great hunt gone bad

[ffhoofer]

hello all. i'm new to this site but thought i would share my hunt from this weekend. saturday started off not seeing or hearing anything till about mid day when i heard a bull bugle from across a canyon. i cow called back but didn't get a reply. about 45 min. later i hear footprints coming up the hill directly in front of me. i couldn't believe my eyes when i see a nice bull walking directly to me about thirty yards away. the bull gets about fifteen yards from me and turns broadside. i fire my muzzleloader (50 cal TC, shooting 300gr powerbelts w/ 110gr. pyrodex) and the bull stiffens his front shoulder and runs down the canyon. at this point i'm 100% sure of the shot and reload while i wait for him to expire. i give him 15 minutes and walk towards where i shot. as i get to the point where i shot i see no blood, i begin down the trail about 10 yards and can see the bull bedded 175-200 yards away. at this point i can see his is still alive but seems to be hurt bad so i give him time. i watch him for a 1-1/2 hours until he gets up and walks uphill away from my with a stiff front left shoulder. he walks to the point where i can't see him anymore. i slowly walk to where he was bedded to look for blood. no blood on the trail or where he was bedded! while i was looking he jumps up out of another bed 100 yards away but offers no shot. i slowly back out of there and gave him 4 hours until i return. i return and find nothing. i spent the rest of saturday and yesterday looking but nothing! i can't believe it. at fifteen yards i was for sure i would get great penetration. any thoughts of what went wrong???

[whacker1]

It sounds like you hit him in the shoulder and may not have penetrated through the shoulder.  I have seen it with high power rifles let alone muzzleloaders.  sorry to hear that it went south.   

[bobcat]

I wouldn't trust a Powerbelt to penetrate an elk's shoulder. They are too soft. Good deer bullet but not necessarily a good elk bullet. If you do use Powerbelts for elk, use the heaviest available. Were you shooting the 295 grain bullet? If so, that is awful light for a muzzleloader bullet.

[ffhoofer]

yes, it was 295gr. this was the first year i tried them to get better range. Kid at works sports said 295gr. would be more then enough. i should've stuck with the 350gr. maxi-hunters i was using.

[Lowedog]

It sounds like you hit him in the shoulder and may not have penetrated through the shoulder.  I have seen it with high power rifles let alone muzzleloaders.  sorry to hear that it went south.   

  I have seen the same thing.  An all lead bullet more than likely pancaked on the shoulder blade.  A friend of mine shot a big bull several years ago at short range with his 7mm mag.  Same scenario.  He ended up tracking that bull for 3 days and put 3 or 4 more shots into his shoulder before finally anchoring him.  When boning that bull out for the pack we found I think 3 bullets pancaked on the shoulder blade.  He was shooting Remington Core lokts.  He was lucky that it was a late hunt and he had snow to be able to stay on his bull. 

[J Snow73]

My father-in-law had a similar expierience yesterday. Shot at a elk 50 yds away, BOOM and it just stood there no expression and walked in the woods. Took a shot at a target at about the same distance and dead on We followed it up where it went in the bush until to dark to see and there up looking again today He was also using 295 at 100 grain loose FF. I am rethinking the whole elk/muzzleloader tactics. Just seems u would get some kind of reaction from the animal after being hit with this. I'll let you know when i hear from them what they find

[ffhoofer]

yes, it's a bum deal. well... if anybody finds a 5x5 with a bum shoulder in unit 454 let me know. i would like to know what happened to him.

[J Snow73]

Ya same here 454 elk must wear flak jackets, I'm off to buy bigger bullets and a target

[Lowedog]

You might think about going with a Barnes or similar bullet. 

[whacker1]

I am shooting the Barnes 275 grain in my .54.  I bought a bunch of the 325 grain, but didn't get them sighted in.  I need to find an bull to shoot them into anyway, which I wasn't able to find over the weekend.

[carpsniperg2]

sorry to hear that. powerbelts are known for pancaking and not penetrating threw tuffer bone. i did a lot of tests on them back when i first started and then when they switched to copper i shot some of the copper ones. i was still not impressed, i use the Barnes and they are a very tuff bullet. i would really think about switching bullets.

[Curly]

That's too bad that you didn't recover that bull.    Thanks for sharing your story so that more people will realize the limitations of those bullets.  Hopefully others will learn from your story.

I shot a 2 point blacktail buck a few years ago with a powerbelt at 90 yards.  He was standing broadside and I hit him behind the shoulder.  The bullet did not hit any bone.  I found the bullet pancaked just under the off-side hide.  Sure I had a dead deer and the bullet worked great in that instance, but I knew right then that I would not want to use the hollow point Powerbelt for elk.  There are better bullets out there, especially now that we can use jacketed bullets.

[WSU]

Go big on the muzzy bullets!  I saw a bull shot with a 405 grain power belt this weekend.  Sharp quartering away shot, the bullet entered just forward of the hind quarter and exited in the front of the chest.  Also found another one in the elk's cavity (same shooter), and it was pretty well pancaked.  Found some 385 grainers I shot into a bull last year, and they were pancaked in the off-side hide.  I am really hoping to find some heavier jacketed bullets to use in the future.  Anyone have recommendations?

Also, bummer on the bull. Hopefully he will be OK.  A lot of time with a muzzy you don't get an exit wound, which results in very small to nearly non-existance blood trails.  The bull I shot last year had 2 holes in him from 2 shots, and zero blood trail. 

[JackOfAllTrades]

Elk can be tough critters. If you're not seeing blood, I bet he lives if that bullet is flattened on the shoulder blade.

I've killed two deer that had bullets lodged in muscle/bone from previous seasons. One, had passed through both hauches and lodged on the inside of the opposite side hide. I don't know how he didn't die of infection. The bullet path wasn't quite straight, but passed through the hide, meat, grazed the femor, anal canal/pelvis, hip bone, more meat/muscle and stopped at the hide. (hunter's shot must have been from down hill of him)  Anyway.. That buck was quite healthy when I dropped him.

A strong bull might be able to survive your shot too.  Keep huntin that one though. He'll be slow for a while.

-Steve

[ffhoofer]

after reading all the replies i'm definetly switching. i'm puzzled because you would think at fifteen yards you would get better penetration??? hopefully i catch up to him.