Muzzleloading Big Game Bullet Selection
As
always, if there was one bullet that was the best for all occasions,
you would think that that is what we would all be shooting-- but,
calling any muzzleloading bullet "the best" is necessarily
an unsophisticated answer to a sophisticated question.
For starters, I cannot
begin to make the case that ANY .45 - 50 caliber bullet weighing
from 250 to 300 grains in weight is not
capable of killing not only deer-- but elk, moose, and bear as well.
They all have, and with all the anecdotal evidence floating around,
even the world's crappiest choice for an elk such as a 245 grain
Powerbelt can sound good. But is it?
To make a good bullet
choice, we have to accept that the best 25 yard bullet (and load)
is not the best 200 yard bullet and load. A bullet that is ideal
for "boiler room" or "honey hole" shots is likely
unsuitable for going through the chest, breaking bones as in a double
shoulder shot, much less an "Elmer Keith raking shot"
or a rump shot. It holds true for deer, and if anything is even
more important as the game gets bigger.
If we want to take only
quadruped grass eater lung shots, and can contain ourselves from
more demanding raking shots and the like, then a fairly fragile
bullet is an excellent choice. We want quick expansion, and a large
wound channel going through lungs. Great penetration in not all
that important; we are avoiding large bones and also need only sufficient
penetration to destroy lungs from the shorter distance of the side
of the animal. Pure lead is a good choice, as what it does best
is expand well at low to moderate velocities. The "polymer
tips" you see on lead are worthless, and exist only to make
bullets look pretty-the same as an "Aerotip" on a Powerbelt.
It is about as necessary to initiate expansion with soft lead you
can scratch with your thumbnail as a Nosler Ballistic Tip would
be on a marshmallow. Lead remains a good choice for lung shots,
and the heavier the bullets the better as game weight goes up-perhaps
a 375 grain Buffalo SSB, or a relatively thin jacketed hollow point
pistol bullet like the Hornady XTP.
That same choice can
and has resulted in unrecovered animals if we hit bone at high velocity,
or attempt through-the-chest or raking shots. A bullet that acts
explosively when it touches bone is not a good choice for these
applications at all. If we want the ability to take double shoulder
shots or raking shots on larger game confidently, penetration cannot
be compromised-and that means tougher bullets.
Now, we should consider
longer, heavier bullets that do tremendous damage even without the
"pancakey" pure lead expansion, as Dr. Martin Fackler
has documented. An expanding bullet is better than one that does
not, of course, but we absolutely cannot compromise on penetration.
Our bullet must reach the vitals we need to quickly destroy, regardless
of shoulder bones, multiple ribs, or chest plates that are in the
way. Saboted bullets remain supreme as ranges increase, due to the
abysmal trajectories of bore-sized projectiles. For a given grain
weight, no .50 caliber projectile compares well at all with a five
calibers smaller .45, that offers flatter trajectory, more retained
terminal velocity and energy, and better sectional density requisite
for better penetration.
A 300 grain .458 Barnes Original will not have the quick expansion
of thin-jacketed hollow-point, but it does fly more efficiently,
and its thirty-two thousandths thick jacket gives us the penetration
needed to do the job on more demanding shots-the reason Fred Barnes
developed them in the first place. It remains a popular choice on
African plains game for this reason, and is ideal for moose, elk,
and bear assuming proper shot placement.
Barnes MZ-Expanders
in 300 gr. configuration offer an excellent compromise as the universal
muzzleloading projectile, with one caveat. They expand down to 1000
fps on broadside shots that fill its nose with fluid, and are tough
enough to offer the potential of 100% weight retention when asked
to break big bones. The lone chink in the armor of the MZ-Expander
is that, while clearly ballistically superior to bore sized projectiles,
is that with its gaping hollow point, it is not the absolutely best
flying bullet in the barn. Inside 150 yards, I can't say it matters
much (or at all), but it flies similarly to the more fragile Hornady
#4500 300 gr. .458 hollow point-just average in inline muzzleloading
land today. The large copper petals scraping their way through an
animal should retain enough appeal for those to reconsider the realistic
ranges at which they personally intend to take an animal.
For better flight characteristics,
both the Barnes Original Semi-Spitzer and the new Barnes XPB 275
grain .451 all-copper bullet gets you there. The toughness of either
bullet is not in question, but you need 1400 fps terminal velocity
to initiate expansion. As they are both long bullets, great wound
cavities are still produced without the explosive expansion of the
more frail bullets as the FBI Quantico reports have shown.
Most
of it remains a compromise, and there still is no substitute for
good shot placement. As a very vague rule of thumb, larger and tougher
game requires larger, tougher bullets. Higher velocity muzzleloading
rounds likewise call for tougher bullets. It makes sense to me to
use a bullet that is tougher than it might have to be, heavier than
it might have to be, higher velocity than it might have to be, and
while we are at it-- more accurate than it might have to be as the
game gets bigger, and tougher.
©
December, 2005 by Randy Wakeman
