You only have one shot, so you better make it count.
Muzzleloaders have come a long way since the 1980s. So has the knowledge available for shooting tight groups at long distances. The right gun loaded with the right components in the hands of a competent shooter can drill a 4-inch circle at 200 yards, one shot after another.
It’s not out of the question to hit the bullseye at even greater distances. Traditions Muzzleloaders president Tom Hall recalled one hunter who dropped a bull moose with a single shot at 390 yards. Hall doesn’t necessarily recommend taking such long shots, but it’s a testament to the long range accuracy and power of a modern muzzleloader and the right load in the right hands.
THE GUN
Such a shot wouldn’t have been possible 20 years ago, at least not with the lineup of muzzleloaders available then. Times have certainly changed.
Manufacturers today produce a higher quality product and include features once found only in top-of-the-line centerfire rifles – things like crisp, adjustable triggers and precision barrels made of high quality steel.
Generally, though, you still get what you pay for. Inexpensive guns are built with low budget materials. They are certainly adequate and will kill deer just fine, but don’t expect tack-driving accuracy beyond 100 yards if you buy from the bottom of the shelf.
Some experts agree even the best guns will perform poorly when shot with a hot barrel. Just as any metal will expand when heated, the best muzzleloader barrels will throw bullets all over the paper if they aren’t allowed to cool down. However, CVA director of media relations and Shoot Straight television host Chad Schearer isn’t too concerned about an overheated barrel.
“The time it takes to reload is usually enough to allow the barrel to cool down,” he said.
More important, he says, is doing the same thing every shot. Consistency is arguably the critical factor affecting muzzleloader performance. Schearer runs a saliva-moistened patch down his barrel after each shot, but other methods can be just as good as long as they are consistent from shot to shot.
“Do the same thing every time,” he said. “Each gun is different, and what works in one gun might not work as well in another. You might have to try a variety of different things until you hit the right combination.”
THE BULLET
The first step is to find the right bullet for your gun.
Centerfire rifle reloaders are particular about the various components they use, especially the bullet. They shoot numerous types in order to find the perfect bullet style and weight for their gun. Muzzleloader shooters should do the same thing.
Just as finding the right powder charge can take some experimentation, finding the best bullet can take time, too. Buy a selection of bullet sizes and styles and plan on a day at the range.
Some dedicated shooters insist saboted bullets are more accurate than belted bullets. The sabot creates a tight seal, preventing gasses from escaping around the bullet as it exits the barrel. However, Schearer says belted bullets like Powerbelts can be just as accurate as saboted bullets because the plastic cup at the base expands and fills the barrel’s grooves just as a sabot does.
“You don’t get any plastic residue in your barrel like you do after shooting a sabot. That’s why it’s so hard to load a second round after you shot a saboted bullet without cleaning the barrel,” he said.
Hall uses either 250- or 300-grain saboted bullets, but he says the bullet weight doesn’t necessarily dictate accuracy. Heavier bullets in the same caliber are longer, and longer bullets typically stabilize better in flight. That’s why Schearer is a big fan of AeroLites, Powerbelt’s new line of bullets.
However, the bullet’s flight is affected by a number of factors, including the barrel’s twist rate and the powder charge. Hall and Schearer like polymer-tipped bullets, and both agree hollow-points and lead-tipped projectiles are deadly on whitetails.
“The right bullet for your gun might be 250 grains, or it might be heavier or a little lighter; it just depends,” Schearer said. “Try different ones until you find the right combination.”
THE POWDER
That combination includes the powder charge. Just as there plenty of bullet options, muzzleloader shooters can choose from several varieties of powder, including loose or granular powder, and compressed powder pellets. Both will put a bullet in a paper plate, the accepted size of the kill zone on a whitetail.
Many experts say loose powder offers better accuracy because it can be measured in small increments. Most pelleted powder gives you essentially three different load choices: 50, 100 or 150 grains. However, Pyrodex pellets are available in 30-grain pellets, allowing you to change loads in smaller increments.
Sometimes, a pair of pellets will give you great accuracy, while some guns like a little more or a little less. Loose powder allows you to inch your loads up or down. Each gun is different, and some simply perform better with a specific bullet and powder charge.
Hodgdon Powder public relations manager Chris Hodgdon says the loose powder you choose can affect accuracy, too.
“Pyrodex RS is FFg (the term used to note powder grain size) and Pyrodex P is FFFg, which is finer and tends to burn faster,” he explained. “Both can be used in .50-caliber rifles, but if you use P, you should use 30 percent less volume.”
Pyrodex Select is similar to RS, but the grain size is much more consistent, leading to more even burn rates. IMR’s White Hot pellets are also a bit more consistent than other powder pellets. They tend to burn hotter and provide more energy, and they leave less residue in your barrel than Pyrodex pellets.
Blackhorn 209 is another good choice in loose powder. It also has consistent grain size and is one of the cleanest burning powders on the market. Because a gummed-up barrel can affect accuracy, and because shooters don’t always swab their barrels, a clean-burning powder can make a big difference.
What you should use depends entirely on how well each powder performs in your gun. In other words, just as bullet performance can vary from one gun to the next, different powders shoot better in some guns than others. The rule is to start with a lighter powder load, 80 grains of 777 or 90 grains of Pyrodex, for example, and work your way up in 10-grain increments.
Hall says to look for an improvement in your groups. If you start to see them open up again as you increase the amount of powder, you’ve found the right load and then surpassed it. More powder isn’t always better.
Faster bullets shoot flatter, but that doesn’t always translate to tighter groups. Also, heavy powder charges can create substantial recoil, and that can cause even the most seasoned shooters to flinch. That can translate to poor bullet placement.
YOU
No other factor will determine the bullet’s point of impact more than the man or woman behind the gun. Shooter error is the number one reason for bad groups and missed whitetails. It’s also the primary reason so many muzzleloading rifles are returned to manufacturers with complaints of poor performance.
A product like a Caldwell Lead Sled reduces shooter error by essentially clamping the gun into place. It’s the surest way to take the human element out of each shot, and it can remove the inevitable wallop to the shoulder each time you pull the trigger.
A strap-on shoulder pad can remove some of the punch, but there’s no better way to reduce the kick than by decreasing the powder charge.
“I recommend shooting 80 or 90 grains if you are either new to muzzleloading or you just want some time behind your gun and don’t want to burn up a lot of powder,” Hall said. “It’s always a good idea to shoot a lot, but if you spend too much time shooting heavy loads, you could end up developing bad habits that you’ll carry into the field. You certainly want to find the very best and most accurate load and become very familiar with what it will do at different distances, but if you just want to shoot, cut your powder a little.”
ALL OF THE ABOVE
Human error aside, no single ingredient affects accuracy more than any other. They all work together to push a bullet downrange. If one component doesn’t work well with another, you might get a load that won’t cooperate.
In other words, don’t assume you have to change everything if you can’t get your gun to shoot straight at long distances. You just might have to change one thing and you’ll be thumping steel, punching bullseyes and knocking down bucks at distances that were impossible 20 years ago.
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This article was published in the November 2013 edition of Buckmasters Whitetail Magazine. Subscribe today to have Buckmasters delivered to your home.