Shotgun vs. Muzzelloader

[swisslake]

This last weekend I passed on a shot at the biggest buck I have ever seen. It was about 190 yards away & I was shooting my shotgun with slugs. I am comfortable with slugs out to about 140 or so. I have been considering getting into muzzleloading, but would want a gun that could extend my effective range out to 200 yards. Any suggestions?

[Roskoe]

I would personally prefer a good muzzleloader to a shotgun w/slugs as well. Some of the best are the T/C Omega and Encore. Quite a bit of information and tips can be found in the Blackpowder section of this forum. The range, accuracy,and knockdown of a .50 caliber premium sabot round is pretty impressive - more than enough to offset the "one shot" aspect of the weapon, IMO.

[48thguns]

Well, for one, the muzzleloader has a much greater chance at these ranges than a shotgun. 200 yards is on the borderline I would say. Within 150, my muzzleloader is superb. I would never ever take a chance at that range with a shotgun....ever. Have you ever patterned your shotgun at 200 yards? Others may argue this, however, anything over 100 yards with a shotgun IMHO is pure folly. Regards, Rick.

[handloader1]

A .50 cal Magnum muzzleloader would be an excellent choice. Good luck.

[statjunk]

I also would agree that a muzzle loader is the way to go but 200 yards would be about the maximum distance you would consider shooting it. You will need to get a pretty good smoke pole to pull that shot off.

Tom

[Paul L Mohr]

With the newer offerings in slugs I think they are about equal, actually the shotgun may have the edge in performance in your avarage case. Providing those high performance slugs shoot well out of your gun. You also have the option of a quicker follow up shot if need be and the cleaning is much easier afterwards.

However I have found that the inline muzzle loaders are a bit easier to get really accurate if you work at it. And don't cost as much to shoot. Just more time consuming is all.

I used to hunt with an inline for gun season, this year I switched to a single shot slug gun simply for the ease of use.

200 yards on deer with either weapon is pushing it in my opinion. Not that it can't be done, you just better know what you are doing is all. Don't expect to shoot 200 yards accurately without doing some homework and testing. If you do get it right off the bat, consider yourself lucky.

I think it depends on the equipment you are using as well. If you are shooting a smooth bore with rifled slugs, then 100 yards may be too far in most cases. And if you are using an older rifled barrel with some of the standard saboted ammo or rifled slugs 100 should not be much of a problem but things may start to fall apart after that. With a newer slug gun and quality ammo good accuracy out to 100 yards should be pretty easy, I don't know about 200 though. I would for sure test it at that range to be sure.

Both my ML and shotgun will shoot 1 inch groups on average from a bench at 100 yards with the right loads. My ML opens up to around 2.5-3 inches at 150 yards. I don't know about my shotgun, I haven't tried it that far yet. I do know of people that get good accuracy at 150 yards and beyond though.

Paul

[TurkeyT]

Ditto what Paul said, with todays slugs they are about equal but you need to spend some time on the bench.

[A.D.D. BOY]

Go to the blackpoweder forum. They were just talking about a Savage Arms gone that gets 1/2 inch groups at 200 yards. And shoots smokeless powder.

[Paul L Mohr]

1/2 inch groups at 200 yards? Yeh right. If you believe that I have a bridge to sell you. That is 1/4 moa, most target rifles will not shoot that well. Let alone a muzzle loader with bullets that have crappy BC's. I don't even know anyone that can shoot that accurate even if the weapon could do it.

The savages are nice rifles for sure, but I wouldn't expect anything near that for grouping. If you got 2 inches at 200 yards I would be VERY impressed.

Paul