Category: All About Guns
When preparing to hunt with a muzzleloader, it is extremely important to choose the right bullet for the job. A good bullet must shoot accurately out of your muzzleloader and offer acceptable terminal performance.
While there are a number of high-quality muzzleloader bullets currently on the market, they are not all created equal and some bullets are better choices than others. Here is how to choose the right muzzleloader bullet for hunting.
The first step is to determine the rifling twist of your muzzleloader. Usually, you may find out this information by looking in the manual. For best accuracy, you must use bullets the rifling in your muzzleloader will stabilize. Generally speaking, when comparing bullets of the same caliber, longer bullets need a faster rifling twist in order to be properly stabilized.
For instance, a muzzleloader with a 1:66″ rifling twist (one full rotation every 66″) is designed for shooting round balls. This is a very slow rifling twist, and it will likely shoot round balls, which are relatively short and light, accurately. However, a muzzleloader with a 1:66″ twist will probably not shoot conical bullets well.
Pictured, from left: 320gr Thompson Center Maxi-Ball, 177gr Round Ball, 350gr Thompson Center Maxi-Hunter.
Pictured, from left: 300gr Thor Bullet, 348gr PowerBelt Copper, 270gr PowerBelt Platinum, 250gr PowerBelt AeroLite, 350gr Hornady FPB.
Pictured, from left: 250gr Hornady SST, 250gr Barnes T-EZ, 250gr Barnes TMZ bullets with and without sabots.
While there are a number of high-quality muzzleloader bullets currently on the market, they are not all created equal and some bullets are better choices than others. Here is how to choose the right muzzleloader bullet for hunting.
The first step is to determine the rifling twist of your muzzleloader. Usually, you may find out this information by looking in the manual. For best accuracy, you must use bullets the rifling in your muzzleloader will stabilize. Generally speaking, when comparing bullets of the same caliber, longer bullets need a faster rifling twist in order to be properly stabilized.
For instance, a muzzleloader with a 1:66″ rifling twist (one full rotation every 66″) is designed for shooting round balls. This is a very slow rifling twist, and it will likely shoot round balls, which are relatively short and light, accurately. However, a muzzleloader with a 1:66″ twist will probably not shoot conical bullets well.
Pictured, from left: 320gr Thompson Center Maxi-Ball, 177gr Round Ball, 350gr Thompson Center Maxi-Hunter.
There is nothing wrong with using a plain, round ball, especially for hunting deer. After all, that is the type of bullet Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett used, and plenty of hunters these days still use round balls in their muzzleloaders with great success. They are also cheap, and you can even make them yourself. However, when comparing them to most modern muzzleloader bullets, round balls are relatively lightweight, have a low ballistic coefficient and offer the least reliable penetration.
That being said, there are some better bullet choices to use for hunting with a muzzleloader. There are two broadly-defined types of conical bullets: full bore conicals and sabots. Though conical bullets typically require a faster rifling twist to properly stabilize, most modern inline muzzleloaders have a 1:28″ rifling twist, which is usually quite good for stabilizing most conical bullets as well as sabots.
There are dozens of full bore conical bullets on the market today. They range from lead conicals, like the Thompson Center Maxi-Hunter and Maxi-Ball (above) to the copper Thor bullets (below left).
Generally speaking, full bore conical bullets tend to be heavier and have a higher ballistic coefficient when compared to a round ball. While the actual accuracy and terminal performance of full bore conical bullets varies, they are generally good choices for hunting.
Pictured, from left: 300gr Thor Bullet, 348gr PowerBelt Copper, 270gr PowerBelt Platinum, 250gr PowerBelt AeroLite, 350gr Hornady FPB.
Another option is to use a sabot (pronounced “say-bo”). This is a bullet smaller than the bore diameter (like a .45 caliber bullet shot from a .50 caliber muzzleloader) that sits in a plastic sleeve (called a sabot) that falls off in flight.
Saboted bullets generally obtain the highest velocities and have the flattest trajectories out of all bullets designed for muzzleloaders. Like with full bore conicals, the accuracy and terminal performance of saboted bullets varies, though they are also generally great choices for hunting.
Pictured, from left: 250gr Hornady SST, 250gr Barnes T-EZ, 250gr Barnes TMZ bullets with and without sabots.
Each muzzleloader is unique, and there are often significant differences between different brands, models and even individual muzzleloaders with regard to which particular load shoots the most accurately.
Because of this, the best way to find out which bullet shoots most accurately out of your muzzleloader is to pick a couple of different brands and bullet weights and test them out at the range. The manual for your muzzleloader can be used as a reference for a few recommended bullets types and weights, but the only way to know for sure is to shoot them yourself.
