No excuses bullets

[andrewjoseph]

I shoot a CVA buckhorn inline muzzleloader. My normal whitetail projectiles are powerbelt 245 gr. Can I scoot conical bullets efficiently with this gun? Would others reccommend using the 460 or 495 No excuses conicals?

I normally shoot 150 yards of less, mainly in the 50 - 100 yd range. I have only been hunting with a muzzleloader for three seasons and have not experimented that much with other projectiles.

I would greatly appreiate anyones feedback.

[frontier gander]

cva's are made for powerbelt bullets. what kind of powder and charge are you using? the 245 grain powerbelt is an excellent bullet for 150 yard shots. i dropped 2 deer from 146 and 148 yards with my rifle a couple years back. i used 120grains pyrodex rs with a 245 grain hollow point bullet. A good placed lung shot drops them in their tracks. Theres no need for those huge bullets you mentioned. Another bullet you may want to try is either the 245 or 270 grain buffalo ballet. If your load and bullet is working for you now, just stick with it.

[cayugad]

Whether your rifle will shoot them will only be know by trying them. Although in some CVA rifles there is a 400 gr limit on concals according to the manufacturer. You might want to check your manual and make sure that would be considered a safe load.

Something you might want to try to save money over the Powerbelts are 270 gr Buffalo Ball-ets, 300 gr CVA Buckslayer Conicals, or 370 gr Lyman Great Plains. Also my CVA shoots REAL conicals very well. As for shooting them out to 150 yards, I never tried that yet...

Good luck with your rifle.

[andrewjoseph]

I use 100 gr. of Shockeys gold sticks. I seem to think that this burns cleaner than others I have tried.

The reason I am thinking about heavier bullets is because this year I lost a doe that I know I hit in the shoulder. I was 50-60 yds away and was unable to find a blood trail, bones, hair or any other indicators that I hit her. I know I did by the way she ran off - I hate doinf that toa deer.

I think the light powerbelt bullet blew up when it hit the bone or fragmented too much or something.

Thanks for the feedback.

[gleason.chapman]

ORIGINAL: andrewjoseph

I use 100 gr. of Shockeys gold sticks. I seem to think that this burns cleaner than others I have tried.

The reason I am thinking about heavier bullets is because this year I lost a doe that I know I hit in the shoulder. I was 50-60 yds away and was unable to find a blood trail, bones, hair or any other indicators that I hit her. I know I did by the way she ran off - I hate doinf that toa deer.

I think the light powerbelt bullet blew up when it hit the bone or fragmented too much or something.

Thanks for the feedback.

Please see this for PB performance:
http://www.hpmuzzleloading.com/feedback.html

Chap Gleason Va

[andrewjoseph]

Thanks for the article on powerbelt. The buck I shot this month had a small hole in its chest and out the other side. It did not expand one bit - I could put barely put my pinkie finger in it. If it wasnt through the heart I know it would have run forever.

Them not expanding well and fragmenting makes me want to change.

[frontier gander]

dont let that artical scare you off. The best artical to go by is experience. All of us that muzzleload " in my family" Use powerbelts and all deer have been killed with one shot. Unless you count my brothers that took 2 shots. first hit its spine and the last shot was a lung shot that killed it. If you use the 245, my favorite shot is a double lung shot. Im sold on these, doesnt matter how broke i am, im sticking with them. Nothing that lives and breaths can survive with a 1/2" hole in its body.

[Chris W.]

I don't have a buckhorn, but my cva optima shoots 400 gr. conicals really well. With 90 gr. of it'll put 2 shots within 1.5" of each other at 100 yards.

[dmurphy317]

I'm not familiar with the Buckhorn but if it is a "magnum" capable rifle it should be OK to shoot heavier bullets. Before doing so you need to contact CVA customer support to get their recomendations.

I contacted them with the same question and this is what they told me, not a direct quote but essentially the same. The magnum rated guns have a limit of 400 grains for conicals when using 150 grain pellet loads. When shooting bullets over 400 grains the max powder load should be limited to 100 grains or less. They indicated that this applied to bullets up to and including the largest Powerbelt which I think is 530 grains.

I shoot the 460 No Excuse in my Mag Bolt using 90gr of powder and typically get 1.5" or smaller groups at 100 yards and 4" or less at 200 yards. They make a nice 150 yard load using a 6" point blank range sight in. Here is a chart for my load.

Name: 50 Cal, NoExcuses SWC, 460 grn
Ballistic Coeff: 0.294
Bullet Weight: 460
Velocity: 1470
Target Distance: 126
Scope Height: 1.500
Temperature: 70
Altitude: 500
Ballistic Data
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Range Elevation Velocity Energy ETA Drop Max Y 10mph Wind Deflect
0 yds -1.50 in 1470 fps 2207 fpe 0.000 sec 0.00 in -1.50 in 0.00 in
25 yds 1.12 in 1422 fps 2065 fpe 0.052 sec 0.51 in -0.47 in 0.13 in
50 yds 2.66 in 1377 fps 1935 fpe 0.106 sec 2.11 in -0.06 in 0.63 in
75 yds 3.04 in 1333 fps 1816 fpe 0.161 sec 4.86 in 0.66 in 1.44 in
100 yds 2.20 in 1292 fps 1705 fpe 0.218 sec 8.83 in 1.72 in 2.53 in
125 yds 0.11 in 1252 fps 1601 fpe 0.277 sec 14.05 in 3.13 in 3.86 in
150 yds -3.41 in 1216 fps 1510 fpe 0.338 sec 20.71 in 4.95 in 5.60 in
175 yds -8.41 in 1182 fps 1427 fpe 0.401 sec 28.84 in 7.20 in 7.65 in
200 yds -14.94 in 1151 fps 1352 fpe 0.465 sec 38.50 in 9.90 in 9.97 in

This is a stout load and will cause a flinch to develop if you are recoil sensitive.

I would suggest you also consider the heavier PowerBelts such as the 348 or even the 405 if you are happy with the PB's. 150 yard shots would be flatter shooting than the NE's and you wouldn't have to worry as much about heavy recoil, etc. The 348HP is the most accurate bullet I've ever shot in my gun, often shooting into less than an inch at 100 yards using 100gr of powder. I just don't like paying $1 each for them and I like to try different loads to see what works and what doesn't.

Again, check with CVA before using the larger bullets so you have verification for yourself from them. Good luck.

[Underclocked]

or check into Bull Shop as an alternative.