I am sure this has been hammered 50 vs. 45. I am interested in hearing opinons on both sides. I am going to use my 45 white on deer and elk only nothing bigger. And plan on using 460 gr. no excuses. Am I really missing alot by not having a 50 cal. And if any of you 45 fans could share any helpful info, (loads,stories, or bad experinces)that would be great. Sorry one more thing #11's or musket caps for hunting? Thanks.

A 45 cal 460 grain projectile is an awesome projectile. Think of a 45-70 with a 405 or 500 grain bullet.Its takenalot of grizzly, elk, buffalo, moose, etc. As long as its legal where you hunt, go for it!

Stick with a 50 cal. There's far more projectile choices for it. I've got a few 50's and a couple .45's. The 50's are more accurate with more loads. I'm still trying to get the .45's to shoot acceptably.

As long as you already have the 45 it will do it all. Use those heavy conicals like you have planned and an elk or deer won't tellthe difference thats its not a 50. I had a 45 T/C hawken and shot maxi-balls, bad news on deer!

If you ever plan on hunting in Colorado, 45 cal is not legal for elk.

It occurs to me, savagescout, that U.C. (that's Underclocked) could do alot to get you on the right track with heavy conicals in .45 cal. I know he has experiencewith themas he hasposted an image ofsome of his own home cast bullets in .451. He can tell you alot about sizing and so on and I know he would be happy to help.

scout is using the 460 grain NE so that much is settled and that should be an excellent choice. I would choose the #11 cap for ignition, a tighter fit than most musket caps I've seen and therefore more weatherproof. I would start at about a 70 grain (by volume) charge and work up to about 100 grains max of your choice of powders. My 98 White loves Pyrodex P but several other powders should give you good accuracy. Many have said the APP stuff doesn't do well with heavy conicals so you might want to avoid tryingtheir products. Certainly stick to loose powder though as the pellets may not ignite reliably with the caps.

Determine your rifle's sweet spot for accuracy by varying those powder charges and perhaps trying some over-powder wads. Find out whether your particular rifle shows much deviation between a cold, clean bore shot and the subsequent warmer, fouled barrel shots. Some Whites will keep that first shot right with those that follow while others show a differences of as much as a few inches at 100 yards. Whether you choose to huntwith a fouled bore or a clean, oil-free bore will depend upon your experimental results. Some go so far as fully clean between shots to achieve the same "first shot" results each time. That may not be necessary.

I would say any powder charge you settle on from 70 grains upwards is going to be plenty adequate for doing the job. Accuracy is far more important than ballistics tables and with a muzzleloader your trajectory isn't going to be varmint-rifle flat anyway. You should be able to achieve a dead on hold out to roughly 130 yards fairly easily. If you think you might attempt any longer shots, be sure to put in considerable practice at those ranges - there is no substitute.

You aremissing nothing by using an accurate.45 with heavy conicals.I would recommend you take a look at Bull Shop's conical offerings - a bunch of us White shooters have been working with him and he is making some kinda nice boolits (can't beat his pricing either!). I cast some of my own bullets for the .451 and have done quite well with those of my own making, but Bull Shop certainly takes away any economic incentive to cast your own.