Smokeless for Caribou
 

I recently got invited to a Caribou drop in hunt from the guys that used to fly my dad in for his Alaskan Moose hunts. They gave me a really good deal from a cancellation and since the old man and myself have used them for years. As some of you guys know, just before he passed, the old man had ordered most of the stuff for a smokeless muzzleloader setup and I built it after he passed. I have to admit I wasn't really that interested in smokeless or even inlines until I got to playing with this demon spawn. I was planning on using it this year on an Elk hunt but my buddy in Colorado, where I have hunted for 30+ years now, isn't going to be able to hunt this year due to work. So, I am thinking about taking it on this Caribou hunt. Now for the question. I have taken 11 Caribou over the years but 8 of them were with my 7mm mag and the other 3 were with my .30-06. Every one of them were over 200 yard shots with 3 of them being closer to 400 yards. With full sized 300gr Nosler ballistic tips I have this fire breather centering the 10" gong at 300 yards with 10 shots giving a good 5 minutes between each shot for cool down. So I know the rifle is accurate. Probably more accurate than myself. But I have never used this bullet on game and I don't think the old man had either. Couldn't find anything in his notes. Now, Caribou are by far not hard to drop. They go down a hell of a lot easier than most whitetails I have taken to be honest. But I still want to use a bullet that I know will perform well terminally at range. With the load I am using I am getting 2750fps on average at 5 yards off the muzzle. My ballistic calculator says I will have around 1775fps at 300 yards. Anyone with experience with this particular bullet have any terminal experience with it? Especially at lower velocities. It's the 300gr .458 Nosler Ballistic Tip.

Unfortunatly I don't have experience with this paticular bullet but I have shot many caribou with 200gr .40 SST with great succes.

If you are confident that you can make the shot, got for it.

Curious as to what powder charge you are using to drive that 3oogr bullet at those speeds?

Same here.

Probably IMR4198 or H4198. It can do it at close to 50kpsi. A couple other powders can do it also such as H322 or IMR3031 at even less pressure but requires more powder than 4198.

That would be correct GM54-120. 72.5 grains of H4198. Getting no pressure signs at all. I did try out the 3031 but it just wasn't as accurate and, like you said, was using way more powder to achieve the same velocities.
Salar600, even with this being a Nosler BT I am just a little worried it won't open well at longer ranges. 200 yards and in I am not a bit worried. Out to 300-350 it is starting to shed speed pretty quickly. I'll just limit myself to 300. 1700+fps it should open well. Now I just hope the weather isn't screwing with the migration like it has the past few years.

Personally i would not use the Nosler. The jacket is very very thick. Look into the Pittman Accumax, Aeromax or the ArrowHead Sporting Goods APBs. Better BC and thinner jackets.

You wont need to shoot them as fast to get less drop as the range get longer.

Ill give them a try but I really like full form sizing over smooth sizing GM54-120. And it works much better with .458's. That is probably the reason I am not getting the pressures you were worried about with me hot loading. I'm not shooting competitively with this thing. As long as I can keep my shots in the vitals out to 300 yards, my main concern will be terminal performance of the bullet. I just did a google search and found where ronlaughlin did one of his water just tests on this bullet some years back. I have to say, I think the bullet will do just fine.

The Arrowhead 310gr APBs are .458 if you want a high BC bullet. Rocky Mountain Bullets makes them for ASG IIRC. Same company that makes the Match Hunters for Parker.

The new guy to watchout for is Fury Custom Bullets. under a buck a pop ($44/50)and bonded. Made to order. Im sure he offers 458s too.