muzzle loader impact

[gamakatsu]

Could anybody help me out? this is the first year i went muzzle loader hunting, im using 150 grains of powder and an 180 grain sabot. i shot this with very good groups at 100 yards and pretty good gruops at 250, tonite i shot at a doe at 150 yards feeling really confinate. when i shot she bolted right away, my question is how big of a hole does this bullet make and how much damage does it do when it goes thru the deer with out hitting any bones. any info on previous deer shot with a muzzle loader will help me out until i acually she the damage myself. i know i hit the deer and i plan on looking all day if it comes down to it. thanks in advance and good luck hunting

[Diago]

I have shot many deer with a 50 Cal. round ball. The muzzleloader will leave a nice hole but usually does not have much shock factor. Most of the deer I have shot looked like they were not hit. If you got a good hit you should find her in 100 yards, if it was not hit in the vitals continue to search as they usually are recoverable.

Jim

[ikes71]

I have killed 7 deer with the muzzleloader shooting 130 grains of powder and a 250 grain nosler partition sabot. I have never had one run off. They all have dropped in their tracks, but the longest shot I have ever taken was 125 yds.

I really didn't want to shoot that far, but it was a good buck and he was out in an open field, and shooting light was almost gone. I feel that, that is probably the extent of my range. I would not feel comfortable shooting a muzzleloader any farther.

The down range energy, and speed really starts to drop fast at a hundred yards. I sighted mine in at 100 yds. on a plywood target, and you can really hear the delay of the impact after firing. There is a significant delay between the gun going off and the bullets impact. To try a 200 yard shot, I would think would be ludicrious. Paper doesn't move at the first sound of the shot.

[gamakatsu]

just to let you know i found the deer early this morning, she went thru the corn and ended up about 5 yards in the woods, a total of 45 yards. i have tried a 300 grain sabot with 150 grains of powder and what a difference it dropped about 7 feet. now i know what my setup will do to a deer, also when i practiced at 250 yards you could just make out the sound of the bullet hitting the plywood and it was a fraction of a sec before it hit. i know a deer will never hear the shot before the bullet hits him.

14 more days to find the big boy

[jerkin'm]

Practicing with a muzzleloader at 250 yards with open sights?????? Umm OK...........