# how my muzzleloader load performed



## 35whelen (Jul 3, 2012)

http://utahsportsmen.com/gallery/image_ ... mage_id=53

My muzzleloader buck. A running shot at 10 yds with hornady 250gr sst over 100 grs of triple 7.

He ran less then 10 yds into the scrub oak, but it still took me 20 mins to find him. Only a few drops of blood and tiny bone chips. I was worried I led the shot too far and only grazed his brisket or foreleg. Turns out I hit him in the shoulder blade. Bullet exited the off shoulder. I found the plastic red tip in the muzzle around the entry wound.


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

Best buck I've seen harvested so far this year!



I am utterly shocked though at that bullet preformance. Was it a glancing shot? Could you have possibly hit a tree limb / brush? I've only ever recovered two Hornady bullets... both of those were extracted after passing through 30" of deer. Everything else has gone in one side and out the other. Maybe I'll stick with my XTPs... but I would like to hear some more details if you dont mind.

-DallanC


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## 35whelen (Jul 3, 2012)

It was an uphill shot. After an hour and a half of trying to slowly sneak through thick, noisy brush up hill, I had finally entered the clearing of reddish brush I had seen him grazing in. I couldn't see him anywhere and figured I blew it. So started stomping up the hill to see if there were tracks, and then 3 large bucks stood up and started running toward the scrub oaks. I picked the lead deer and led him a little less then a foot and fired. There were at least three of em. one bigger than mine and one much smaller. One deer ran in the opposite direction down the hill, and the two bigger ones ran on in the scrub oak. I ran up the hill and looked for a trail. I was so excited i wasn't sure which tree id shot him by. I didnt find any blood, but it turned out I was looking too low down the hill. I finally found a few drops and tic-tac sized bone chip. I was certain I was starting a long tedious tracking of non-fatally wounded deer. After only a few minutes of looking for tiny drops of blood I saw him lying dead. Entry wound was low center shoulder and exit was high on the opposite shoulder. Exit wound was fairly small, quarter-sized. The lungs were tattered and the heart had a few cuts in it. The only bullet fragment was that plastic tip. I have seen them pop off and stick under the hide by entry wounds before in the .45-70 leverrevolutions. I don't know that sst's expand all that much. One year I shot a whitetail doe at 50 yds with a 165 gr ssts from a .300 win during Iowa's highpower rifle antlerless season, and the exit wound was only the size of a quarter.


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

Ah ok that makes alot more sense. Sounded initially like it didnt penetrate more than that first shoulder 

Yep, sometimes they dont bleed much. Happens often if they are hit a little high, the blood has room inside to pool vs blowing out. Well done 


-DallanC


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## BigT (Mar 11, 2011)

I switched to the Hornady 250 Grain SSTs as well last year. I'm doing a LE deer hunt with rifle this year so I didn't use them this year.

I did shoot a buck last year with it. It went in and got stuck in the other side of the deer around the hide. The SST mushroomed out and was devastating to the animal. I actually was very impressed in shooting this round for practice, and then the results hunting. I converted my friend over to them this year who just got back from his Book Cliff's muzzy. He went with the 300 grain SST. I asked him how it performed. In his words, "it went off like a grenade inside." He brought back a 29 inch 4X5 heavy horned buck. Don't have a pic right now or I'd post it.

Thats my two cents!


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## 35whelen (Jul 3, 2012)

they're great bullets. At the range they were very accruate and it definitely did the job on the buck. I was going to use the 300 gr on my cow elk hunt at the end of Oct. I may just stick with the 250 gr.


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## mjbarney12 (Feb 13, 2011)

*My bullet performed perfectly*

as far as my inexperience with the whole muzzleloader style shooting and hunting goes. I took my buck yesterday with a 250g Powerbelt Aerolite and 100g of BH209. 50-yard shot right in the lungs. He jumped a couple of feet into the air and then ran for about 50 yards and then he was down.

