best elk load for 50 cal.?

[SUAVE]

I hunted muzzleloader once a couple years ago. I was shooting a austin haleck. Its an inline. I went through 5 primers befors one ignited which by the why laid the beast down at roughly 50 yrds. Luckily I had my daughter there with a handful of them handing them to me!
Any ideas? I'm a bowhunter.

 

[TOPGUN]

Sounds like you either didn't take care of your primers properly if that many misfired in a batch or you have a weak spring in the AH. Where and how were they stored and how old were they? That beast you finally shot after that many tries must have been deaf, dumb, and/or blind, but the critter is dead, so good for keeping your cool and getting the job done!!!

 

[BIGJOHNT]

Not understanding something here ? You Fired 5 caps before the gun went off or your caps never fired until number 5 ? The first is more comon. If the case ,I would assume you didn't fire a cap or two to dry your barrel before loading. Comon mistake for new black powder hunters. So you had to fire 5 caps to dry it out before it lite the powder.

 

[adamwipp07]

>Not understanding something here ? You
>Fired 5 caps before the
>gun went off or your
>caps never fired until number
>5 ? The first is
>more comon. If the case
>,I would assume you
>didn't fire a cap or
>two to dry your barrel
>before loading. Comon mistake for
>new black powder hunters. So
>you had to fire 5
>caps to dry it out
>before it lite the powder.
>

Not to try and steel this thread, but what do you mean by firing a cap to dry out your barrel? Are you say before I start hunting each day I should fire a few caps to dry out the gun?

 

[BIGJOHNT]

Well not while its loaded When running a cleaning patch down your barrel. Some off the solvent puddles at the end of the barrel. Before dropping your powder into the barrel. Fire a cap (209 primer in my case)or two to dry the barrel. Then load the gun with the powder.
On wet hunts I will shoot my gun and reload it every day. On dry hunts I may got two or three days with the same load. If in question reload it.
As far as the best load for your 50 caliber rifle. It is differnt for each rifle. I use a 240 grain hornady bullet and sabot with two 50 grain pellets. My rifle can shoot 150 grains of powder. Buy it shoot all over the place,with that bullet. I back it off to 100 grains and it shoots great.
As far as sabots, I changed sabots before a hunt and ran into problems. I had to stay with the same high presure sabots. Both where green. But not the same. They where pealing a ear off the sabot causing the rifle to shoot bad. I found them on the ground in front of where i was shooting.

 

[HornyMan]

My preferred load is

250 gr Hornady SST, low drag red sabot
100 gr Black Horn 209 powder
CCI cap

 

[HornyMan]

Suave I dont mean to bust your chops here but are you for real?

You draw 3 ML tags.
Pahvant and requesting flat land and a 350 type bull.
You barely know your ML? Not that you can't become effective with it, you still have lots of time.

Just sounds a little different than your normal guy waiting especially when this unit isn't your best unit.

Were you just burning points and this had the best odds?

 

[leftturnabq]

I had an Austin & Halleck. I had to clean the nipple very frequently on mine or it would do the same thing. The 209 primers fouled the nipple up badly. At the range, if I went 3 shots without deliberately cleaning the nipple, it would misfire.

So, my suggestion is to be sure to thoroughly clean the nipple before you load it up for the hunt.

As for load, I used a .45 caliber Barnes X sabot and 100 grains of Pyrodex. It did not shoot as well with 150 grains either.

It kicked like a mule with 150 grains as well...the best comparison would be a quick shot using a heavy load from a 3-1/2" pump-action 12-gauge that you failed to get shouldered quite right.

 

[hangfire]

In the past I have shot hornaday fbp with good results with 95 grns on 209. But trying sabots this year and so far the Barnes 290 T-EZ with 110 grns 209 shoots really well out to 200 yrds.

 

[bigthree]

100 grains powder x pellets cci 209 primer 348 grain power belt bullets,max 150 yards dead bull.

 

[utahbigbull]

LAST EDITED ON Jun-07-11 AT 10:38PM (MST)[p]325 grain Hornady FTX in a Harvester crush rib sabot. Dropped my 2010 bull instantly in his tracks at 165yd. His boiler room was nothing but goo. Every pole is different but I will never try anything else in mine.

 

[SUAVE]

Hornyman,
Ur not bustin my chops. I understand ur concern. I'm kinda in a pecurious situation. I would have preferred to be on elk ridge but where I live in richfield now I figured right across the road on the pahvant would work out more economically. I got divorced last september to janey who had 16 pts I figured it was this year or never to take her on this hunt. Were still getting along.
As for me drawing as a group with my daughter, well I was surprised. I had 10pts and she had 7ptsn so totally unexpected for bobbie and I like any other unit I have found elk down in the low country and it sure is a lot easier to chase them around. I figured pahvant I could find some down low. I've only been on the mtn twice. I'm not worried, will be able to get in close and there will be 3 leads in the air at a time. I needed to get janey drawn bottom line.I had no intentions of bobbie and I drawing but I would be crazy to turn both ours back. It'll be tough but this might be a good year to get a big one and who knows what'll be in the future. We'll be fine. I've only hunted the one year with a muzzleloader but if I can get my primer situation squared away I am confident we'll pinch!

 

[dogdoc]

250 grain Hornady SST low drag, 100 grains triple seven powder, 209, in a Thompson Omega works great for me. They are some of the easiest loading sabots I have shot. Tried 5 or 6 different ones before the Low Drag.

 

[HornyMan]

Dogdoc. That is almost identical to my set up. Try the BH209, you won't go back to 777!

Im shooting 250 SST low drag w/ 90-100g of BH209.

 

[dogdoc]

I will have to give it a try. Thanks. Is it less dirty than the 777?

 

[Califelkslayer]

A novice black powder hunter myself BUT if my gun would foul after 3 shots, I'd get another gun.

CVA Accura, 338 grain powerbelts, 100 grains BH209, Win 209 primers. Groups really opened up past 110 grains, 100 was the most accurate. When I draw another muzzy tag I'm gonna experiment with the Thor bullet. I understand it fits tighter and you can increase to 120 grains BH209 and still get acuracy. I'll see.

 

[leftturnabq]

I no longer have the Austin & Halleck..F'ing thieves took care of that for me.

It was a beautifully built gun that shot very well. My only complaint would be keeping the meticulously clean.

 

[trealtree]

Dont feel bad. Exact same thing happened to me when I was a teenager. I popped off 3 or 4 caps with a nice whitetail buck standing there trying to figure out what I was trying to do. Unfortunately I did not kill the beast... But I cut the skin between my thumb and pointer finger when the gun went off after the 4th cap gun went off after 2 second hangfire.Hammer cut me good.( I had already started to point the gun in the air). Its always best to practice proper cleaning and maintenance and loading techniques. Muzzleloaders can be finnicky.