Experimenting @ the Farm
 

Last night I made a decsion that I was going to use the Mountaineer and an un-tried bullet for the upcoming deer season.

I had already kinda made the decision on the bullet for the early season elk season using the a DISC 52. But the few days I was out I did not get the opportunity to pull the trigger. I had cleaned the 52 up and put it away and at that time decided to use a the DISC Elite and a 40-200 Bloodline for the deer season. I have already proven that bullet to myself more than once.

Well after the change of mind - I decided to run to farm and make sure the Mountaineer was sighted in for this heavier bullet, really should not be a real problem as the gun was sighted in for the 458-275 gr. DOA.

Got to the farm and placed 4 birds @ 100 yards and a water tray... on a box for elevation. I carried the tray out empty and poured the water in the tray closed the lid and set it on the box so that it would be somewhat level to the shot. Not much about the farm that is level.

Loaded up two rounds and shot the first two birds... the tray was next... and this was the test... I wanted to know if this bullet would actually work from the muzzle loader.

It is a rifle bullet built for the 45-70. I am shooting it at near 2000 fps and since the nose or the petals of this bullet are so much thicker than the petals for the ML Lehighs - I wanted to verify that they would actually come off in my water test or would the bullet not have enough velocity to break them off @ 100 and just pencil through.

All the questions have been answered... I can account for 4 of the 6 petals... the bullet did work and the gun is ready





I will give a try on a deer - I know it is an over kill but really want to get some testing in before late elk season...

When I first met Dave that was the bullet I started testing first. That bullet will put a thumpin on about anything and it was very accurate in both smokeless and conventional muzzleloaders. The new 40cal bullet I wanted will be better then the 45-70 bullet according to Dave. For some reason Knight doesn't want the new bullet mentioned yet??? I disagree but whatever makes them happy I guess. I'm pretty sure the bullet your shooting can be purchased thru Lehigh Defense not Knight if someone is interested.

Good shooting. That should do a lot of damage to a deer.

SL,
I would tend to think it would create a very nice wound channel and penetrate very well. What is your estimated foot pounds of energy on target at that range, not that it would really matter? I would say dead is dead and the hydrostatic shock of the bullet transferring energy into the animal would appear to tremendous according to your results one the water tray. Happy hunting.

V/R
Mike

Good shooting. Good luck on your hunt.

I need to try those in my Savage sometime.

They do have the radius on the flat bottom - so as not to cut the sabot.

It would be interesting to see wht you come up with from the Savage ot even the NULA..

They are likely too long for the NULA's slow twist but i bet they work fine in the Savage 1-24 twist. I can use BH209 for sure or load them on the mild side with a slower smokeless powder.

The chart says about 1670 # of energy @ 100.

I have a chart on Photobucket but I am having one heck of a problem getting photobucket to operate so I can not get to it right now...

All those petals flying around.............Sounds like a good way to turn a lung shot into a gut shot. Fine on critters you don't want to eat I guess. Maybe I'm simple, but it seems unneccesary to me. A 45 cal hole through north american game will "devastate" them just fine without ancillary wound channels. Good luck with it.