Now that most of the muzzleloading deer seasons are over, it is a good time to see what some of the different propellants and bullets will do. Finding the best combinations now will give you time to sort out and then practice with the best load. With all of the choices available today, choosing what propellant and projectile you want to use, can be an interesting endeavor. We will shoot and chronograph several different propellants and bullets and report the results in the next series of articles.

For our tests, we will be using a 50 Cal. Traditions Buck Stalker XT with a Traditions 3×9 scope. This rifle is pretty much representative of what a lot of hunters are going to use for deer. It is also easy to clean, so shooting it for testing, hunting, or just for fun is pretty painless.

Shooting the Buck Stalker With Black Powder

The first test we did is with the Hornady 385 Gr. Great Plains bullet and Goex FF black powder. The Great Plains bullet is pretty much a traditional maxi ball style of bullet. This bullet has a hollow point and a small hollow in the base. The small hollow portion of the base does a good job of making the bullet base expand for a good seal but is not so big as to compromise the strength of the bullet base. This bullet has a good reputation for excellent performance on game animals. It is not as sexy looking as some of the new bullets, but if performance and reasonable price is important to you, it is a fine choice.

The Goex FF powder is certainly old school. However, the performance is good, as it always has been. I was surprised at the velocity that it gave. We got an average velocity of 2031 FPS using 80 Gr. volume. We ran a brush down the bore 2 passes between shots and had no problems loading repeat shots after brushing. The accuracy of this load is very good in our rifle. This load is certainly adequate for hunting and is not at all punishing for recreational shooting. Cleanup is easy enough with this load. The removal of the breach plug on this rifle can be done without tools, and a little hot water, a little soap, and a few passes with a brush followed by patches, and the rifle is clean. After the rifle is dry, run a patch with a little bore butter or oil, wipe the rifle down and the job is done. Don’t forget to put a small amount of anti-seize on the breach plug threads! If you want to be able to do some shooting without breaking the budget, this combination will fill the bill.

Shooting The Buck Stalker With Triple Seven Powder

Triple Seven powder was the next propellent that we tried. We used the 385 Gr. Hornady Great Plains Bullet and again used an eighty Gr. by volume charge. We wanted to compare the performance of Triple Seven with the performance of the FF black powder, so we used the same rifle, same bullet, and same charge volume. The Tripple Seven gave an average velocity of 1519 FPS. using eighty grains of powder. Accuracy was good with this load with very little difference between the two powders. The average velocity using eighty Gr. of Triple Seven was 512 FPS. slower than it was using eighty Gr. of Goex FF. This load could be stepped up a little bit if more velocity was desired. For targets or plinking, it is fine, as accuracy was good with this load. The bore was brushed 2 passes between shots as it was using the black powder. Using this powder and bullet is reasonably economical to shoot. Cleaning the rifle after shooting with Triple Seven powder is easily accomplished as well.

Many people don’t shoot muzzle loaders much except to hunt with them. With the today’s price of ammunition and components, muzzleloaders offer a lot of shooting enjoyment at a more economical cost. There is a lot of shots in a can of powder, whether it is traditional black powder or one of the newer muzzleloading propellants.

In our next post we will look at a couple of the sabot bullets and see how they compare. So, until then, keep your powder dry and have fun shooting your muzzle loader.