Coming up on September 10th I will head north to the Great White Mountains of New Hampshire to sit over some bait for a black bear. I want to do something different so I am planning to use my muzzleloading barrel in 50 caliber( I had taken it to Florida this past February and shot two large wild boar ) with my Ruger SRH in .480 as a secondary arm.

I noticed that off a rest it is phenomenally accurate. I get nice tight groups so I know mechanically it is accurate. Now the big thing is when I shoot offhand, it all goes to Hades. I have not shot a heavy specialty pistol in a while during what you can call hunting practice and it sorely shows I need to do so.

This barrel started out as a G2 rifle barrel. I asked the gunsmith to cut it to 16 1/2 inches. I assumed it would have an overall length of that but he cut it from the breech plug face. So the actually overall length is closer to 19 inches. The first couple holds a rather long breech plug until you get past the front of the frame. In a way it is a blessing because the added length may burn up more powder thus gaining power.

I figure that the same load I used on the wild boar, two H777 fifty grain pellets with a 240 grain XTP sabot load would harvest a black bear humanely. I ran out of pellets so I switched to loose H777. I noticed that it has more volume in the bore as evident by the change in the mark on my ramrod. As I shot I had a few 300 grain TC Polytip sabot bullets. I shot them off and made a discovery. I know I should have a chronograph but I sort of destroyed mine. When you shoot sabots the plastic sabot falls to earth at a certain distance. I noticed that the black sabots used with the 240 grain XTP's had fallen about ten feet shorter than the red sabots used with the 300 grain polytip bullets.

I am wondering if the heavier sabot rounds are creating a more efficient combustion of the H777 powder? If so, should I go with that particular round?

Anyways. After work I am meeting Dad at the range. I know I need more practice and what a better way to destress from a day of work than to spend some time at the range preparing for a bear hunt.

I refuse to use an inline but I did learn something about 777 when I played with it. Do not compress the loose powder, just touch it with the bullet.
Pyrodex and black needs a little compression but 777 hates it.
Bear over bait? I would use the .480!
As far as the sabot, yes the powder does better with more weight but it also depends on the different sabot and how it holds to the bullet. How it catches air means a lot too.
I would not worry about it, just sight in and go.
And good luck.

Thanks for the advice on H777. I am tempted to mount an aimpoint on the Ruger SRH and use it but I want to do something different. I figure that is quite different.

Bigbore, I like the sounds of the Muzzleloader you got! Wish VA would have em for big game but a big no no right now. Anyway, check your loads for the XTP bullets. Hornady recommends 150 gr. for all their muzzleloading bullets. From my muzzleloading experience, and lack of reading the proper material. I have lost several wall hangers with dead on shots with that same load you are using. In 3 years I had deer as close as 50 yards just get wounded. I cannot speak for the loose powder though. Just would hate to hear about that bear walking off pissed! Good luckwith your hunt!

That is interesting. I don't use sabot's but I will not hunt with the 240 XTP in my revolvers either.
I never lost a deer shot with them but in every case I recovered the bullet against the off rib cage with behind the shoulder shots that hit no bone. If I had not seen them fall I might have lost them because back tracking showed no blood trails. The bullet just opens too fast when shot fast. I got worried about a quartering shot or a bone hit so I quit using them.
Shooting this bullet with 150 gr of powder would worry me also.
Added velocity would reduce penetration even more. I prefer two holes in any animal I shoot.

I have no problems with the 240 XTP in the 44. That thing rips out of the S&W. Just found out the hard way in the muzzleloader. Using the 2 pellets with different sabots, I had dead deer. It was only when I switched to the XTP with 2 pellets...well it took 4 wallhangers not ending up on the wall! I can tell you from solid broadside shots, none over 75 yards, I was trailing deer and never finding them. I got a second chance on one of the bucks later in the season. Broke front shoulder! For the life of me I could not figure out what was going on! Look on the Hornady site, it requires the 150gr. for XTP use in the Muzzleloader. Which is under powered with the 2 pellets.

A friend during the same time span, was having to trail deer using the same load.

Jeremy:

Out of curiosity,what bullet have you found to work well for a muzzleloader?

That's weird. Are you are using 777 pellets? 100 gr. of 777 should put your 240 gr. bullet around 1700+ fps. That's much faster than a .44 mag. Maybe your bullets are tumbling? Sabots are funny little animals sometimes.

Bigbore, I had to think about it for a few and no this was not with 777, was Pyrodex pellets. I had used some polymer tip bullets but cannot remember what they were. I have also been using the Speer Gold Dot, also with 150 grains behind it. I just am saying what Hornady is stating for these in Muzzleloading loads

Guitarpicva, the 44 is zippin' with the H110! I don't think they ever tumbled. They were accurate as hell, just seemed under powered. I haven't tried the 777 so I cannot compare.

The Pyro would be a tad slower than 777. Where did you find that 150 gr. thing at Hornady. The only thing I found there was:



Admittedly though, I didn't look very hard. The reason I ask is that I shoot 240 gr. .44 XTP's in my Encore. I use loose Blackhorn 209 (and you don't use as much of that as you do 777 to get the same velocity. But if Hornady is suggesting a min muzzle velocity, I want to know about it. I am shooting around 1900 fps at this point, so I doubt it will be a big change for me.