Change of Pace @ Dinger's Farm
03-23-2014 | 11:21 AM
#12
Boone & Crockett
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 10,918
Likes: 1
From: River Ridge, LA (Suburb of New Orleans)
I feel comfortable out to 100 yards with a heart/lung shot and a .50 ball. Effective range is probably farther, but that's my limit. Go with bow hunting proceedures and don't follow-up immediately. If I don't see or hear the deer crash I wait 30 minutes before tracking, just to be sure.
03-23-2014 | 12:05 PM
#13
Thread Starter
Boone & Crockett
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 11,703
Likes: 0
From: Idaho
Effective range is probably farther, but that's my limit. Go with bow hunting proceedures and don't follow-up immediately. If I don't see or hear the deer crash I wait 30 minutes before tracking, just to be sure.
03-23-2014 | 08:38 PM
#14
Dominant Buck
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 21,193
Likes: 0
From: Wisconsin
I have a book written by Don Davis. It was kind of my text book when I was teaching myself about muzzleloaders. It was aimed at traditional rifles mind you. In the book he mentions his favorite deer load was 50 grains of 2f goex and a patched ball. Now to me that always sounded low end. But when I first started hunting with my .54 Renegade, I used to shoot 70 grains of Pyrodex RS and a patched ball and I never recovered a ball in a deer. Always shot through them. But I never shot long distances. I have yet to take a 100 yard shot on a animal with a muzzleloader.
After that I started boosting loads and got to 90 grains of Pyrodex and never figured I ever need more then that. I even bear hunted with that load except I had a conical bullet in the Renegade instead of a ball.
After that I started boosting loads and got to 90 grains of Pyrodex and never figured I ever need more then that. I even bear hunted with that load except I had a conical bullet in the Renegade instead of a ball.
