Long range muzzleloading????

[Cindy]

I was curious about long range muzzleloading.
Hopefully saboltloader and a few others can weigh in on this.

Looking at my setup, .50 cal 290 grain bullet with a ballistic coefficient of .241, and a muzzle velocity of 2100 FPS.

Barnes says I need 1700 FPS minimum to properly expand the bullet.

So, if my math is correct, at 150 yards, my bullet velocity is 1646 fps and dropping.

At 150 yards, I wont meet the minimum speed to expand the bullet.

What kind of set up do you need to achieve "ethical long range muzzleloading"?
Anyone have a set up that produces enough speed at longer ranges to expand the bullet they use?

What is that set up? How far is too far?
Obviously for me, 150 yards is too far.
I might get lucky and kill at 150, but if its taking a chance, its not worth it.

I am not really interested in stories of luck, or what a guy once did, I am looking for verifiable numbers.

 

[FURMAN]

Someone with some actual experience can chime in but it looks to me like you'll have to push a Parker 325 around 2250 fps to match Gunwerks rifles. This should get you to around 500 yds. There may be other ways but I am unaware of a bullet that matches the performance of the Parker. I don't think you can use actual black powder or even BH209 to achieve those speeds. You would most likely need something like the Savage with a smokeless powder. It does look like like BH209 would get you somewhere around 2000fps. I am not sure at which speed the Parker is no longer performing as it should on game.

 

[MuleyFever]

You may want to read the first stick thread in this forum and talk to the author of that topic.

 

[IAHNTR]

I shoot and do some machining on smokeless muzzys. My 28" brux barrel sends the 270 eMax at 3016 fps. I'm shooting .458 bullets now and full forming them. Pm me if you want.

Sent from my SCH-R970 using Tapatalk

 

[sabotloader]

I was curious about long range muzzleloading.
Hopefully saboltloader and a few others can weigh in on this.

Looking at my setup, .50 cal 290 grain bullet with a ballistic coefficient of .241, and a muzzle velocity of 2100 FPS.

Using your numbers and a couple of assumptions, sight height, elevation, and temperature, I ran this sheet. Maybe you have already done this also...



If you look at the sheet you will see that you have plenty of energy all the way out to 225 yards for a humane harvest. It really stumps me which Barnes bullet would need 1700 FPS to work. Obviously there are other Barnes that will work s well as many other bullet manufactures that do provide bullets that will work at lower velocities.

Barnes says I need 1700 FPS minimum to properly expand the bullet.

So, if my math is correct, at 150 yards, my bullet velocity is 1646 fps and dropping.

At 150 yards, I wont meet the minimum speed to expand the bullet.

What kind of set up do you need to achieve "ethical long range muzzleloading"?
Anyone have a set up that produces enough speed at longer ranges to expand the bullet they use?

What is that set up? How far is too far?
Obviously for me, 150 yards is too far.
I might get lucky and kill at 150, but if its taking a chance, its not worth it.

I would not hesitate to shoot an elk at 200 yards with the bullet and load that I am shooting and I would also suggest there are a lot of people on this board that shoot Barnes bullets at that range and they are very effective. I do not know that much about Barnes so I can not advise the correct bullet.

I shoot a Lehigh 458x305 grain bullet which operated down to 1200 FPS with a 120 grains of T7-2f. If you are shooting BH you will get an extra 100 FPS with approximately the same load.



You can see I have plenty of velocity and energy at 200.

Another bullet that I am very familiar with is a Knight/Lehigh .458x300 gr. Again this sheet shows that it has more than enough velocity and energy at 200

I am not really interested in stories of luck, or what a guy once did, I am looking for verifiable numbers.

Hope I have added enough information to provide you with additional thoughts