Finally, before you go hunting, make sure you check the hunting regulations for your state, because they can vary widely. For instance, some states (like California) mandate the use of a lead-free bullet (like the 100 percent copper Barnes bullets). On the other end of the spectrum, Idaho mandates that only lead or lead alloy (no jacketed or saboted) bullets must be used.
Regardless of where you intend to hunt, ensure that you are in compliance with the hunting regulations for that area.
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Glock 20 Gen 4 Chapter 2
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Sorta Blasphemy
Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have an example of an earlier adopter of the centerfire cartridge. This is a French Devisme 11mm cartridge revolver. These revolvers made their way into the world around 1858 and is a centerfire self-contained cartridge revolver, this makes it one of the first adopters of centerfire long before it was cool!
The Devisme name was long associated with high-end products such as firearms, swords, and daggers. They had a fairly avid clientele that weirdly featured many higher-ups in the American Confederacy. People such as Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis. This fact is not so weird at a closer look since many European nations were in support of the Confederacy during the American Civil War.
The Model 1858 11mm cartridge revolver was especially unique in that it was a break-action revolver like a Smith and Wesson Schofield but instead of being “top-break” it was “bottom-break”.
“The top of the barrel is signed “Devisme a Paris.” Devisme of Paris was known to have supplied weapons to a number of top Confederates, including President Jefferson Davis. This revolver has a barrel that locks to the frame with a swiveling key, which is fitted with a gear arrangement to automatically position the ejector rod when the breech is unlocked. Fitted with checkered bag shaped grips with a pair of screw escutcheons on each side.”
Lot 1392: Devisme Fp Revolver 11 mm. (n.d.). Rock Island Auction Company. photograph. Retrieved February 23, 2022, from https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/67/1392/devisme-fp-revolver-11-mm.
For revolver fans the Smith & Wesson K-Frame is a time-tested choice. These medium frame guns have served as home defense and carry guns for over 100 years and counting.
The “service revolver” sized K-frame has several advantages over the smaller “back up gun” sized J-frame revolvers. The K-frame guns have six shots to the J-frame’s five, better triggers, a larger grip, and typically have longer barrels. While the average J-frame gun sports a 2” tube the standard barrel length on the K-frame is usually 4”. The downside, of course, is that the larger K-frame is harder to conceal than the snub-nose J-frame guns.
That brings us to a popular choice among revolver aficionados: The 3” barreled K-frame. The one-inch shorter barrel makes the gun easier to conceal while giving up only a little bit of velocity from the 4″ version. The 3” K-frame also retains the full-length ejector rod found on the 4” barreled gun which allows for a full ejection stroke to more reliably kick the empty cases out of the chambers. While there are also 2” K-frame models, they use a shortened ejector rod similar to that on the 2” barreled J-frame guns.
Among the 3” K-frames the Model 65 has the unique combination of features that make it, in my opinion, the best of the breed. The Model 65 is chambered in .357 Magnum which gives it greater versatility than the .38 Special guns including the Model 10, Model 15, and Model 64. The 65 is made of stainless steel which is more resistant to wear and moisture than the blued finish of the Models 10, 13, 15, and 19. This is especially important for concealed carry where the gun can come into contact with body sweat. The Model 65’s fixed rear sight does not have sharp edges to catch on clothing or skin while also being less prone to breakage from rough handling than the adjustable target sights on the Model 15, Model 19 (both blued) or the stainless steel Model 66.
For shooting the 3” Model 65 points well with good balance and, in my experience, is as accurate as the 4” barreled models for all practical purposes. For carry, it’s amazing the difference losing an inch of barrel makes when carrying a 3” gun instead of a 4” gun. I can carry my Model 65 3” in an inside the waistband Alessi Talon holster much more comfortably than I have ever been able to carry a 4” revolver in the same spot. Nestled in front of my right hip the gun disappears under a T-shirt.
For all its advantages there is a drawback to the 3” Model 65: They are hard to find. Unfortunately, this model fell victim to the cutbacks in the S&W K-frame line over the years along with many other classic K’s. While the company currently offers several .38 Special and .357 Magnum blued revolvers in their “Classics” line, none have 3” barrels. The closest is the regular production Model 66 .357 Magnum with a 2.75” barrel but this revolver lacks the full-length ejector rod of the 3” gun, and while stainless steel, features an adjustable target sight instead of the fixed rear sight of the Model 65.
As a result the 3” Model 65 has a bit of a cult following among those who favor the wheelgun. Those who have them tend to keep them and those who want them are forced to haunt used gun cases in local shops or pay scalper’s prices on the auction sites.
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