Pellets Or Power
 

I Purchased A Muzzle Loader And Dunno If I Should Use Pellets Or Powder.
Im Gonna Shoot 150 Grain. What Should I Use And Why.
Thanks Cory.

RE: Pellets Or Power
 

My advice is to use loose powder. It's cheaper to shoot and it allows you to customize your powder loads down to 5gr increments...........pellets can't do that.

Also, just a word of caution here.............................it's probably in your best interest to stay away from 150gr powder charges. They RARELY are very accurate at all. About the largest useful charge is 120gr of Pyrodex or Black Powder or 100gr of 777 powder. Any more than that just gets blown out the muzzle unburnt - and that affects the bullet's accuracy.

Here's a general rule of thumb that works with my guns:
350gr bullets use 90gr of 777 or 105gr of Pyro
300gr bullets use 80gr of 777 or 95gr of Pyro.

while all guns will be different - those are greast places to start.

RE: Pellets Or Power
 

Mark is right on the money here. Use the loose powder. It is cheaper and you can custom the load a lot better. Pellets will give you a more accurate powder measure if you do not damage the pellets, but a good see through powder measure with a cut off funnel is the way to go.

As for the 150 grain loads.... I would not do it. You will not get accurate results most of the time. All you will do is burn lots of powder. Depending on the rifle throw powder away as unburned. Wear out your barrel in some cases faster. And your shoulder will hate you because of the recoil. Most of my inlines work best in the 80-110 grain range, depending on the projectile.

Get some Hornady XTP 240 grains and some Harvester sabots to start with. Put about 80 grains of FFg in the rifle and try them there. Work your load up in 5 grain amounts until the groups get real tight. Then adjust the sights of the rifle to that.

Some other good shooting loads out there are SST's, Barnes Expanders, Percision Rifle, and there are a number of conicals and powerbelts that will give you good accuracy.

With 90 grains of powder and a good projectile, there is very little any animal can do when hit with a well placed shot other then to expire. Good luck with your new rifle.

RE: Pellets Or Power
 

I Love Recoil The harder It Kicks More I Like It

RE: Pellets Or Power
 

I would stay away from the magnum loads also. Even tough you like recoil, it is a hindrance on accuracy!! Like the others have said, you will just be throwing extra powder out the muzzle that is not getting burned and could be better used in another shot. Its just not worth it, and even the toughest animals one would want to hunt does not need a 150 grain powder charge to bring the beast down. Stick with loose powder and a lower powder charge and you should be fine. BTW What kind of ML did you get, or what you plan to hunt with it, etc. can you give some more details??

RE: Pellets Or Power
 

I find a hard time getting acceptable results from full 150gr loads. But have found that you will blow out most loose powder, but with pellets, they burn pretty efficiently.

I don't blame you for wanting more go go juice. Give 3-50gr 777 a try. I got 3" groups with barnes expanders or knight redhots with 2000fps give or take 50fps. its tough getting the sabots down, but has less blowby. Then find you a real accurate, backup. Mine is 95gr of pyrodex with 240gr xtps. Consistent 2" groups at 100 yards. Nothing is wrong with experimenting. Don't let anyone tell you different. Recoil isn't near as bad as some of my magnum rifles, so thats not a real problem either with 3-50gr pellets. Muzzleloader barrels are hard to wear out. You would wear out 2 270wins before one muzzleloader barrel. A quality one anyway. So shoot away. And let us know how it worked.

RE: Pellets Or Power
 

Wll I guess I am going against the grain here...
I shoot 3 pyro pellets with a 250gr "Dead Center" sabot and shoot 1 hole groups out of my T/C Encore.
I really like the fact that the pellets have uniform compression, which lends itself to more uniform grroups. Try dumping an even 90gr of powder down a bbl on a windy day; maybe you'll get 85gr,87gr, who knows? Then try doing it on a follow up shot when you're adreneline is pumping. You may end up with even less powder than that down the tube.
Sure, there are lots of folks that can do it perfect every time, but I think this is more the exception than the rule.
I also like the simplicity that pellets offer, no measure to carry, no funnel to deal with, just 3 pellets and a bullet.
This year I am even going to look at that new offering by Hornady which allows the pellets to be snapped on the the end of the sabot...even less fumbling around!
Often time getting accuracy with 3 pellets means trying different bullet/sabot combinations to see what works. Since you do not have the adjustment in the powder you have to make adjustments with your bullet weight and sabot.

RE: Pellets Or Power
 

I would also go with pellets due to the simplicity and fast reloading.

RE: Pellets Or Power
 

I also shoot pellets because they are simple , in a fast reload you can't dump powder on the ground . As for 100 ver 150 grain , in my neck of the woods , most shots are 100 yd or less so I shoot 100 grains . In my gun 150 gr is slightly less accurate , but it kicks a lot more. I shoot 2 - 50 gr pellets of 777.

NRA life
DU
Pheasant Forever

RE: Pellets Or Power
 

How do you know what powder charge will give the best accuracy in your rifle? How did you decide that the proper charge in your gun is 150 grains? If you have no intention of working up the best, most accurate load, then use pellets!! If you are going to experiment and see just how good you can get your rifle to shoot, use loose powder and get yourself a powder measure.

Just because the "experts" you see selling certain rifles and bullets on TV say they are using 150 grains of powder, and killing deer at 200 yards with their muzzleloaders, doesn't mean you should try these stunts too!

RE: Pellets Or Power
 

If you like recoil that much,I am not telling you to try it but 150 grs of 777 will give anybody a whooping.Shooting 3 pellets of pyro or 777 is not the same as shooting 150 grs of loose powder.How do I know??[:'(]

RE: Pellets Or Power
 

When I first bought a inline Magnum I was dreaming about how far I could shoot vs my old traditional flint, well to shorten this story after some unhappy trips to the range I soon realized that while it maybe possible it wasn't something I was going to be happy or confident with come hunting season. While I love to shoot, experiment and spend time at the local range I do it for one reason to make me a better hunter. For me the underlying element is Confidence, which in part is accuracy within reason for my abilities and the weapon I am using. While I can shoot 200 yards with reasonable accuracy I have maxed my range to 150 with the inline, in 8 years of inline use I have called upon 1 shot of 147 yards, the rest have been 100 or under. While I continue to experiment with different combos, I always end up back at my accuracy loads come hunting season. This will depend on your rifle, bullet and powder selection but everybody will find 1, 2 or more that just seem to exude confidence with better than other accuracy. To buy any piece of equipment with a pre - determined outcome is both normal and unrealistic, we must find out what will work the best for our particular situation. This is not meant as a deterent to try max loads but rather to point out that it may not give you the results your are expecting or wanting thus one may need to experiment to find a happy medium come hunting season.

As far as Powder vs Pellets, it also depends on your load combo. However when starting out I always suggest loose to try and find the accuracy load(s), as I find pellets to be to limiting and expensive for load development. If it so happens to fall within a pellet formula the choice is yours. In my current ML 100 gr pyrodex with 240 XTP is my go to hunting load when all else fails, therefore the pellet formula of 2x50gr works nicely and for hunting this choice I think has some nice benefits. However I have recently found an equalling accuracy load that would not be suited to the pellet form. I simply use loose to develop and practice with due to price and customization, but come hunting season if my load falls within a pellet form I may choose to go that route.

RE: Pellets Or Power
 

Loose works for Me