I limit my shots to 125-130 yards, firing patched round balls. With the paper cartridges I make containing powder and patched ball, I can reload in about 20 seconds if in a hurry. Using a sabot, it could take longer because starting a sabotted bullet into the bore and ramming it is a lot harder/slower than starting a patched ball. The idea is to kill your quarry with the first shot. I practice this by using a single-shot rifle even during rifle season.....

With a sabot or conical, you can kill game at any range that suits you, IF you can estimate range accurately and know your rifle's trajectory well. Muzzleloaders with the correct load are NOT inaccurate at extended ranges, they just have a tremendously steep trajectory, like a mortar!

Whow......my BS meter just broke on that lame comment. Anyhow, with the right sabot, powder, confidence, and practice guys are reaching out to150+ yards. I don't hunt in a area that offers me that long of a shot. Both my muzzleloader deer were shot at 20 yards and 80 yards this year. It's all about knowing your limits. With my load, a 300gr Barnes Expander MZ, 2 Pyrodex pellets, and Remington 209 primers I'm dead on at 100. Take your time, try different bullets/sabot combinations, different powder volumes, and work at it. I shot mine all summer long and got the best results with the above load. And just remember no 2 muzzleloaders regardless if they are even the same model will shoot the same.

In answer to your first question - I usually shoot my ML all the way to the target but not more than 100 yds. Of course I only shoot sidelocks and open sights.
Second question - Loading speed will get quicker with practice. Using speed loaders it usually takes me 15-30 seconds depending on how cold it is and how well my fingers are workingor how fast the deer is running away...

i kinda agree just because you can shoot out to 200 yards doe not mean your a good hunter if i use a ml or shotgun on my property i hunt i will have shoots under 100 closer to 50

Some folks are good hunters AND good shots. Some of the bad shots just run around pounding their chest about how good a hunter they are as an excuse for being a bad shot You can usually tell who these people are by how sore their elbow is from patting themselves on the back !!!!

So, if you shoot a couple of deer at 200 yards, but are also a good bowhunter and kill several at 20, then exactlywhat would that classify someone as??????

Personally, I use an encore with a 250 grain shockwave and 110 grains of loose 777. It is 3 inches high at 100 yards, dead on at 150 and 6 inches low at 200. Groups at 100 are generally around an inch to an inch and a half. After 200 yards, it drops like a rock. I shoot at 100 yards a couple of times a week , shoot it consistantly at 150 and occaisionally at 200 on paper to make sure things are working as they should. I hunt almost every day either before or after workand almost every time I hunt, I am carrying my M/L because you can only use a bow, M/L or shotgun where I hunt(during bow season, I have my Switchback). Every once in a while I get to hunt off the property and get to use a rifle, but that is only once every couple of weeks or so.

Sometimes, I get up close and personal, other shots require more distance. Some stands, 100 yards is the longest shot, others are much longer. Last year I killed two at 190 to 195 yards, the rest were between 125 and 30 yards. Of the 4 I've got so far this year, one was around 100 two were around 50 and one was around 30. But, it is nice to know that if a monster walks out at 200, no problem.

200 with a good quality m/l is not unreasonable as long as you have the gun,develop a good load, use a good quality projectile and most importantly PRACTICE.

Hank

This is my set up;

Remington 700 ML .50 cal muzzle loader using musket caps, not the newer modern .209 shotgun primers.

I shoot 350 grn Precision Rifle bullets with polymer tips and boat tails with either 90 grn of 777 FFFG or 100 grns of Clean Shot ( Pioneer now). I get around 1600 fps with this load I think.

I have a point blank range of 150 yards with a 130 yard zero. Which means I'm under 3 inches high at the highest point and I drop 3 inches low at 150 yards. Any where out to 150 yards I can simply place the cross hairs in the middle of the vitals and kill deer dead with no concern for hold over or anything else.

And I get near 1 inch groups at 100 yards and around 4 inch groups at 200, not estimated, I have actually shot it off from a bench at that distance when working up the load. And this is with a 3-9 scope with no parallax correction.

And I consider my load to be pretty underpowered and slow compared to most others. I shoot a relatively heavy bullet with a fairly low amount of powder (but it's accurate that way). A lighter bullet with a heavier powder charge and faster velocities would be even flatter than this, providing it was accurate enough at those ranges.

There is no question in my mind the inline is more accurate, gives you more range and is cheaper to get that way in most cases than a slug gun. Which is why I sold my slug gun and am going back to using my muzzle loader.

Once you get a good load and get it sighted in a pound of powder, pack of bullets and some primers will last you a long time unless you shoot a lot in the off season. Figuring for a 100 grn powder charge a lb of powder should give roughly 70 shots.

Powder- $20/lb
Primers- $7/100
Bullets- $10-15/20

Unless I did my math wrong ( which wouldn't shock me) that comes to less than a dollar per shot for the Muzzle Loader.

Paul

the only reason i have not went muzzleloader before was the cost of shooting which i thought was high but seeing what you guys spend per shot and what a good sabot for a slug gun will cost i think i will make the jump for a ml the first chance i get

The start up cost for an ML is a little more, and it requires a little more patience and commitment than a rifle or slug gun.

However once you get everything set up and get used to it they are very effective.

And I'm not advocating 200 yard shots with a ML, just saying it isn't an impossible feat with some work. And you would have better luck pulling it off with a ML than you would with a slug gun.

Paul

Why is it that all the world cares about anymore is how far they can shoot and how one gun is a better killer than another. Blackpowder is another area of hunting that went wrong. When black powder season first started, what was everyones gun of choice?? CVA Hawkens, Lyman Great Plains, Kentucky's?? And you only had them for fun to begin with. Open sights, wood stock. If you were really advanced, you had pre-measured powder and maxi-balls. Show up with some of that gear and see the looks you get. Now we've got BDC scopes, in-lines, electronic ignition rifles, and good gosh what else? Now we've got to know what to do to stretch it out another 50 yards.

I swear, hunters are like golfers. Put an ad on the TV that says Driver X will go another 25 yards and every jacka$$ will be in line to get one. Doesn't matter that they suck at every other aspect of the game. Everyone wants to tell the big story. I shot my deer at 400 yards, I can hit my driver over 300 yards. Well, they both can kiss my a$$. I've never walked out of the woodsor off the golf course dissapointed, regardless of the outcome.

Im just thankful that Im one of the few left that actually knows what hunting is all about...

Some would say, unless you hunt with traditional archery tackle, you don't know what hunting is all about. I am just saying some would say.