Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders 50 cal. for elk

Years ago I got lucky and drew a late season muzzy tag in AZ. I killed a nice 6x6 with a Barnes MZ and was very pleased with the performance. when I boned out the front shoulder, I found a round ball flattened on the shoulder blade from long enough ago that I saw no sign of the hit. I swore at that time I'd never shoot anything but a tough, quality bullet at something the size of an elk. just my .02c

I have no doubt that fishnut is correct, but it means nothing about caliber.

My dad killed a big buck deer when I was in Jr High school and he removed a 30 cal bullet from it's shoulder blade. The core was separated from the jacket and the jacket measured .308 at it's base. We could not say what gun fired the bullet, other than the fact it was 30 caliber and the bullet was a boat-tail. The jacket and core piece together only weighed about 45 grains.

The bullet broke up. There was a lot of scar tissue and damage that had healed up, but obviously the wound was quite old.

But it doesn't mean that 30 cals are no good for deer!

It means the wrong bullet was shot at that deer.


If we used bullets that hold together and drive through you have good results. That's why I use, and I recommend using WW metal for balls on any game with any muzzleloader under 12 bore.

Soft balls are used by many, and many men kill deer with them, but we do hear stories like fishnut's and those storied are very often accurate.

However, shooting a harder ball has no "down side" and they do not stay inside the deer. In fact, in most cases they don't stay inside an elk. (read my earlier post)

Don't fall for the old tale that hard balls are not as accurate either. I have a shelf of ribbons and trophy's I have won when I was shooting flintlocks competitively. I started shooting WW balls in my late teens and I shot them at everything. Paper, rabbits, coyotes, crows, deer, elk and moose. I have been doing it now for about 45 years.

Many times for the best accuracy I will take 2 pieces of 80 grit wet-or-dry paper and glue them to 2 plates of glass or metal. Place 3-4 balls on one plate and put the other one on top. Roll the balls around between the 2 plates with light pressure. Wet-or-dry leaves no grit in the balls. It gives the balls a slight texture that grabs the patch a bit better. Ragged hole groups at 50 to 60 yards are common with such textured hard balls.

Men, try this, and I am sure you'll be happy with the results.

Both on paper and on game.

Happy hunting

I looked at muzzleloaders the same way I now look at hunting with handguns. FPE does not enter into the equation. Bigger cartridge, caliber, bullet the bigger the game. I loved the 54 with RB on whitetail, and think it would suffice for elk. Am intrigued with the hard RB concept.

Yeah, and cave men killed mastodons with spears.

It's all they had at the time.