it at distances I'd use 00-buck
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mlrifleNY
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Re: Late season round ball tips?

Post by mlrifleNY » Wed Dec 05, 2018 2:59 pm

Muzzleloaders should be able to group well out to 100 yards, but it takes some work. There are many things you have to do to get the best out of it.No 2 are the same. You need to start at 25 yards and work up a load that will shoot at a minimum 1 inch group and move to 50 yards, You will need to vary power loads, patch thickness and maybe even ball size. You should be able to get a 1 inch group here also. All this shooting is off a solid bench. At this stage you move to 100 yards. By now you should be getting groups around 3 inches. I have shot flintlocks for over 40 years, with some of them with the New York State Flintlock Team. We went to several shoots in 4 states every summer. We had people that would consistently shoot in the 180's out of 200. This is the system we all used to gat the best out of our rifles.

Jim
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Henry BBB 44mag
Henry 1860
Henry 45/70 Brass

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