Originally Posted by
yeoman
I was unable to ethically take numerous shot opportunities this season with my open sight Hawkin due to darkness and distance, including a 140 class 8 point @125 yds, on two separate occasions. The second time he had an unusable front leg. As well as a doe @75 yds and again @125 which also had an unusable front leg. As a result, I have my first scoped inline on the way. This gun uses bare 209 primers. I have lots of loose powder and will be working up loads, now that I've joined a local skeet club with a 100yd range which members use at no extra charge. Any recommendations for a starting load combination? Any preference in 209's? I will want my hunting round to be effective to 200 by next Fall. Guess I'll have to go to the old range and pay $20 to do that a few times. Here's a photo of the deer I settled on in the last 1/2 hr of the last day of firearms. I did not think he had a point on the left beam or I would have opted for one of the does he was with. Oh we'll.
Man welcome to the MK85 world.
Sorta hard to mess up working up a load for the MK85. Tony Knight use to boast that you could pop any ole conventional sabot down a MK-85 and go hunting with it that afternoon with zero load development and kill a deer with it. I saw it done on more than one occasion.
Every MK85 I ever ran across had a preference for heavier bullets. 300 grain .452 bullets are like magic in them. I would stray away from sub .452 diameter bullets if it was me.
Suggested loads would be the 300 grain .452 XTP with a starting base of 80 Grains of FFG Pyrodex or 777 and work your way up. Win 209 are the way to go. The two sabots to try with that load are the MMP short black Sabot and the Harvester Black Crush Ribbed.
No longer Produced are the 375 Gr Buffalo Bullet SSB sabots. Those were just amazingly accurate in the MK85. If you can track down some of those. DO!
If you can't get that load to shoot you would be the first one.