Fine Tuning a Muzzleloader

Fine Tuning A Muzzleloader

By John L. Sloan

The sun was just topping horizon. Traces of frost still lingered. The Nikon range finder read a clear 226 yards to the decent 8-point buck, hung up on the rise of the hayfield. The rattling had brought him that far and that was as far as he was coming.

I braced the ends of the shooting stick against my belt and braced my left arm against the trunk of the tree. The crosshairs steadied four inches above the deer’s back and the Knight Disc Rifle belched.

I do not advocate every hunter taking extreme distance shots with a muzzleloader. But in this case, I felt confident. I had a rock solid rest. I knew where the bullet would impact at that distance and I had practiced and fine-tuned my muzzleloader for just this situation. When I walked up to the buck, it was obvious the bullet had impacted perfectly behind the shoulder and dead center of the lungs.

Muzzleloaders are like women. Each has a personality of its’ own. They don’t all perform at optimum with the same loads. Some take different charges and different bullets. The time to find out what works best in your front-stuffer is during the off-season when you have plenty of time to experiment.

I am lucky. I have access to a 125-yard range and to one that reaches out to 250 yards. That allows me to shoot all I want. I shoot quite a bit. I have, in addition to three or four centerfire rifles, four muzzleloaders. Each muzzleloader shoots best with a different charge of Pyrodex. Charges range from 90 to 150 grains. Fortunately, they all shoot the same bullet well.

I have had good results from Hornady bullets, Barnes Bullets and others. In 2004, I settled on a 220 grain, Dead Center from Precision Rifles. It may not be the best for you. My off-season experimenting showed me two things quickly: The bullet was extremely accurate. The bullet shot flatter than some others. What I didn’t know was how it would perform on game animals. I also found it much easier to load. That is an important factor when fumbling with a speed loader for that second shot.

Over the summer of 2004 I shot quite a few rounds through my disc rifle-my number one hunting piece. I kept adjusting the powder charge until I could group three shots inside three inches at 150 yards consistently. I also wanted that cold barrel, first shot in the same place every time. I achieved that with 150 grains, three Pyrodex pellets, and the 220-grain bullet.

When our first segment of muzzleloading season opened, I was confident in both my equipment and my ability. Four days into the season, my first day to hunt, I dropped a fat doe at 45 yards. The bullet went all the way through so I still had no idea how it had performed. The next morning I shot the buck I mentioned earlier in this story. That bullet too went all the way through. The buck went about 70 yards. Two afternoons later, I shot a 130-pound doe at 65 yards. She was quartering slightly toward me and the bullet impacted dead center of her shoulder, coursing toward the back. It destroyed the heart, broke three offside ribs and lodged just under the skin. Mushroom or expansion was complete and the bullet retained its’ weight and did not fragment. That’s good performance.

So I now had all the ingredients for that particular muzzleloader. I’m shooting a charge and bullet that shoots flat and consistent and does the job when it hits. What more can you ask for?

So. Do you have your muzzleloader fine-tuned? Now is a great time to do so. I believe in getting it all done and locked down well before the time to use it.