On Saturday I took the renegade flinter with factory barrel and LRH barrel to the range. Also took the Investarm sporterized hawken in .45, didn't get any pictures from the range session or of the new gun though. My brother in law came too and shot a muzzleloader for the first time and now plans to buy a flintlock to hunt in PA's late season.
I loaded the LRH barrel with 100 grains of ffg goex and a 300 grain .430 xtp mag and put the first shot 1/2"to the right ofthe bullseye at 50 yards. Next shot was 1" to the left of the first shot and the 3rd shot touched the 2nd shot. I was really happy with this performance after the last session left me pretty disappointed. My brother in law proceeded to shoot a 3 inch 3 shot group at 50 yards and this was his first time shooting a muzzleloader. We then put the factory barrel back on and shot a couple of 80 grain loads with a wonder wad and prb.
The Investarm sporterized hawken arrived last week at my parent's house. I was impressed with the fit and finish of this gun, it has a really pretty piece of wood on it. It's shorter than I expected with its 21" barrel. I loaded 60 grains of fffg goex, a wonder wad, and a 255 grain maxi hunter. Missed the target completely 2 times at 50 yards. Moved to25 and hit 4 inches low. Made an adjustment put two touching at 25 yards. We were pressed for time, I had to go to an engagement party for my little sister, so I let my brother in law shoot it twice and we packed everything up.
That LRH with that load is all the stopping power you would need. Mine did the same thing right out of the box.. nice shooting. They only get better with age.
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"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, a total wreck, screaming Yahoo, with a big smile on your face."
I loaded the LRH barrel with 100 grains of ffg goex and a 300 grain .430 xtp mag...
At that velocity, with those bullets, you'll get no expansion...
.44 in, .44 out....
Use the "regular" XTP's if you want to hammer something with 100 grains of ffg.
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"New opinions are always suspect, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common." -John Locke
Nothing I know of is going very far with a .44 hole through its lungs and/or heart. Besides that, a lot of the time I take a high shoulder shot out of a tree stand and can catch one or both lungs and break a shoulder also. I don't see a problem with this load/bullet combo and look forward to using it this year.
The point is to killhumanely and recoverquickly, and that's done with extensive tissue damage throughout the wound channel in the vitals. A .44 caliber slugpenciling through will not cause extensive tissue damage which will allow the animal to run much further than necessarybefore dieing,and the small caliber sizeentrance/exit hole is easily plugged with fatty tissue making a blood trail stop.......you'd be better off taking CNS shots with the XTP mag at these velocities.
Never saw a regular XTPfail toexpand or punch bone, I hunt with them in my 77/50 and they freighttrain stuff pronto.......
Have tested the "mags" for effectiveness and they DO no doubtget lots of penetration at lower velocity, but not as much terminal effect as theregular ones. The "mags" areof heavier construction and are designed forwork at higher pressure/velocity than 100 grains of FFg can deliver............
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"New opinions are always suspect, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common." -John Locke
I guess I have to go with Loony on this one Cory. I don't really know if the XTP Mag will expand or not at the impact velocities you'll be getting, but if it won't I'd go with the softer bullet.
I put a hard cast 250 grain Lead Bullet TechnologiesWFN (Wide Flat Nose) .41 pistol bullet through the boiler room of a big doe. It penciled through. That nanny ran forever with that hole through both lungs. No, and I mean absolutely NO blood trail.
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My wife says I'm totally nuts, but I think I'm Semisane.
Things I've Learned: (1) It's not possible to please everyone, but quite easy to piss everyone off. (2) If you love animals as I do, then you're not a vegetarian. (3) There's no need to act stupid, even if you're very good at it. (4) If you eat right and exercise, don't smoke or drink, you're going to die anyway.
In my range sessionlast week-end with the Mustang, I shot300 grain Gold Dots incrush rib sabots (not a real tight load in the bore) over120 grains GOEX FFFg and got a three-shot average of 1650 fps. I would guess the XTPs over 100 grains would get something less than that, even with a tight sabot.
Just checked my old Mustang targets. In May of `07 I shot 300 grain Remington semi jacketed hollow points in MMP orange sabots (tight fit in bore) over 100 grains of Pyrodex RS and got a five-shot average velocity of 1393 fps. In June `07, I shot some 300 grain XTPs in crush ribsover 100 grains of T7 and got a five shot average of 1747 fps.
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My wife says I'm totally nuts, but I think I'm Semisane.
Things I've Learned: (1) It's not possible to please everyone, but quite easy to piss everyone off. (2) If you love animals as I do, then you're not a vegetarian. (3) There's no need to act stupid, even if you're very good at it. (4) If you eat right and exercise, don't smoke or drink, you're going to die anyway.
saturday's range session
