ORIGINAL: txhunter58
I have an Omega, and like it, but it has been a real adventure trying to get an accurate conical. Short version: my brother and I both bought identical 50 caliber stainless Omegas. His is not picky and will shoot almost any conical accurately. Mine took 3 years and many powders and bullets to find the right fit. I get decent groups with 777 and 348 and 405 powerbelts if I don't push them too hard (90-95 grains of loose 777). However, had to go back to pyrodex to get better accuracy. APP and Blackmag3 both were terrible out of my gun with conicals.
Most accurate in my gun: 110 grains of pyrodex and 338 grain platinum powerbelts.
This is what concerns me about getting into muzzleloading. With 3 school-age kids, I don't have a lot of time to spend at the range trying endless combinations of loads.
The generally accepted goal is to be able to get at least pie-plate groups (8") at 100 yards. Does a "bad" load shoot worse than this, or are we talking about the difference between 1-2" groups and 3, 4 or 5" groups?
Where I currently hunt, I'm in woods and almost all of my shots would be 50 yards or less. How much time can I expect to spend at the range in the beginning finding a load that will shot accurately enough to put a deer down at 50 or 100 yards?
After all, I doubt there's a
practical difference in hunting between a rifle that will shoot 1.5" groups and one that will shoot 3" groups. The rifle with the better group looks good on paper, but there's probably only a 1-in-a-1000 chance that the 1.5" rifle will put something down that the 3" rifle won't in indentical circumstances.