Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders What bullet and propellant for elk in Hawken 50 traditional.

You're welcome Jimbob, and good luck to you!



I must admit, speed of re-loading is not somethng I've worried about much. If your animal's down, though, a few seconds won't make a difference.

Which reminds me of a story (true story). We were hunting the CO ML season one opening day a few years ago, and we were about 3 miles in from the trailhead. Heard a fusilade early on opening morning, back toward the trailhead. Seven shots in rapid succession. Back at camp, both of us who'd heard it commented that there was no way it was a muzzleloader, the shots came too fast.

We knew there was a guy who camped and hunted near the trailhead who carried a .44 magnum revolver (as well as half of all the other stuff he could find at Cabela's). We were packing out some meat and saw two guys from his camp on horses a day or two later and asked about all the shooting opening morning, and remarked on the rapidity thereof. They said "oh, that was so-and-so, he's been practicing his re-loading a lot, and he's really fast."

Whereupon my hunting partner and I exchanged a glance and he was heard to say: "sounds like he should be practicin' his shootin', not his reloading."

At one time a couple of the events I often go to , had speed shooting contests .
You had 2 minutes to fire and hit a 10 inch target , placed at 35 yards , as many times as you could in 2 min.
You were aloud to start with a loaded rifle , so the first shot was a freebee .
You cant use speed loaders or load from the horn .
Best I ever did was 8 shots . 3 were misses . Which didn�t even put me in the top three running .

One time I was hunting the snake river Islands with a friend who was on his first deer hunt and first muzzle loading hunt .
He shot this big mulie doe at about 50 yards with a 50 cal CVA Hawken that he had put together . She pilled right up and he started running towards her. Well she started to get up .
So he started reloading , well kinda LOL . Most of the powder missed the muzzle . Short starter and measure missed his bag on the way back in and he could get his RR back into the rifle and ended up tossing it to me � his capper , he just let go of .

Finally he finished his dance and we walked on over . The doe was done and there wasn�t a need for a second shot .
Then came the high fives and his recounting of the story as �HE � saw it .
I couldn�t help but laugh . You got koodements scattered on the ground all over hell and back I told him . Where is that part of your story . You better look and see what you have left in your bag LOL .
Sure enough , just about everything in there for loading was gone LOL .
Then I suggested that he had better fire that load .
Folks that�s how he got the name of BLOOOOP ,, LMAO I bet there wasn�t 10 grains of powder in that load . The look on his face when the rifle went off was worth all the money in the world .

Now has that ever happened to me , ahhh no , it was worse . I was shaking so hard I couldn�t get powder down the barrel . After the 3rd try my dad had to dump the powder for me . I got her loaded finally with dad following along picking up all the gear I was dropping on the ground LOL

Yes, it's pretty much only a newbie who frets over how quickly he can reload for a second shot.

The only time I concerned myself with it was when in competition with military muskets. With the Bess I could get off 5, sometimes 6 shots/minute. But mind you that was starting with a loaded gun, and using paper cartridges, but returning the rammer into the pipes each time. Accuracy wasn't a requisite, and that was a good thing. The best I could do with a '61 Springfield was 4 shots. Fumbling the caps out of the cap box was the bugabear. With anything else it's a pretty slow leisurely affair and I like it that way.

I had a buddy who practiced loading his long rifle while on the run. God we used to laugh while watching him. I think he watched "The Last of the Mohicans" a couple times too many. He actually got quite good at it after a couple of years.

I used to carry a .36 Colt 1862 in the bottom of my possibles bag for that unexpected coup de gras. Never had occasion to use it and finally gave it up as unnecessary extra weight to lug around. The only stuff in there anymore is a couple of candy bars some water and a book. I've trimmed the amount of junk in my shooting bag down to enough for a couple of reloads + the ram rod tools in case of a need to clean the gun.

Well, there was that time I was hunting with my Hawken, up in a tree-stand, back in VA. Picture this--20 feet off the ground, standing on a 2' X 2' platform, in a tree that was not all that big and swaying a little in the wind. We were deer hunting, but turkeys are legal in the fall and something/somebody jumped a turkey and it flew up into a tree at around 75 yards. So I drew down, clean miss. Turkey just looked around and sat there. I'm re-loading, keeping one eye on the bird and one on what I'm doing, trying not to fall outta the tree. Stealth was more important than speed, I was trying to make myself and my movements as small as possible. Shot #2, clean miss again. Had to be the wind blowin' the tree around.

