Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders T/C Black Diamond - dependable accurate load?

Have a .50 cal Thompson/Center Black Diamond and my nephew wants to borrow it to shoot a deer with .....

I've never developed a particular hunting load I would settle on, but does anyone have a 'favorite load' they can share that's guarenteed to be accurate "in any Thompson/Center muzzleloader out there?"

He wants to use a saboted slug, and I want him to stick with Pyrodex or Triple-7. WA state law requires peep or open sights only.

THANKS!

I don't use sabots,but 100grs of 777 and a 295 gr Power Belt gets me better than 3"at 100 yards. Probably be better than my eyes can do. This is a TC Black Diamond dwith peep sight,but I also did it with the fiber optic sights as supplied originally. That load was given to me by a TC technician when Icalled.

StubbleDuck,
First off neither I nor anyone else can guarantee that their pet load will be accurate in your gun. What I will tell you is that in my Black Diamond (an early wood stocked model scoped with a 2x7 Leupold) the best load I've found is a 250 gr. Shockwave sabot, Win. 209 primer and 2 50 gr. pellets of Pioneer Powder. Heavier bullets and Power Belts do not shoot well in mine. Three shot sub inch groups are routinely possible. If you can't use a scope my recommendation would be set it up with a peep sight. The Black Diamond is not as weather proof or as easy to clean but they are a nice accurate muzzleloader.

I have a Thompson woods rifle which I think is a cheaper version of the Black Diamond that Walmart sold at one time. It and every other muzzleloader that I have been around shoots Barnes sabots better than anything else. That said, I have not seen them on Walmarts shelves in a couple of years. I have a large supply that I bought when I saw how good they shot in mine and my buddy's muzzle loader. I use 100 grains of powder behind it. miles

Around here a 100yds is about as far as I need to go. I shoot a 240xtp/mrp sabot over two 50g 777 pellets with 777 primers. I have two SS black Diamonds a standard and a XR and both will shoot this to about 2.5-3" at a hundred.

One nice thing is that 100g of loose pyrodex RS with the same bullet/sabot/primer shoot about the same and to the same POI. Its not a very high tech load but works pretty well on deer at woods ranges.

After looking around on the net a little I realized that Barnes makes more than one kind of muzzle load bullet, so I will add a little more. I use Barnes expander (link below) but I am not sure just which weight right now. They do expand just like the picture when you shoot a deer. I have just recovered one out of several deer, but it looked like the picture. Others just made a large hole with a deer close by. miles

expander

No guarantees, but it is hard to beat a sabotted 240 gr. bullet over 90 or 100 grains (eq.) of whatever powder. Good accuracy, adequate terminal performance, not too hard on the shoulder or wallet.

I use mostly bulk Hornady XTP's, but for some reason have shot the last three deer with the cheap solid lead Scorpions(?) sold at the local Farm Store. No complaints; but plain vanilla shots, too. Broadside through the ribs at 60-100 yards.

One thing to consider - I dislike the "fiber optic" sights in general, and the ones on my Black Diamond in particular.
I have found that individual shooters really shoot them dramatically different - even though we all claimed to be aligning them the same.
I've started two kids and one adult hunting with my Black Diamond and all four of us will shoot the same sight setting to dramatically different points.
Accurate enough, just different.

Mine now wears a 1.5-5x Burris.

Can I borrow that?

That is an absolute classic!!!!

I used almost the same combo out of my SS black diamond. Shoots this very well.

THANKS EVERYONE!!

Just looked again at this thread after starting it a couple weeks ago!

I understand about "no guarentees" about how well a favorite load of one fellow might work with another.

But this thread has been successful in pointing out how well MANY Black Diamonds shoot with 100 grains of loose Pyrodex RS or Triple7, or 2 pellets of either. Projectile I intend to use are .430 cal 240grain bulk Hornady (swaged) lead semi-wadcutters, in a .50 cal sabot. WA state used to require blackpowder hunters use all-lead bullets, but finally relaxed that law a couple years ago.

Basically I need to shoot my rifle and sight-in the new Williams rear peep I have to mount. Also for older eyes, front post-sights (with fiber optic or gold or silver or white beads) are available in 3/32" diameter versus 1/16". Helps me to see it a tad bit better. Also I was using a .050" rear aperature, but the much wider .093" diameter I saw recently at the range might work just fine, too!

If I can get get a 100yd grouping 2-3inches 'minute of deer' (at a medium velocity), I'll be happy! I killed plenty deer with a centerfire, so a decent broadside shot with the T/C should yeild good results.

Thanks again everyone.

You bet. miles

My 2 favorite loads are Hornady .45 XTP 250 and 300 gr ( non magnums for both) in Harvester crush ribs over 70 gr ( 250 gr bullet) and 90gr ( with the 300gr bullet) of Swiss 3f black powder, lit by musket caps. Velocities, chrono'd, are 1550 fps for the 250 gr and 1600 fps for the 300. The 250's will generally shoot around the 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inch range for 3 at 100. The 300's usually scare hell out of an inch for 3 at 100.My Black diamond is a .50 cal XR and wears a fiber op front sight and an aperture rear. Had an accident with her today though. She put 3 of the 250's into a group measuring 3/16th for 3 rounds, center to center, at 100. I'd love a few more of those!!!!

80 grains of 3f Goex, and a 240 grain T/C CheapShot.

I used the hornady lock and load sabots with the 250g sst and 3 pyrodex 50g pellots to take a buck at 228 yards in Nebraska about 4 years ago. They shot about 2" groups at 100 yards. They were the older ones and they're hard to load. You have to clean every other shot or you won't get the next one down the bore.

I recovered the bullet and the front had opened up a bit even at that range. It onley penetrated about 12-16"s but it worked.

Bb