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- Jan 7, 2020
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What's the best bullet for the muzzleloader? sometimes it seems like all we talk about is performance and not accuracy, me coming from a centerfire long distance target background, distant shooting and target shooting over the years led me away from partitions and Barnes bullets and other solid bullets, not because they didn't perform but because in my shooting accuracy became more important than bullet performance. The most common issue stressed with bullet topics and muzzleloaders is a bullet that holds together mushrooms well and passes through. And I would have to agree that's important,, again as I look back the last 20 years at all the deer I've shot with a 6 mm or 6.5 with an open tip hollow point and never ever really have lost one,, in the days where I did hunt with the big game bullets in high velocity rifles I had multiple pass-throughs in the upper part of the body and the deer just run off or run a long ways now if all you're looking for is a blood trail and the surety of a blood trail I guess that's okay I really like to get up to the deer and he's dead rather than look for a blood trail. It is somewhat amazing that the military over the years for the most part shoots hollow points I wonder why they went to that? You would think if the solid bullets perform better that's what all of our military would be shooting and I know they still shoot some full jacket but not too much most of the sniper rifles and the accuracy rifles are shooting hollow point target type bullets as we speak today unless it's something highly specialized at shooting armor piercing etc.. this is my side of this discussion, I do not have a problem with the bullet getting into animal's chest and blowing up ,fragmenting I have a problem with the bullet blowing up on the surface of an animal's shoulder which honestly I haven't had but I've heard other people experience that,, even when a jacket separates from a bullet and it fragments and comes apart where do you think that bullet dumps all of its energy at? The mushroom solid bullet keeps going it hasn't dumped all of its energy in a deer's chest cavity,,, I guess this sounds more but I would have to ask myself if I was going to get shot in the chest would I rather get shot with a solid bullet that mushroomed or would I rather get shot with a bullet that got inside my chest and blew up, to me the answer is clear. The ideal situation for me would be to find a performance solid bullet that put bullets in the same hole. When I was doing all the accuracy shooting what kept me away from even looking or thinking about starting to muzzle load was most of the muzzleloaders I had ever had any exposure to were happy if they hit a pie plate at 100 yards,, I still often see guys commenting about an inch and a half to 3-in group at 100 yards is fine and I agree it'll kill a deer consider this though when the adrenaline's pumping and your heart is beating hard you're inch and a half 3-in rifle becomes a 6 to 8 inch rifle real quick you can't help it it's going to when you get out past the hundred yards if you're shooting out to 2 or 300 yards what do you think is going to happen then it will be double. I've been able to get every muzzleloader that I have had in my hands to at least shoot 3/4 of an inch or less some of them quarter inch and less and do it very consistently,, easy to do that sitting on the bench ,for some of us it is and this is what it is to me my three-quarter- half inch rifle when my heart is beating and a deer is out there may very well be an inch and a half rifle just because of physical things going on in my body,, I tend to function better with adrenaline pumping, some men do in sports some men absolutely crater,,,,, which is it for you? Looking back over the last 30 years I sure trailed more deer with solid bullets than I ever did with hollow points I'll probably remain in the accuracy hollow point camp the rest of my life,,, most of the bullets that I've hunted with the last 5 years absolutely failed Ron's bullet test on this site,, and yet I've had tremendous performance nothing like the bullets that we see in the test,,, the bottom line for me is bullet confidence it really entails both accuracy and performance doesn't it. I really appreciate the topics of discussion on this and the different perspectives. I managed to hit where I aim,,, if I couldn't ,, I would head to Big lead island!