Paul L Mohr

You just have to try different loads to see what shoots well in your gun. There is a big technology difference between the bullets you use now and the buckhammers. What you have is a modern controlled expansion bullet in a sabot. The buckhammers are basically like shooting an older rifled slug. It is just a big heavy chunk of lead.

You are going to have to fork over the cash to get some different brands and types of ammo and see what your gun does with them. And if you are looking for 150 yard accuracy you best be shooting them at 150 yards. Don't shoot them at 75 or 100 yards and assume that because they were accurate there they will be at 150. I have noticed with shotgun slugs and inline muzzle loaders accuracy falls of FAST. I have shot loads in my H&R that group great at 50 and 75 yards but can barely stay on the paper at 100, let alone 150. you HAVE TO actually shoot that load at the distance you want to use it at to see how it will perform.

And don't fall into the hype of believing that you need a light fast bullet to reach out to there. Chances are a heavier slower bullet might be more accurate at longer distances, you will just have to compensate for the drop is all. I mean it is great that some of these loads have impressive ballistics on paper. However it doesn't do you much good if you get 3 inch groups at 100 (if your lucky), 6 inch groups at 150 and are lucky if you can hit the side of barn at 200 yards. Flat shooting does you no good if you don't have the accuracy to take advantage of it.

I was going to try the same thing with my muzzle loader. The load I had would shoot great at 100 yards, sub 2 inch groups consistently. But my longest shot I could get at the property I hunted was 150, and the load just wasn't that impressive at that distance. 50 yards made a big difference in groups. I was shooting 300 grn XTPs with 95 grns of pyrodex. I was going to go to a lighter weight bullet and a bit more powder to make it shoot flatter, and hoping my accuracy would increase. Umm, didn't happen to say the least. Then some very smart guy in the muzzle loader forum told me I went the wrong way. I should go with a heavier bullet with a better ballistics coefficient for long range shooting. I stepped up to a 350 grn bullet with a ballistic tip and boat tail (Precision Rifle bullets) and used 100 grns of clean shot.

I ended up still having 1 to 2 inch groups at 100 yards but shrunk my groups at 150 yards to 3 inches which was much better than what I was getting. I zeroed my scope for 130 yards which put my highest point at 2.5 inches and only dropped 3 inches at 150 yards. Which meant out to 150 yards I could place my cross hairs in the middle of the vitals and get a clean kill.

Shoot what your gun likes, then learn to shoot that load well.

My H&R Ultra likes the winchester 400 grn platinum tips. There are still a lot of loads I haven't tried though because I simply couldn't afford it.

Paul