Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Muzzleloader for out to 300 yards

I’d check out a ballistic calculator. I ended up building a SML 45 cal. And it hits like a hammer.

Dang, I was thinking 300 was really far...

With conventional MZ equipment - it is - for most of the production mainstream MZ gear with the average hunter / shooter.

If you're willing to jump into the deep end with a custom or smokeless - not so much, but get your checkbook out...

Check out Idaholewis. He is shooting to 1200 with a sidelock with a peep, and doing very well. Out to around 600 or so with a stock 1:48 barrel.

I bought a Remington 700 ultra 50 caliber ML for just that purpose.

For what it’s worth I did shoot a white tail with a round ball out of my 54 T/C.
I was lucky.

Same here. I put mine in a McMillan but man, what a shooting SOB.

Arrowhead sporting goods was buying up every Remington ultimate he could put his hands on and screwing on a 45 caliber Brux barrel and selling them. He is quite proud of his pricing as well. That's why UML's are hard to find.

Basically the cheapest way to build a hot rod 45cal in smokeless. Barrel swap with new ignition and a little stock work to open it up to accommodate the bigger/longer shank and you have a beast of a muzzleloader. Mine is built on a 700 short action with a used ultimate stock and 300yds on steel is no hard feat.

They don’t stink too bad stock either.

If I did that I would not replace either stock.

Just get him an ‘06 and tell him to call it a ML!

I once saw a TC pro hunter with 45-70 with ramrod rings welded on complete with cleaning rod
Unless you cracked it open, you would never know

300 yds is a real stretch. The truth is, that bullet is going so slow that if a deer is looking at you and sees all the powder , it will jump and you will wound it . At that range it isnt much different than a deer looking at you at 50 yds with a bow. Teddy Rosevelt went out west when the 30-30 was quite new. He said it was the best deer round there was , but even he missed when the antelope was looking at him cause they would see the smoke puff out of the barrel and jump fast enough for him to miss.

I think i will make my own

I’ve seen what Barnes 250g Expanders from 2-300 yds when started at 2200 fps by 3 50g pellets. In my experience, they’ll expand to about 225yds, but after that, I think you’d have to hit shoulders to do any more than punch a 50 caliber hole through a deer. These deer and antelope were shot with Knight muzzle loaders using 209 primers.

I’ve shot other sabot bullet combinations but never found a combo that shot as well (1” to 11/4” groups).

I played around with the 300g Expanders and while they shot as well, I doubt they would expand any further out.

I picked up the tipped version of these bullets and will test this summer. I suspect the streamlined shape will shoot flatter but I’m not sure they’ll open faster than the standard version which I can only describe as flying ashtrays.

Those are a 175-200 yard bullet. You have to start with a 45 like the powerbelt ELR and other bullets that are sized to bore dimensions for the kind of accuracy needed at 300-400 yards.

Farthest whitetail I’ve ever shot with my encore using 80 gr by weight bh209 and a 250 gr xtp sabot was 200 yds and he was walking across a field I aimed at his nose and hit high shoulder

I live in Allegheny County (Pittsburgh, PA) and we are shotgun/muzzleloader only for firearms season. I picked up a used Smokeless ML from a member hear last spring. It is a Rem 700, with Hank's magnum rifle modules setup. Using IMR4198 it is a tack driver. With a 100yd zero it is +2 MOA for zero at 200yds and +6MOA for a 300yd zero.

I fired a 3-shot group at 300yds from the bench and it measured about 2.75 inches. This meat in the freezer no matter how you slice it. Oh, I was shooting Parker 275gr Black Max bullets. These SML's are pricy, but they are awesome!!!
However, I do regret selling the Remington Ultimate Muzzleloader that I had previously.

I had this one painted by Brandon at Custom Gun Coatings. He matched a picture of a paint job I saw on another forum. I can't make the pic small enough to post here, but I have posted it on Snipers Hide in an SML thread.
https://www.snipershide.com/shooting/threads/custom-gun-coatings-camo-group-buy.6964125/post-9720983

Anyway, 300yds is nothing to sneeze at for most people - especially with Muzzleloaders. I'm willing to bet typical loads out of Encore Muzzleloaders and similar inlines are slowing down rapidly at those distances. I would say that your best bet would be to find a used Rem 700 UML or a CVA Paramount if you can't use a SML for some reason (cost or local regs).

Good Luck,
Ross

Shooting targets from a bench with ballistic calculators and all the other bells and whistles is a little different from hunting at 300 yards. I’m not disparaging those that can but the average bp newbie can’t guess distance worth a hoot and bp trajectories are rainbows, I remember shooting bpcr and going from 100-200 yards with my45-70 needed 24” additional holdover.

Go with a Hankins smokeless. I have two of his CVA Scout 45/70 conversations love them. I shoot 275 gr Pittman hardcore or Fury bullets. 3" groups at 300 yards .