Why are we using .50s?

marley

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I just recently bought a White Super 91 in a .451 caliber. I bought it because I've liked my .50 so much. I just ran the ballistics on the .50 compared to the .45 and was surprised. Using a 460 grain "no excuses" bullet in both of them the .45 has more energy and less drop over ALL ranges. So why is the .50 so much more popular? What am I missing? I find it ironic that CO won't let you use a .45 on elk even though it has more energy.
 
It's because even the game departments get hung up with bureaucratic red tape.

Nothing wrong with a 45 at all.

Remington doesn't make the Ultimate in 45 so I'm saddled with the 50 cal.

Zeke
 
I have used a Knight Super DISC .45 for the last 15 years. I have also wondered why .45 have not taken off. The biggest downfall to shooting a 45 is bullet selection. I shoot Precision Rifles Deadcenters. They are extremely accurate. I see Parker is making a 45 caliber conical now. It should be a shooter. CO need to revisit the rule of no .45 cal muzz for elk. They should change it to a minimum grain. A 45 cal 300gr bullet is just as lethal as a 50 cal 300gr bullet.
 
LAST EDITED ON Aug-13-15 AT 05:24PM (MST)[p]Zeke nailed it... in almost all (if not all) of the Western states, it takes a .50 to be legal, to the best of my knowledge.

I have a Super 91 in .410 as well as in .451, and I will tell you right now that no elk is going to walk away from any one of them if hit in the boiler room. I use a 420-grain bullet in my .410, and it is as accurate as heck! I shoot the Whitworth bullet from Lyman (I pour all of my projectiles myself...) at about 435 grains, and it is deadly accurate as well. (FWIW, 435 grains is what I shoot out of my .504s, too. I cast them from a Lyman 509138 mould and size them down...)

I never will understand why it is legal to carry a trapdoor 45-70 shooting a 405 at about 1350 for elk, but we can't shoot that same weight out of a 45 (or even 41) caliber charcoal burner at the same velocity and be legal...
 
I think the main reason is that most govt' agencies are fundamentally just resistant to change anything. I was very surprised that CO this year allowed lighted nocks for archery so there may be some hope! So they'd probably need to have the information you noted, knowledgeable staff, and an open mind!
 
My Hot Rod Hawken is a .451 and I use a paper patched RCBS 11mm rifle bullet with 80 grains of pyrodex p. That bullet in a bolt action is legal for elk. In my rifle it is illegal. Idaho F&G need to change to a minimum bullet weight instead of caliber. In Idaho it is legal to use a 25 auto pistol for elk but a 45 cal muzzleloader with 409 gr bullet is illegal.
 
The ?Why? is obvious to me.
Just look at this thread;
Super 91s & Knight disk rifles shooting No Excuses and custom cast..
You guys obviously know what your doing, and the laws were not written with you in mind.
The laws were written with everybody in mind.
Think of the lowest common denominator.
The guys who don't know what they are doing.
At least with a .50, the hole is bigger and the bullet heavier.
 
I agree Anaconda and also think they don't want the rules very complicated so they can be enforced easier as well. A bit hard for a warden to measure bullet weights but pretty easy to determine the caliber! So they just simplify things. Not sure what States have the .50 cal. minimum for elk besides CO?
 
Good point, I did not know CO had a 50 cal reg. I shoot a 50 but with sabots down to 44 or 45 (I forget). Did great one the 2 elk I took!
 
I did some more "noodling" about this topic and realized that the Game and Fish cops of the different states have no control over the amount of powder we put into the rifles. Therefore, the only thing they can do is make it legal for only the larger calibers. It has long ago been proven that a patched round ball at even marginal velocity kills, and kills well, but it has to be pretty large.

They cannot verify how much powder we use, so the best they can do is make us use the largest projectiles available.

Does that make any sense at all?
 
LAST EDITED ON Nov-04-15 AT 05:32PM (MST)[p]We literally can use a 25 auto pistol for elk but not a 410 gr 45 cal rifle bullet.
 
I greatly prefer the .45 cal ML guns than .50 cal ML guns. I would not feel undergunned taking anything that walks on this planet with either my Handi-Rifle conversion or my custom Rem 700 ML. Feed either of them the right bullet and powder charge for the job and they will do what I ask.

I thought about applying for Colorado, so I bought a .52 cal Knight that has yet to be fired by me. I am keeping it "in case" I ever hunt there in ML season.
 
Brent
I think some of the reason might also be all the marketing pushing faster and faster muzzleloaders shooting light for caliber sabot bullets.

Everyone has their preference and theory on what works best. I started years ago with the. T/C Hawkins, then the Renegades. When the Whites came out I bought a Whitetail and a Bison both great guns. I also bought a few Rem. 700's in 50 and .45. Anyways, I had tried, tested, and hunted with sabot bullets. But I mainly use conical bullets. A .45 cal pushing a 460 to 500 plus grain bore size bullet may fly with a pretty good arc, but with a rangefinder it is not an issue. Also I like the down range energy of the larger bullets. The other issue with a .45 cal is you need a longer barrel to burn and get the needed energy of a skinnier powder column.

Anyways, it amazes me when I see an add or commercial for a muzzleloader stated how fast it is and how little bullet drop it has. Then it shows a guy hunting whitetails out of a tree stand shooting 30 yards.

Bill
 

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