Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Minimum charge

My 14 year old daughter wants to go deer hunting. I have a Knight Disc Extreme that shoots BH 209 (I understand some don't) and some 200 gr and 300 grain saboted bullets. Anyone have an idea of how low I can go on the powder charge and still be effective out to 30 - 40 yards?

We used to use 1 pellet for our kids which was 50 grains of Pyrodex. Worked fine for them if we kept our shots under 50 yards. They were still going faster than the average handgun bullet. I'd say try 50-60 grains of BH209 and see how it shoots.

Thank you! Do you think either bullet would do?

I'd use the 300's myself, just cause it's already a 44 caliber hole that'll leak, I'd like to get a second one with the heavier bullet myself.

Thank you

Post up your results. I bet you’re not the only one wondering.

I’m using 60 gr of BH209 with a 290 gr Barnes blue tipped bullet. Seems pretty mild to me but I’m old and fat! 3 shot groups all touch at 50 yards out of my Savage ML II. Ran out of time to try heavier loads so that is what I’m hunting with this year. Nothing dead yet, but still trying.

I settled on 80 on grains of 209 with a 50 cal, 348 gr Powerbelt for elk. I'm sure 60 with that light a bullet will drop a deer with no problems if put in the right place.
I'd sure shoot it a hundred yards to see how much drop it has though.

Im shooting 60grs by weight and a 300gr Harvester Scorpion PT Gold bullet or a 270gr Speer Deep Curl and I’ve not kept one in a deer yet. A friend tried the same load this year and killed a nice buck about 40yds. The bullet broke both shoulders and passed through.

I'm good out to 150 yards, I am set up for MPBR with the muzzle loader. I only mentioned the 50 yard groups because the OP was planning short range shots.

Better-off to use another powder. I never had good accuracy shooting light powder loads and light bullets with BH209.
I would try to get either 50 or 60gr 777 pellets and use the 200gr sabot/bullet you mentioned.

The beauty of using a ML is that you can seat the bullet on the powder. All you need is enough powder to clear the barrel and make it downrange to the intended target with enough energy to do it's job (kill).

My suggestions is to use a Harvester crush rib sabot. Green is for 44cal and black is for 45cal. Buy some 44 or 45cal handgun bullets and load them up one by one and adjust the powder until you find acceptable accuracy and tolerable recoil. I started my son at 50% of what I load mine.

2MOA accuracy is fine if you limit range to 50yds or less. It need not be a tackdriver.

I have shot just 40 grains of powder in my TC Hawken , but it was with roundballs and real black powder. Accuracy was just as good as any other load .

Cant count how many deer I've taken from 50-75 yards with a 50 - 60 grain load of 777. 2f. 3f. 250 to 460 grain lead. 429, 451, 50, 54... makes no difference. Extremely effective. If limiting to 50 yards you have nothing to worry about.

I like lead full bore conicals with a wide meplate for this. That said, a 300 grain hollowpoint in a sabot will do the same thing. Or a 54 roundball.

Boy you guys are shooting light loads I'm shooting 110 grains of bh209 with a 250 grain bullet good out to 150yds.

I was using 60 gr (vol) of by209 and a 240 xtp for my nephew. Unfortunately had a hang fire when it counted (at a deer) and we didn’t connect. Too light a load for bh209? I think I would use 777 or pyrodex if shooting that light a load in the future. Someone used to post about shooting light charges (~50gr 777) with the all lead tc cheap shots with acceptable results on deer.

My old Rossi .45 youth muzzleloader manual suggested one pellet under a 195 gr Barnes, iirc.

I use 50 gr of pyro P in my white whitetail with a 460 gr NE all lead bullet. Subsonic with enough punch out to 100 yards for deer.

I use 777 and prefer 3f. "using up" my 2f.

Yep. I really doesnt take much to get that big lead moving. I like 460's in my White. No excuses, but my favorite are Ed Mehligs. I lost touch with him, but that dude has a mould and can make some fiiiine boooolets. I have about 70 left... Really need to find him.

edit- not a fan of pyrodex though. For me, it's like a sponge absorbing water and if not unloaded will get hangfires if left for the next hunt. Ymmv. I moved away from pyrodex.

Biggest issue with light charges is the lack of energy and bullet expansion. Bullets lighter in weight will help with recoil and expansion on game. The Hornady 180 grain XTP might fit the circumstances. You can easy swap them using any sabot for a 44 cal projectile. I did that for my 78 year old uncle. When it comes to to shoot game I doubt she will even know there was recoil.

Nobody replied to this thread...... strange indeed!
Blackhorn 209 works best with higher powder loads. I never had luck working up loads with low powder charges.

Pick another powder. If you can find them, I recommend one 60gr 777 pellet for your daughter. Never tried the 60gr personally, but I think it will harvest out-to 75 yards.