Sorry didn't realize your from Mi. There is a bill in your state legislature to change that, from what I have read. Don't know when it will be implemented. See this for a "light load" kill for a young lady:

http://dougva.proboards34.com/index.cgi?board=Savage&action=display&thre ad=1196284115

Now that is a smile of a successful hunter.

Chap Gleason

I looked this morning and I have 4 boxes of 350 gr .50 TC Maxi hunters bullets. These seam to load fairly easy in her gun but I have not shot them. Might try these tomorrow. Need to figure out how much powder to start with. I am more concerned with ease of loading than with recoil. She shoots a 20 gauge 3” slug with no problem.

I never had a lot of luck with Maxi hunters, but when I would shoot them I never pushed them hard. 70 grains of powder is normally a good starting point with them. If they group well with that, it is all the load you would need for deer. And if she can shoot a 20 gauge 3" she can shoot anything she wants in a muzzleloader...

Well there is a lot of things that will work.
For the kids and the ladies its nice to keep the recoil at a reasonable level with out limiting capability, the best load I know for that is a blue 50 /40 MMP sabot with a 40 cal [10mm] 200 gr xtp and 90 gr of RS or a 200 gr Shock Wave which is about the samew thing with a balistic nose on the bullet. I use them when I want an extreme range load with a 110gr load of 777. They are deadly on boar and deer and one ladie on another forum took a moose with them.
Some of the other choices would be the 230, 240, and 250 gr XTP or Gold Dot They sould work ok with anything over 80 gr if you can get them to group in that gun with thwe load. Lee

Shot tonight after dark with cordless spotlight. Here is what I’m settling on. Getting 1.5 " groups at 80 yards with 84 grains of Triple seven FF with 295 gr hollow point PowerBelt. I am guessing around 1500 FPS. I’ll get my chronograph out during the day and see. I probably play around with some other bullets in case I don’t like the terminal performance of power belts on deer. Thanks for the input.

Sounds like you have a good start on a load. Is the 84gr of powder a weight measure or did you mean 85gr by volumn?

I have been shooting a Magbolt for years now and have several loads that work well in it. Here are some of them.

348 Powerbelt with 100gr of 777 averages 1535fps and 1" or less at 100 yards.
250 Shockwave with 80 to 100gr of 777 averages 1600 to 1780fps and1.5" or less at 100 yards.
300 Shockwave with 100gr of 777 averages 1785fps and 1.5" or less at 100 yards.
300 SST with 130gr of Pyro pellets averages 1945fps and 1.5" or less at 100 yards.
285 Barnes with 100gr of 777 averages 1780fps and under 2" at 100 yards.
200 Shockwave with 100gr of 777 averages 1988fps and under 2" at 100 yards.
460 No Excuses with 90gr of 777 averages 1470fps andunder 2" at 100 yards.

I have other loads but that should give you an idea of the capabilities of the Magbolt. Many of these loads will shoot with acceptable accuracy with lower powder loads and some with higher powder loads. I have shot most of these loads at 200 yards and they generally group around 3 to 4 inches ifI do my part.

Good luck to your daughter and yourself in this fun adventure of muzzleloading.

bowbender6

I am way late getting in here but if I were going to suggest a bullet/sabot combination - the bullet would be a 250 grain Speer Bonded Gold Dot. I shoot with 100/110 grains of T7-2f, but that could easily be backed down.

I think your last post, at this late date in the hunting season,is probably the way to go right now. The 295 with that reduced powder load will work 9 out of 10 times on a whitetail and should function here just fine.

Good luck in the hunt...

65 gr by weight - I figure = 84 by volume. I took the breech plug out tried pushing some diferent combos down the barrel. The pistol bulet sabots, PR bullet and Knight copper were hard to load. I the the Power will work good for her. Thanks

Yeah you got the right load. Keep the charges lower with powerbelts and they'll do great. How far do you think the farthest shot will be? If its under 80 yards, i'd consider dropping to charge down to 70 grains triple 7 "measured"

We could push it to 125 if she proves she can shoot groups that far. We hunt a lot of open fields. She like using a range finder a doesn't feel comfortable yet shooting over 80 yards.