Now the turkey knows something is not right, and is looking around, but still just sits there. I'm re-loading again, tryin' not to fall outta the tree, and just as I get 'er re-loaded and I'm slowly raising the rifle to shoot, I hear my pard walking up, thinking I've got one on the ground, and the turkey sees him and flies. Which was too bad because I'm 100% certain the third shot would've got him.

I was ML hunting for elk and that early there is a lot of daylight.Time frame is late 70's.By Thursday I was getting sleepy in the AM.I was sitting up against a tree with my Hawkin leaning ona nother,half asleep.Maybe all asleep and I hear foot steps.I figured it was my brother and I turned around to ask him if he saw anything.There is a 5x bull staring me at about 10 ft.

I grabbed the rifle and drew down on the bull. Now at 15 feet, and the damn thing would not fire. Got to remember to pull hammer back in high stress situations.Finally remember after almost pulling the trigger thru the guard.

Still half sitting and I was swinging on the bull who is now at about 20 ft and wondering what the hell is this. As I touched off the round, I swung directy into pine tree about 1 foot in front of the muzzle.Blowing everything everywhere.

I was shooting BP and after the smoke cleared,the bull is still standing there.Not spooked at all. So I grabbed everything I had and started to reload.Damn maxiball got hung up 1/2 way down bore and the wooden ram rod that came with the gun broke in half. The bull walks off, I'm dumb founded.

The bull then walks down over the hill towards where I did not know my brother was and I hear a shot.Hot darn, at least someone killed the sucker.So I rush down and my brother is standing there perplexed.He saw the bull comimg ,set the set trigger and as he was bringing the rifle up,the hair trigger went off an the bullet heads to the moon.

Luckiest bull elk on the planet and we never saw another elk the rest of the week.

We all ain't Daniel Boone starting off.

Great story, everybody that's hunted any amount of time has one or two like that. I've forgotten to cock the hammer before myself, but that was on a lever gun.



You see, this is why I keep tellin' ya to sleep in and hunt in the evenings.

A patched round ball is the way to go in a traditional muzzleloader. It's accurate....

When I had my white super 91 I used a 460 grain superslug with 90 grains of pyrodex ..talk about knockdown.

You have never hunted elk better to STFU

Lot's o' times.

Oldy, he ain't never going to shut up. He's one of those rare individuals who get a kick outta saying stupid sh** on the internet.

As are you....it seems...

I hate gutting an elk out with a flash light in my mouth in the dark more than I hate sleepy.Then there is the problem of finding the dead elk in the dark, Then finding my way out of a tangleed mass of blow downs. Of course now with these new LED head lamps, there might be a better way.

Like Stick would say "She has an imagination"

Elk were wiped out in the east before conicals were invented. Wonder how that happened?

DIdn't do well in History? When exactly were Conicals invented?

The story about waking up to find an elk staring at you reminded me of the time I fell asleep with my back against a stump and woke up to the sound of what I thought was my buddy walking up on me too. Turned out to be a little fork horn whitetail. Shot him from 25 feet away, with an original '61 Springfield and minie ball. Ye gods and little fishes I never saw such a nasty wound and as much blood sprayed out through the bushes as that. Fittingly it was in a wood lot next to the Antietam battlefield.

Saddlesore,
I know what you mean about gutting in the dark - but this is one area where new technology is helpful in elk hunting. We have started carrying a couple of "light sticks" to hang near the carcass if we are coming back to pick it up in the night. They shine pretty good and it helps that last few hundred feet that the gps might not. Trying to read a gps and still have night vision to crawl over blowdowns is a pain! I have also started carrying those little LED lanterns that have 6-8 bulbs. You can lay your knife or saw down beside the carcass and still see it without having to swing your headlight all over to find it.

Johnny $

Nothing to it with a good headlamp. You'll wonder why you didn't sleep in later.

And you know I'm just pulling your leg, I like to hunt early too, just seem to have better luck in the evening.

Thats just great.

Please send the pics!