I drew a CO unit 43 bull tag and have been searching for bullet choices for my hunt. I recently received 2 boxes of No Excuses 535 grain 54 cal bullets. The owner is a great guy. I placed the order and had them in two days. He didn't ask for a CC though I tried; he just said to send him a check!

Anyway, the bullets looked great but I was skeptical whether my 1/48 twist Lyman Deerstalker would handle such a big bullet. I tried a few groups with Goex ffg before switching to my "accuracy powder" Pyrodex Select. 80 Grains produced 1060 fps and two shots touching and one out twice. I have not benched a side hammer muzzy in a while and felt the fliers were me. I moved up to 85 grains and concentrated on my follow thru and was rewarded with a nice 1 inch group at 50. The slow lock time and ignition requires extra concentration when normally used to firing centerfire scoped rifles. Velocity at 85 grains was ~1120 fps out of the short 24 inch barrel. This puts the load in the class of an old 50-70 best I can tell. I moved out to 100 yds and was rewarded with another nice 3 shot group well under 2 inches.

Needless to say I am tickled. A little sight adjustment and I should be set to get away from the bench for field position practice. The bullets are sized .540 which load extremely easy and in fact can be shaken out of the bore in my rifle. I have had similar issues with other bullets. I did come up with a solution. Rather than hunt with a fouled bore, I bought some 100% silk from a local sewing store (the ladies were a little puzzled when I tried to explain my purchase ) I cut this into 1/2 inch strips and used them to patch a portion of the bullet. This provided enough resistance to hold the bullet nicely on top of the wad and charge, and apparently did not hurt accuracy.

I fired one shot across the chrony with 90 grains and velocity jumped to 1260 but there was a substantial increase in recoil. I think I will stick with 85 grains and 1120 fps. Recoil is stiff with 535 grain bullets and a sub 7lb rifle.

Here is the rifle with my last two groups.
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Here is the bullet with a 'little' 240 grain 44 cal Gold Dot
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Very cool!

It's been a while since I reviewed the CO regs on muzzleloaders but at one time I believe they called for a bullet length that was no more than two times the diameter. It looks like this bullet fits in those guidelines but I'd check the regs.

They did away with that requirement starting this fall.

Congrats on drawing the tag and finding a bullet that shoots out of yer smokepole w/o shooting a couple lbs of powder!

Thanks, it was pretty easy, this time. Just two range sessions.

I was hoping this might help some other folks. There are always a lot of questions concerning bullets choices for CO due to the no sabot rule. I obviously haven�t had the opportunity to hunt with these yet, but I imagine they will fully penetrate anything up to (and including) raking shots on a F350.

I bought a bunch of the No Excuses 495 grain .50 caliber bullets for use in my Knight Rolling Block and settled on 90 grs. of Goex FFG. It is accurate and powerful and loads very easily as you report. So far I have only killed one big hog with them but they worked as well as you would expect.

I was amazed also when I ordered the bullets and was told to "just send a check when they arrive". The owner told me that gun folks are good folks (we already knew that) and that he had done very well using the honor system.

No Excuses are all I"ve shot in my Renegade with 28 twist Green Mntn Tube. They shoot really well at 100, on the order of inch groups, and well enough that I know where to hold at 200 yards even.

I've never gotten lucky to find an elk though, I do have no doubts they'll work fine if that day arrives.

BTW I run an overpowder wad, and 100 of DuPont 2 F real black and a musket cap.

I have used the 460gr 50cal model for years,these bullets are devastating on anything they hit!! I push mine with 90grs of kik 3f with a overpowder wad I love these bullets.

I have used the 50 cal 460 gr for deer on several occasions- worked great. Last year with 3 p points i got an elk tag and hunted in the area i usually hunt in SW Colorado. I was able to call in a nice 5X4 to about 60 yards. At the shot he was quartering into me. After the shot he turned walked about 30 yards and fell over. He was dead when I got to him. This is also the most accurate bullet with 90 grains of 2f black that I have used in my Knight rifle. Peep sights are also the way to go if you can mount one on your rifle. THIS IS A GREAT BULLET THAT I WOULD RECOMEND TO ANYONE HUNTING ELK! Good luck.

I've shot these bullets for a few years and love them. Taken a few animals with them including a few whitetials and a bull in CO. Plan on shooting a moose this fall if I can find one that will stand still long enough.

I recently started shooting them out of my 45cal as well. A 460gr .45 cal bullet is pretty impressive, and will probably shoot clean through about anything you put infront of it. So far its only been tested on a deer, wasn't much of a test.