Going from 70 to 80 Grains of lose powder in a .45 cva optima with 1 in 28 twist useing horaday 200g sab.'s at 25-30 yds will this give me the same effect as what im used to or is that a big change.. i want to try it b-4 sat but i may not be able to get to the range all i want is a lil more knockdown pwr i tryed 100 in this ml n i think its too much it won't group .. n the load i showed you guys at the top is what i got stuck with after many different combos. I know alot of you guys are shootin 100 grains i just don't know why this par. ml don't like it .. and is there a advantage to a .50 vs a .45? i'm new at this and all the help i get will be greatly app. ;-)

Shouldn't be a huge change, but you never know how the rifle will react until you try it. You could also try going over 100gr and see if you can find another, heavier charge that will shoot good again. Don't forget to mix up bullets to try as well.
50 v. 45? I'd probably always go with a 50. Some states won't allow 45s for elk (NE for example). Another disadvantage of the 45 is less availability of bullets, but you can always get bullets and sabots separately.

Hey Mike, you didn't mention what brand of loose powder you're using, but 70 grains of Triple Seven should be getting you something around 1700 fps with that 200 grain bullet, and 70 grains of Pyrodex RS should be in the 1650 range. Those are killing velocities out to 100 yards easily. So if you've tried many different combos as you've said and can't get decent accuracy with anything over 70 grains don't be afraid to use that load.

You should be fine with 70 grains of powder out to 100 yards or so. If that's what gives you the best accuracy, then that's what I would go with. But if you want to switch to 80 grains, it should not change the point of impact of your bullet very much, especially at close range. I've gone from 70 grains to 100 grains loose powder, and it only changed the point of impact by about 1" at 50 yards and 4" or so at 100 yards.

Remember the 45/70???

Quite a few buffalo were killed with that gun...I believe the bullet weighed 405grs but even at that 70grs is plenty for deer...Plenty of traditional guys use that in their .50 caliber round ball guns...Black powder guns kill with heavy bullets and slow velocities...

I wouldn't bump it up to 80 without a trip to the range to see how well it shot...

Oh yeah, I had a friend that started muzzleloading with a PRB and 40gr powder. The darn thing killed deer

its FFFg Goex powder.. good, bad ok, stuff?

Mikejhs006

GOEX - good powder. 3f powder - little hotter than 2f... With GOEX moving from 70 to 80 should not present any dramatic changes - but you really should pop a target to make sure.

ok thanks for all the help!!

I've shot it in both competition and hunting situations since the mid-70s...

I guess it will do...