Why no 150gr loads?

[dbllunger]

I don't own and have never shot a muzzle loader, but I don't see a lot of 150 or heavier powder loads shown.   Why is that?  I thought most guns were rated to at least 150 grains of powder.

[SHANE(WA)]

there is a fine line of pushing a lead bullet too fast and having it smash on impact and fragmenting, and u lose accuracy alot of the times with more speed. Look at some competion muzzleloading sites and look at there loads, u will rarely find a guy shooting over 90gr. Also powder selection is a difference too triple 7 gets way more velocity out of it than Goex and pyrodex, so u could shoot more powder in the those to acheive the same velocity. Lots of practicing and testing to see what works best out of your gun, it took me awhile to find what my gun shoots best.Big lead means dead.

[Sagedawg]

well said and explained Shane, dblunger, when I bought my 1st muzzy I was bound and determined to use all 150 grains that that gun was rated for........long story short more recoil than needed, piss poor accuracy and a bear to clean. A buddy of mines dad showed me what 85 grains and a round ball would do so I wised up and lowered my powder charge and saw greatly improved accuracy. just like Shane says look around and you wont see alot of people stating that there favorite load is 150 grains under such an such bullet.BTW Shane that is an awesome bull you got there, I hope to get one like that someday.


 Sage

[wastickslinger]

Agree 100% that 150 grains is too much. I too was determined to use 150 grains but could not get a good group. I backed down to 120 grains 2 years ago and I might even take er down to 100 this year if i decide to go the smoke pole route.

[bobcat]

I've been using 90 grains of Triple 7, and that's a pretty stout load. It sure didn't have any problems going all the way through an elk this last year. There's absolutely no reason to go much over 100 grains, especially in this state where jacketed bullets are not legal.

[tmike]

I don't think a #11 or musket cap can burn 150 grains. A friend of mine laid out 6 feet of butcher paper in front of his rest and tested a lot of charges. Even the lower charges pushed out unburned powder. He shoots 85 grains with a 410 great plains and took his elk at 130 yds this year. I want to duplicate his experiment and see for myself. I couldn't get 130 grains of 777 to group very well.

[actionshooter]

It varies from gun to gun a bit, but as a general rule any charge over 120gr. (FF, black powder) and you are just blowing unburned powder out the barrel.

[boneaddict]

I use 100.

[Slenk]

I generally shoot 85-95gr. behind patched round ball . That load has killed several Deer and 3 Elk for me. And the same load for home cast mini-balls. Depending on the gun that I am shooting.
A larger charge is not always more accurate or as accurate, as say a 100gr. load . With no more killing power . If your barrel is not long enough to burn all the powder you are just adding weight to the projectile (bullet or round ball) and reducing your velocity . (if you only burn 100grains of your150 grain loadyou are pushing 50grains added to bullet weight) .So big stout loads can work in reverse of what you are trying to do. Shoot what is the most accurate in you gun. Just  like smokeless powder you can over load . Just try shooting over a Chronograph sometime.
Slenk

[Webfoot]

I use 120 gr. of pyrodex in the .54 cal.
Does 50gr. of measured powder actually weigh 50 gr ?

John

[Slenk]

NO . In fact if you buy 10 different measures and do a check there will be some differences between them. Maybe not much but some.
Slenk

[actionshooter]

Black powder is measured by volume.

[M_ray]

Also another thought here is that most of the people you hear about shooting 150 grains of powder are in the midwest and east where jacketed bullets and ballistic tips are leagal. I'm not sure a full lead conical bullet will hold up out of the barrel and accuracy would suffer as others have stated. For me I shoot 100 grains of 777 mostly because I started with two 50 grain pyrodex pellets and just never changed when I went strictly to powder. I am interested in tmike's test though cause if I can get the same accuracy with less powder I figure I will be saving money and have a better time with clean up!

[HawkenBob]

I shoot a TC 50 with 100 grs of American Pioneer and a 260 grn projectile. Very accurate and consistant out to 100 yrds. (The max i've shot it)

[M_ray]

Hawkenbob,
Is that American Pioneer as clean as Shockey claims? I heard it's good and I have allways wanted to give er a try ...and I may when I run through the last 2 containers of triple 7 I have.