Lesson Learned: Controlled expansion

[627PCFan]

Yesterday I shot my 4th deer since I started hunting, all 4 have been taken with a TC Muzzle-loader, running 100 grains of 777. Not knowing much going into it, I ordered 2 boxes of Hornady SST/MLs which shoot great groups for me. After deer 1, I noticed that it was a .45 hole going in and out at a range of 138 yards. Deer 2 the same at 80 yards. Last week I popped one at 40 yards. All straight through with no expansion. 2 of the 3 were bang flops, and one ran 20 yards. Perplexed I thought I would use the same load and change the bullet to a 250 grain Speer DeepCurl. Last night I lined up a large VA doe, at 6 yards and dropped her on the spot, not even a twitch. My velocity is right at 1900FPS, and that was even above what Speer recommended for the bullet and I know 6 yards isn't a common deer taking distance with the ML, Im completely satisfied with expansion. Full mushroom, the jacket stayed together however I did loose all the lead. I guess thats to be expected when impact velocity was 700fps than designed for. Ill tone the charge down a bit and sacrifice those 150+ yards for a little piece of mind. Lesson learned: Controlled expansion on whitetails yields more risk than reward.

 

[hardluk1]

With a bullet that works that nice i would keep it loaded the same for the next one or two at least. Bullet will move slower at 100 yards + and may look better when recoverd. As long as the lost lead does not show up sprayed around inside the deer and that good meat. Nice to have them just drop. Way to go.

 

[336A]

IME that bullet is border line frangible when it is being launched from your muzzle loader at those speeds. Don't let the name of this bullet fool you, Speer just renamed it from Gold Dot to Deep Curl. Speer did this with a lot of thier Gold Dot line they are one and the same. Speer loads this bullet in their .45 Colt handgun ammo to a velocity of about 800fps where it still expands even at that leisure velocity. I would look towards a better constructed bullet such as the Hornady XTP line or a bullet meant for the .454 Casull. Launching a 250gr bullet at 1900fps replicates .454 loadings using the same bullet weight. You don't see any companies loading such soft bullets in that cartridge for a reason.

Were you to hit a shoulder blade the outcome may be a lot different. I used a 240gr XTP-HP out of my Marlin .44 mag on a 4pt at 30yd and got a complete pass through. Granted it was not 6yd but if it were I feel it would still be a complete pass through. Folks have really pushed this bullets design envelope by loading them in full house .444 Marlin loads where velocities are often in excess of 2300fps. They have been rewarded with full penetration as well on deer sized game. The Hornady XTP line is really good and worth checking out.

 

[alsaqr]

I used a 240gr XTP-HP out of my Marlin .44 mag on a 4pt at 30yd and got a complete pass through.

I have used that bullet in my muzzleloaders since 1999. The Hornady 240 grain .430 XTP is has taken 20 deer and about 150 hogs for me. On the smaller deer there is always a pass through. Sometimes it does not exit when used on large deer or big hogs: But not to matter, they are just as dead. I currently use 100 grains of 3F Pinnacle powder which gives a velocity of about 1,800 fps-about the same as your .44 Magnum.