I spent some time at the range on Monday with the ML. I am new to blackpowder so I'm up against a major learning curve. I am hoping to take this with me in November to Georgia to look for a white tail. (A friend found a Whites 50 cal Whitetail hunter for me earlier this year).
Anyway, I have almost no experience with open sights so that is not helping with my learning curve...
Prior to Sunday I have been shooting the Hornady Great Plains lead hollow points (50 caliber, 385 grain). They are a real pain to get started, but have been shooting OK. I am pretty sure that at least one of my issues is that I have to push so hard to seat the bullet level with the muzzle that I occasionally ding the nose of the bullet. Once they get started to where they are level with the muzzle then slide down easy though. I am getting groups that average between 4 and 5 inches at 100 yards. Not sure if that is good or bad for a typical ML shooter, but I'm pleased with it given my lack of experience overall. I found it interesting that when bumped my load up from 100 to 115 and the patterns fell apart. One not even worth measuring, and another one coming in at 12 inches!! Dropping back down to 100 brought the patterns back in line. Very odd. Loads in the 75 grain range have been consistent in the past (although I don't have the data points)
Anyway, I picked up a package of Green based Powerbelts (348 gr) at GI Joes when they were going out of business and finally got around to trying those. WOW. what a difference. First of all, they slide down the barrel like snot on a doorknob. No issues at all. Second, my patterns moved from an average of 4.6 inches to 3.6 inches at 100 yards! I'm pretty sure if I spend more time with them I can get them under 2 inches (consistent packing, improving with open sights, etc).
Anyway, just found that to be interesting. I plan on getting some of the TC and Hornady Sabot's to try out as well.
here is my data table from the day.
