Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders My muzzle loader got a bulge in its barrel today?

That may be how they market it. And yes, the jacketing does help reduce fouling, but that isn't all.

Have you loaded a PB and unloaded it? The ones I have seen had rifling marks. Others, as you guys say, seemed to just fall down the bore.

Have you ever shot a PB without the base on it? They shoot the same. Not hard to figure out why.

They are nothing but plated lead conicals. Exhibiting lower sectional densities and ballistic coefficients than saboted bullets. They do not form as good of a gas seal either.

They are FAR from the most advanced as they like to claim. or hardest hitting. The lighter bullets are horrible. Which simple physics dictates. Some of the heavier offerings are not bad, given what they are I guess......

price is always what brings up their main issue folks have with them and i agree that they are grossly overpriced, but then again, if they work and you can afford one package per year for the hunt. Its nothing to complain about.

The aerolites if you are a dealer are super cheap, By the time they hit store shelves they are charging 3x the cost due to the market. If folks are willing to pay that much and and success, let them. No one gets hurt and it keeps Americans at work.

They are nothing but a lead conical in fancy clothes and perform as any other lead conical. Which means there are better bullets to be had. They have the BC of a workboot.

And yes, they are obviously over priced....

all lead conicals have poor bc. The aerolites are pretty decent but then again, its a muzzle loader. If you want flat shooting, 3000 fps, they make centerfires for just that.

Im shooting round balls, so i cant complain about poor bc

That is what I am saying. Already poor BC, being bore sized only makes it worse. Especially with anything but the very heavy bullets, for obvious reasons.

A 300 gr. .452 in a sabot is gonna have a far better SD and BC than any bore sized bullet. And the sabot also forms a better seal and reduces fouling better.

Plus, as we all know, a lead conical surely needs no tip to expand. It is either there for looks or to maybe try to increase a horrible BC.

Either way, PB bullets do nothing as well as saboted bullets, and perform no differently than lead conicals, because that is exactly what they are....

state laws. Sabots are not legal everywhere.

Used them in NM this year with my brother in laws deer hunt but next year, all round balls unless something new to play with comes out.

Did not know that. WTF is the "reasoning" behind that?

So many stupid gun laws made by those who know nothing of guns....

its to keep it a little more traditional. In Colorado for example, no scopes "unless you have a permit due to poor vision" no pellets, no sabots, no smokeless powder.

Only open sights * fiber optics ok* loose powder,conical bullets or patched balls. Plus theres also caliber and bullet weight limits.

Muzzleloader season is a primitive hunt. I'd actually like Colorado to add a special LATE season muzzle loader hunt thats sidelock or flint only with patched ball or lead conical only, loose powder, open sights. I think that would be nice and then for our current Ml season, keep it the same month of september but allow scopes and all that other junk.

So a bullet in a plastic jacket is not traditional. But a bullet with a plastic tip and base is.

I rest my case

It's also because we have a special early season before the centerfire rifle season and can hunt elk during the rut. Having a "long-range capable" muzzleloader would negate the rationale behind the special early season and probably mean too many bulls hitting the ground early.

You're ignoring what you said yourself.

A small diameter, aerodynamic saboted bullet is a big advantage if you want to shoot farther. A plastic skirt is not.

I believe you misunderstood.

That was in regards to a saboted bullet vs. a PB and what is considered traditional and what is not...

No, I didn't misunderstand, look at my previous post. Bigblock is only partially right about the reason for the restrictions. The main reason is to keep the practical range of the rifles limited, since we can hunt bull elk during the rut and centerfire hunters can't. If they wanted to keep the season traditional, they wouldn't allow in-lines.

"Traditional" should include a flint and powder pan. That's my official PA bias.

So you are saying they allow the use of bore sized bullets and not sabots due to the former being poorer long range performers.

I would be very surprised if they actually looked into with that much detail, or even knew that much about it, but it is possible I guess.....

You didn't just short start it then fire did ya?

If that's the case, I'd go buy some powerball tickets , glad you're okay.

John, I know it's anathema to the in-line crowd around here and other "technology trumps time-proven" worshipers, but have you tried good old black powder? Your #11 caps will light it off just fine.

Being a patched round ball kind of guy, and a sometime devotee of Civil War era rifled muskets, I can't picture these projectiles of whence y'all speak. But from the sound of it aren't they merely a re-hash of the old Minie ball? What's new under the sun about that? Additionally, dig up some illustrations of the plethora of different projectiles used in rifles and carbines in the Civil War. You'll have your eyes opened at the number of weird designs tried out back then. I have said for years that those designers of "modern" ML projectiles got their ideas from the battlefields of 155 years ago.

You had two close together, try shooting some groups with the P-belts. It might not be ruined, we killed a bunch of deer with powerbelts, before the smart people figured out that they are junk. A barrel that looks f'd up ain't necessarily so.

Not sure why you think that way, but you're wrong. I've spoken to the people in (what was then) the DOW who were in on development of the regs. They're not stupid, and it's not rocket science. One of them is an avid muzzleloader, most hunt. They do this stuff for a living.

Muzzleloaders do not exactly produce sizzling velocities to begin with. Forcing hunters to use bullets of lower SD that penetrate even less, wound more, and contribute to a greater amount of lost game hardly seems like the responsible thing to do from the so-called experts in the DOW.

The lighter PB bullets are absolute crap because of their low SDs and are known for poor penetration.

Maybe they should choose a different profession.......