I could see the entrance hole as he ran past me (I don't think he even knew where the shot came from as he continued on his trajectory towards me and slightly to the right which took him about 15 yards from me). When I got to him I saw the exit hole which was about 2.5 inches wide.

I had read that sometimes the Aerilites have a hard time penetrating very well because they expand and discintigrate all too easily but I found that at least for this deer it was not a problem at all.

I never found the bullet even though I tried to find it in the weeds and blood just beyond where he was standing when I hit him.

Anyway, it was a fun hunt and I couldn't be happier about how it all turned out. He was only a 2-point but hey, I'm just not that great of a hunter so I'm not really picky yet. Maybe someday when I've gotten used to getting a deer every year or two but so far, I'm not even close to that lucky or good.

This was my second year muzzy hunting and I think I'm sold. This guy had about 15 minutes of walking towards me starting at 216 yards in which he could have spotted me and turned tail and bounded away but he had absolutely no clue that I was there, standing in front of a single scrub oak, watching him inch ever closer with every step. BOY my heart was pounding. Each deer I've taken in the past during the regular rifle season was a spot and shoot scenario. I've never had to wait or had a chance to wait to see one come to me. I don't know how common that is but it worked this time and it was crazy exciting just trying to keep my breathing even and quiet and my heart from pounding out of my chest!

Oh, one more thing. I guess this little deer had some ability to pull off a little revenge. While cleaning this guy I found myself sitting on the ground "indian style". I had put my knife just off to the right side and shifted position etc. I then grabbed the knife and was manipulating it in my hand in order to use it and it slipped out of my hand and dropped point down to go through my pants and stabbed me just above my right knee.

Needless to say, I had a visit to the insta-care doc on my way home which resulted in getting the puncture wound shot up with numbing solution (that didn't work all too well frankly), getting the hole irrigated with a syringe that had a hose that looked like it was the size of one that comes off a fire-truck...boy, that really tickled...NOT...and then two "lose stitches" so that the wound could drain if it needed to (it has). I'm now taking some pretty strong anti-biotics and got a tetanus shot to boot!

Now I know why they teach us way back in the cub scouts to be careful with knives


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## 35whelen (Jul 3, 2012)

Glad you were successful. I prefer the muzzleloader hunt too. Rifle season is too much of a circus. I only saw one other hunter the day I got mine and he was after grouse. Hope your knee gets better.


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## muddydogs (Oct 7, 2007)

I took a forked horn buck this year with a 300 grain 45 caliber XTP on top of 100 grains of pyrodex RS in the .54, first deer with a sabot. I was a little suprised at the lack of expansion. I shot the deer quartering away at about 40 yards, entry wound was about middle of deer probably about 4th or 5th rib back and exit was off side shoulder where it joins the neck. Exit wound wasn't much over bullet diameter. Deer did bleed well as I got one lung and the top of the heart but I expected the exit hole to be a couple 3 inches big. I also had a cow tag so I was shooting the 300 grain bullet. Maybe I need to drop bullet weight a little.


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## 35whelen (Jul 3, 2012)

I was thinking of using 300 gr sst for cow elk hunt. My cow tag was for a different unit than my buck tag, otherwise I think I would've just taken 300 gr. congrats on your buck.


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## hunter66 (Apr 23, 2008)

I used a 250 grain Horady SST on my cow elk at about 45 yards. Bullet made about a 3 inch entry hole in the left side of the ribs and exited through the right shoulder blade. Well atleast part of it exited. The lead and the copper jacket separated at the shoulder blade. I recovered the jacket and can clearly see the separation. I was using 150 grains of pyrodex. Elk took 3 steps and was down. Excellent performance!! I have taken 3 deer with this round as well, all dead withing 5 steps. I did not have the same experience with powerbelts. I am hooked on Horndady. With my luck they will stop making them like the old winchester silvertips.


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## 35whelen (Jul 3, 2012)

glad you got a cow. I took 300 gr ssts up after cow elk, but I never got close enough. saw a few from a mile off, and was surrounded by some in the dark.


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