I've always wanted to try wadcutters for hunting in my muzzleloader on deer. I already have some 240 JHP with flat bases. Can I safely load these backwards into the sabot and use those, or should I try and find some wadcutters?

Also, has anyone ever shot deer with wadcutters? Did they work well?

thanks, ths78

I'd be worried with the tapered nose inverted in the sabot that the edges around the base of the sabot might cave in (wrap up around the nose) under pressure, disrupting the skirt seal...then accuracy / velocity / consistency might suffer...dunno.

I did take a couple of deer using .452/255grn lead semi-wadcutters in an MK85 & black plastic sabots years ago...they were hard cast lead alloy bullets that I used in a .45 Long Colt and didn't appear to have expanded any as they made a small simple straight wound channel through the heart/lung area and ultimately did the job.

I switched to Hornady .452/300grn XTP Mags after that which I found to be outstanding on deer, expanding to the size of a quarter, etc...looked exactly like Hornady's catalog photos of them...took deer from 50-165 yards with them.

i dont think i would advise it

Do not load them backward. The pressure from the ignition could cause them to open inside the barrel and cause barrel damage or possible rupture of the barrel. This would be dangerous to load and attempt to shoot a projectile in a totally different way then it was designed. Get some wad cutters if that is what you want to shoot.

I have never shot a deer with a wad cutter out of a muzzleloader although some of the concials I shoot are flat based and almost flat nosed..

Try some Elmer Keith style semi-wadcutter bullets around 300gr. with a Harvester sabot. Elmer shot big animals with the bullet and felt the sharp edge cut veins and arteries rather than pushing them aside like pointed bullets. Since he was a fan of the .45 Colt handgun there are a lot of molds for that style bullet. I am presently considering doing the same thing and I am looking in my mold collection to see if I have a .45 cal bullet like that to try. An additional note: the bullets can be cast from lead somewhat harder than pure lead and possibly even wheelweight lead will give a bullet that will retain the sharp edges longer on tough skin animals.

Don't load the projectile backwards.

Shoot some flat nosed conical or Maxi-ball.

This is not a good idea. Buy the bullet that comes closest to your backwards idea and load it correctly.

I have played with cast rounds a lot. Drilled them out.cut them down. and loaded them backwords.

When I shot them backwords. The bulet tumbled in the air and I could not get any kind of pattern at all.At 50 yards I had a 12" or more spread.

I do not think it is the best for every one to try this at all.But if people did not try things we would not have all the goodies we have now:}

Roundballs are ok to shoot backward ...

Wadcutters will work on a well placed shot. Shot placement is way more imortant than bullet type.