Hunting Washington Forum

Big Game Hunting => Muzzleloader Hunting => Topic started by: WAcoyotehunter on April 09, 2014, 01:42:35 PM

Title: pistol bullets for MZ hunting?
Post by: WAcoyotehunter on April 09, 2014, 01:42:35 PM: I just picked up a Vortek NW magnum muzzleloader and was wondering if anyone has a load worked up for it using .45 pistol bullets in a sabot?

I used to shoot a Pedersoli with .45 caliber 230 gr Hornady bullets (saboted) and used 90 gr of triple 7. that load worked ok for that gun, but now I'm out of bullets and want to have an idea before I buy a new box/powder.

thoughts?
Title: Re: pistol bullets for MZ hunting?
Post by: MountainDevil54 on April 09, 2014, 02:18:06 PM: 100gr blackhorn209, harvester crush rib sabot, 260gr harvester scorpion pt gold. You'll probably have to up it around 100gr T7 loose powder :tup:
Title: Re: pistol bullets for MZ hunting?
Post by: andersonjk4 on April 09, 2014, 02:20:44 PM: I use some 200 grain Hornady XTP bullets in a sabot for cheap plinking rounds in my MZ. They shoot pretty well and for short range on whitetails I wouldn't hesitate to use them. But if you are going to buy new bullets anyway, why not just buy some MZ specific bullets? That's my thoughts anyway. Barnes, Hornady, TC, Bloodline and others make really good bullets with significantly better ballistic coefficients than pistol bullets and I would say the terminal performance of the MZ specific bullets will be better. But I have to admit that these bullets can get pretty spendy if you are shooting a lot. So I wouldn't blame a guy for shooting pistol bullets out of his MZ. Look at Harvester Sabots they have many different configurations for pretty much any diameter of bullet from .429 up. I really like the crush rib sabots I bought to shoot the XTP's in.
Title: Re: pistol bullets for MZ hunting?
Post by: Sabotloader on April 09, 2014, 02:56:24 PM: Quote from: WAcoyotehunter on April 09, 2014, 01:42:35 PM
I just picked up a Vortek NW magnum muzzleloader and was wondering if anyone has a load worked up for it using .45 pistol bullets in a sabot?

I used to shoot a Pedersoli with .45 caliber 230 gr Hornady bullets (saboted) and used 90 gr of triple 7. that load worked ok for that gun, but now I'm out of bullets and want to have an idea before I buy a new box/powder.

thoughts?

You can not use Blackhorn for ML hunting in the PacNW - so even though it is a very good powder you will need to use something else with your NW Vortek.

I would suggest Triple Seven - 3f. You do not mention what you might have used in the past but if it worked for you before it will work for you again.

Yote hunter, the a lot of very good bullets out there that will work very well for you. Your bigger problem might be finding the sabot to put the bullet in that will fit your barrel. I think I have read in the past that the Vortek has a tight bore so you are probably going to need a thin sabot, but no way of know until you try.

Bullets, if you do not want to go with a premium bullet like a Barnes or a Bloodline - would suggest looking for some Speer Deep Curls, they are hard to find because Speer can not make them fast enough. But, a Speer 44x270 grain Deep Curl is great if you want to shoot a .430 bullet. Again personally and only my thoughts I would use a Speer .452x250. The Speer Deep Curls, the copper is bonded to the lead and it is a very strong bullet.

Here is a picture of some Speer Deep Curls that I tried to blow up... They use to be called Speer Gold Dots but because of government regulations the need to change the name of the hunting bullet.

(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv130%2Fsabotloader%2FGoldDotPerformance.jpg&hash=1bca29cd7e1d4979939785c948d5e1314a63ccff) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/sabotloader/media/GoldDotPerformance.jpg.html)

This picture shows some examples of Hornady bullets tortured the same way. I also must add all Hornady's shot like this did not blow up.

(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv130%2Fsabotloader%2FGD-XTPComp.jpg&hash=aa772a16e80f9d0c7b3a17c3388379a10afa4883) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/sabotloader/media/GD-XTPComp.jpg.html)