Well, well, well.  The muzzleload deer hunt is just around the corner and you need to know how to properly load your muzzy gun!  This is how I do it and usually the hunt ends up with myself standing alongside a hanging buck I put down with this here load.  It’s been tried and trued for many a year and you need to follow the directions to the tee.

First off it don’t make no nevermind as to what caliber rifle you have, you just have to have the right stuff to put in it to make it work good an proper.  Corse it does make a difference to the state officials in your state as to whether you have the right size ball or bullet to be able to shoot and not git a ticket.  So check on your states regs an all afore you just load up and head out.  Here in Utah, ya got ta have a rifle what is 45 caliber or bigger to hunt our big ol mule deer bucks.  That is all I am sayin.

Course I hunt with a 54 caliber rifle an I do that cuz I got a good deal on it sum time back.  An it is good fer elk an moose too.  In addition ta the size of the caliber, I use a big ol bullet what is 425 grains of pure lead and it has a hollow point and a hollow base.  The bigness of the bullet carries a lot of heavy punch down range.  Enough in fact that an elephant would have a tough time stopping it.  And so for our big mule deer and elk and moose it is surely big enough to do the trick in a quick fashion.  Some call it a Hornady brand, Great Plains bullet.  Well, that is what the package says too by golly.

What is the importance of the hollow point?  That my friend allows the bullet to start expanding the moment it hits the animals hide. The larger expansion leads to more damage inside the animal and a quicker more humane death to that animal.  Of course nothing good will come of poor shot placement.

What about the hollow base?  When the powder explodes behind the bullet and it starts its travel toward the muzzle end of the barrel, the thinner walls on the hollow base expand outward and catch the rifling’s in the barrel.  The rifling’s are what allows the bullet to spin and a spinning bullet affords a more accurate projectile.  Of course there are always exception to the rule.  Faster rates of twist in a barrel are more accurate for big bullets, while slower ones tend to be only good for patched round balls.

So, there you have the info on the big bullet and its weight, hollow point and hollow base and what each is designed to do.  There are negatives to each as well.  The heavy weight limits the distance the bullet will travel and it drops a whole lot as it travels.  At 100 yards my guess is it will drop about 5 inches even with 90 grains of powder being shot.  At 200 yards you might as well forget shooting at an animal unless you aim over its back a few inches.  It will still have the knock down and penetration power, but your point of aim will be different.  The hollow point catches air and slows the bullet down as well, which also adds to the drop of the bullet as it travels.  There isn’t much that is negative in the hollow base.

Ok, so here we are in hunting camp and I’m about to demonstrate how I load my rifle.  I pull out the butter flavored Crisco, a salt shaker, pepper shaker and some powdered garlic.  Then my powder and measure and the 425 grain bullets.

Because I have recently (or not so recently) cleaned the barrel, I will pour a small amount of powder from my measure down the barrel and pop a cap.  Make sure the powder in the barrel goes boom, or you have to pop another cap and maybe even pour a bit more powder down the barrel.  Once you have “cleared” the barrel you are ready to load your hunting load.

I carefully measure 90 grains of FFg black powder and pour it down the barrel.  Then I take one of the 425 grain bullets out of the box and rub almost all of the pre-lubricant that comes on the bullet off.  Then I smear some butter flavored Crisco on the outside of the bullet and then slip it down the barrel.  My ramrod finishes getting the bullet firmly placed on top of the powder charge.  Then, since I like a little salt, pepper and garlic powder on my meat, I sprinkle a small amount of each down the barrel on top of the bullet.  This way, when the bullet hits the animal it will be taking these three ingredients down range with it and put the seasonings in the animal.

There you have it.  My hunting load.

Bears Butt

Sept. 2011