75 grains of pyrodex and a .50 caliber bullet

[Zombiphobia]

Does anyone have pictures of the end results of what 75 grains of pyrodex behind a .50cal lead bullet will do to a deer?

 

[AJumbo]

Close enough to place the bullet well, the deer can be humanely harvested. What kind of bullet, ZP?

 

[ColtPythonElite]

I know 80 grains and a patched round ball, which is about 180 grains, with punch a hole thru both sides.

 

[frontiergander]

No deer with this one yet but this is a 454gr conical shot with 70gr Pyrodex RS and recovered from my 100 yard dirt/sand berm.


100 yard target.

 

[BHP FAN]

Saweet! Nice shootin'.

 

[Busyhands94]

I want to try casting some .500 S&W bullets in pure lead and shooting them out of my rifle. I think that would be pretty sweet! I always have wondered if you could load .450 diameter conical bullets into a .45 muzzleloader, that would be kinda cool if they worked. I also keep wondering if you could cast them with hard lead and load them into a .45 long colt or ACP. I wanted to cast some bullets with my surplus hard lead for a friend who handloads .45 ACP.

 

[frontiergander]

muzzleloaders need the soft lead. Hard lead = hard to near impossible to load.

 

[Pete D.]

conical

if you could load .450 diameter conical bullets into a .45 muzzleloader, that would be kinda cool if they worked. I also keep wondering if you could cast them with hard lead and load them into a .45 long colt or ACP. I wanted to cast some bullets with my surplus hard lead for a friend who handloads .45 ACP.

You'd need to spend a little bit of time determining the land and groove diameters of the ML barrel. You'd need a fast twist barrel most probably. In the pistol applications, the .450 slug is way under bore diameter for the two cartridges mentioned ( .450" vs. .452"). Leading is a distinct possibility regardless of the alloy. The .450 might be problematic with the .45 ACP as to the taper crimp/headspace on the case mouth.
Pete

 

[Zombiphobia]

I had a either a plain old .50 round ball or some kind of conical in mind. Nothing special in mind, just not sabots.

 

[J-Bar]

I have several cowboy action shooting friends who use their blackpowder .44-40 and .45 Colt cartridges for deer hunting with great success. 75 grains of powder under a .50 caliber lead ball would give more punch than these old cartridges as far as you should be shooting.

I would play with the powder charge to find the most accurate load for your particular rifle. Placing the ball where you want it will be more effective than a few grains of powder one way or the other.

 

[dprice3844444]

hard lead=sabot

 

[Busyhands94]

I use hard lead to make buckshot, bird shot, and balls to use with a patch. You can even use hard lead .454 round balls in a .50 caliber with a real thick patch

 

[MCgunner]

I shot the deer I took this season at about 30 yards into his lead shoulder. He was facing me. The bullet went into the right shoulder, actually between the shoulder and ribs, busted him up there and followed the spine all the way down to his tenderloin where it exited just next to the spine messing up the tenderloin pretty good on the right side. That is some pretty good penetration, I'd say. Busted through some bone to do it, too. I was shooting 70 grains 3F 777 behind a 385 grain Hornady Great Plains .50 cal Minie. I was pretty impressed. It was a bang/flop.

 

[MCgunner]

You can even use hard lead .454 round balls in a .50 caliber with a real thick patch

I'd think a plastic sabot would work better. Don't really like sabots, but they do have their uses.

 

[Zombiphobia]

So far, but one or two of the above replies have even been relevant to the question asked. Sabots are NOT a part of this formula, nor are .454 anythings or cartridges, or what you make shot out of. I appreciate the scientific value of these comments, but serve nothing to the thread

 

[Busyhands94]

Well I am very sure that 75 grains and a patched ball will be more than enough to kill efficiently in a deer. I'd say go for it, that load packs a good wallop, not a lot of recoil either.

 

[husker]

This^^^^^
Its a fine load with a round ball. I shoot 70 to 75 with my Kentucky 45 cal. Only shot one animal with it. A treed coon years & years ago. It blew the coon apart. & tossed it 10 feet or so out of the tree.

 

[Marlin 45 carbine]

there are several makers of soft cast lead 'slugs' for the .45 and .50 muzzloaders.
T/C, Lee, Buffalo, Lyman and others sell them. I've shot Lee mold REAL slugs with so far good target results.

 

[Busyhands94]

Lee Improved Minnie balls are good. I have shot them with great success! I strongly recommend them, I don't know it they sell pre-made bullets but I cast them and they work fantastically!

Husker, 80 grains in my .50 will make a good deep boom and will pretty much splatter water filled milk jugs. In fact those are one of my favorite targets! That load will also make water filled soda cans explode as if someone stuck an M80 in them and lit it. Even with a patched ball it's a deadly load, with a Minnie ball it's even more lethal because of the expansion of the soft lead. Heck, I think that load would take a buffalo, given proper shot placement is utilized. It's an accurate load in my rifle too, so I don't think that would be a problem. As long as a load is accurate and will reach the vital organs with sufficient energy to do lethal damage then you should be in good shape for hunting.

Levi

 

[J-Bar]

So far, but one or two of the above replies have even been relevant to the question asked. Sabots are NOT a part of this formula, nor are .454 anythings or cartridges, or what you make shot out of. I appreciate the scientific value of these comments, but serve nothing to the thread

I interpreted your original post to be a concern about whether or not 75 grains of powder under a .50 caliber lead ball would be sufficient to kill a deer. I don't carry a camera to record my kills in the field, and I don't run tests on ballistic gelatin when sighting in my muzzleloader. So in the absence of photos, I attempted to offer reassurance that your proposed load will generate plenty of power sufficient to kill a deer, with the usual caveats about shot placement, etc.

I apologize for not being able to provide the exact answer you requested, but I think you can hunt with that load confidently, and then you can take a picture of what your load will do to a deer and post it for the rest of us to admire.

I can show you a photo of a deer skull and rack that fell to 100 grains of Pyrodex under a .54 caliber Hornady Great Plains hollowpoint, but that is not exactly what you asked for. Let me know if you want to see it.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and good luck hunting.

 

[Zombiphobia]

I can show you a photo of a deer skull and rack that fell to 100 grains of Pyrodex under a .54 caliber Hornady Great Plains hollowpoint, but that is not exactly what you asked for. Let me know if you want to see it.

Not asking for 'exactness', just relevance.. something closely relevant to the topic.. and yes, I'd love to see your kill with that load and everyone else probably would too

 

[J-Bar]

Rack and Hawken

I keep looking for his twin brother...

 

[mykeal]

everyone else probably would too

Well, no, not really.

 

[Lunie]

Nice pic J-Bar, thanks for putting it up for us.

 

[Busyhands94]

I went tot the range today and tested this one out for you guys. Shooters need to help eachother out. So here is a .490 round ball with a pillow ticking patch and 75 grains of FFG powder behind it, shot into a milk jug of water, being there and seeing the damage it did I am completely confident I could kill a deer with it. But it still kicks as bad as a .410 shotgun. I put a .50 round ball on the sheet of paper to show the size. It always seems to amaze me how such a little inert piece of metal can actually unleash that amount of bone crushing energy, I think one of the reasons I like plinking so much is that I get to see what kind of damage my bullet or ball can cause.

happy belated thanksgiving everyone!

~Levi