ORIGINAL: Jimimac
Thanks... I've heard good things about the Gold Dots and that is one of the handgun bullets I'll be trying also since they are constucted in such a fashion and are not very expensive. I guess I was gravitating towards a 45-70 rifle bullet like the Speer I listed above since that bullet should have been designed to expand reliably without fragmentation at velocities generated by modern muzzleloaders.
I'm not locked in on any load at this point to be honest. I like to fiddle around a good bit since shooting the muzzleloader is fun, so for now I'm kind of looking for lower cost alternatives thatwill also work well as a hunting bullet.
In the not so cheap bullet category, my old Knight disk rifle likes the Precision Rifle 275 grain, 44 cal bullet loaded over 120 grains of Pyrodex. I picked up a new Omega last week and that same bullet loaded over 100 grains of Pyrodex gave me a 1" group the first time I tried it at 100 yards. I just picked 100 grains out of the air, loaded the bullets and had at it. I was pleasantly surprised, so I'm anxious to shoot this Omega more and see what it can do with different bullet and powder combinations, since my initial results were so favorable.
Thanks again for your input.
Your welcome. While the Precision Rifle are good, they are hard to get, since they are from Canada took two weeks for me to get them. As for an Omega, I have one, I shoot a Nosler Partition HG (HG for Hand Gun) 300g with a Crushed Rib sabot and 100g of 777. Excellent accuracy at 100 yards. It is the bullet Jim Shockey uses on deer, bear, moose, basically everything except cape buffalo. They don't fragment and they shoot thru deer, if they hit sholder they go thru into the lungs. The Speer Gold Dot come the closest to a practice/plinking bullet and a hunting bullet since they are bonded and only $16. Next would be the XTP, but they fragment on high speed close hits, shedding their jacket from their core, causing less penetration, still a dead deer, but some folk don't like them for that reason for hunting. Plinking fine. I use them for shooting/plinking and then use the Noslers for hunting. Same POI at 100 yards for me.
Chap Gleason