best hunting load for me

[lostbackpacker]

Short story, Hunting many years in WA with modern firearm. Going to do blackpowder this year for elk. I have a cva staghorn magnum. with all the experience on this site, what may be the best round for me. Also, we have to shoot open sights here in WA.
thanks
Mike

[lemoyne]

Depends some what on your state laws. The new Hornady FPB, a hollow base conical of 350 gr shoots well out of all my guns but there are a few people who it has not shot accurate for; if you can use a sabot the is a number of them that will work well the Lehigh,the bonded Shock Wave and theGold Dot a 300gr bullet will give the Trajectory the foot pounds and a well constructed one will give enough penetration. Sinceevery gun has its own preferences for accuracy you will have to try thebullets and amount of powder to see what your gun likes. I would suggest starting at 90 gr and working up in 10 gr increments to the limit of your gun when you are done you will know what to use. Some of the other excellent bullets that will do a good job are the Nosler partition and the Barnes all copper just remember that finding a sabot that makes the bullet fit your barrel correctly is a major part of getting accuracy. Hope this helps. Lee

[heinz57]

finding a sabot that makes the bullet fit your barrel correctly is a major part of getting accuracy. i fully agree with that
lemoyne

[cayugad]

If you're allowd to shoot sabots, try a 300 grain Shockwave, 250 grain Shockwave, Powerbelt in 348 grain, 260 grain Nosler in a Harvester Crushed Rib sabot, ... these are some of the things that shoot real well out of my CVA Staghorn that should work on elk.

Also my CVA shoots XTP's real well. Whether these would make a good elk load I can not say, but they are accuracy. Mine normally shoots best with 90 grains of Pyrodex RS powder..

Good luck.