Big bull muzzleloader shot placement

deadI

Very Active Member
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1,163
I have been having discussions with friends as to where the best place to hit a bull is with a muzz. I am shooting a Hornady sst 300 grain slug with a 100 grains of powder.

Would you suggest just behind the front shoulder or right on the shoulder to break it?

DeadI/Jared
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A good quartering away shot right behind the shoulder. Is there a better shot than that? They have never gone far for me with a shot like that.
 
My last three elk with a muzzy; cow at 247 yards shot right behind the shoulder with 95 grains of black horn 209 and Hornaday 350 FPB found on the offside in the hide she went 15 yards. 6X7 bull same load 90 yards shot threw the shoulder bull went 25 yards. Bullet also found in opposite hide. 6X6 bull 198 yards 100 grains of blackhorn 209 and a 290 Barnes bullet he went about 60 yards. complete pass thru. So in my opinion a shot under 100 yards a shoulder shot would be ok but elk are tough, try to sneak it in behind the shoulder if you can.
 
>Most people shoot too far back.
>
>Follow the front leg up, and
>shoot.
>
>This should help:
>
>
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BINGO!
 
While I agree that many people shoot too far back, you certainly don't want to shoot too far forward with a muzzleloader. When my son was 16, he drew an early muzzleloader tag for elk in Arizona. The first morning out, we got on a really nice 6x7 bull and he had a quartering to shot at a little over 150 yards. He hit the bull right on the point of the shoulder, shooting a 50 caliber, 338 grain powerbelt bullet. It nearly knocked the bull off his feet, but he recovered and ran past us, holding up his injured right front leg. I figured the bull would die quickly, so we gave him about 5-10 minutes and started searching for him. Long story short, we found no blood, no elk and we looked for about 4 hours that day. The next morning, we went back again to look and we found the bull. eHe was chasing cows, and keeping satellite bulls at bay. He was limping badly, but we could not keep up with him and his harem as they traveled. Later that day, we talked to the Game Warden and he suggested we keep hunting as there was no way in his opinion, or mine, that the bull had suffered a fatal wound. We both concluded that the bullet had likely hit the shoulder blade and never entered the chest cavity.

We kept hunting and the next evening my son shot a beautiful 6x5 BEHIND the shoulder at about 60 yards. The bull ran in a little circle and tipped over right in front of us. That bullet was lodged on the far side hide, and totally shredded his lungs.

If you're shooting a muzzleloader, especially with a lighter, pistol type bullet, be sure to sneak that bullet behind the shoulder, don't try to punch through it.
 
+2...take an archer's approach to the shot, no big bones!

You might also skip the SST...they fly nice, but can fail spectacularly if everything is not 'perfect'. I've seen the damn things blow up and not penetrate on a big bulls RIB bone

Ya might try the above mentioned Barnes 290 EZ monolithic expanding slug for superior performance on your elk

Best of Luck
 

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