What saboted bullet you use

[Big Ben]

I have had my worst day ever muzzleloader hunting. And feel the need to change bullets before I have another one. Shot a big doe with my load of 90 grain 777 and Sierra 240 grain hp. Hit her just a couple inches higher than I wanted but still went down when she tried to run, Very little blood trail, got to a couple drops every 10 feet and totally lost it after 50 or so yards. Kept looking and did find her 120 yards away expired. Bullet didn't look to expand, in and out hole the same size thru the top of both lungs.
Next after passing up on several small bucks one of my target bucks showed up. Nice wide 10 point Put the crosshairs just a tad lower in the heart lung area and let it rip. He went out of there at a dead run, tail tucked. I spent over a hour looking and never found that first drop of blood. I seen the trail he went down and was on my hands and knees searching but so far have came up blank. Going to try again after daylight and start the circles and maybe get lucky.
I have heard the Barnes Expander is a good one for ML's any opinions ?

 

[knightrider]

barnes tez 250 grain for me

 

[pass-thru]

I use the TC shockwave 250 grains and love them. Every now and then I will get little or no blood trail due to no expansion. Still a dead deer everytime within 150 yards on the long end. That's the nature of modern sabot's.

 

[knightrider]

I use the TC shockwave 250 grains and love them. Every now and then I will get little or no blood trail due to no expansion. Still a dead deer everytime within 150 yards on the long end. That's the nature of modern sabot's.

uh no, not acceptable no blood is not the nature of modern sabots. barnes expand everytime, looks like blood pouring out of a bucket! they cost more but is the lest expensive cost of the hunt

 

[MUP]

Simple lead 260 gr HP bullets. Mushroom nicely every time so far from the ones I've found that didn't pass completely thru. Deer fell within 30 yds of initial shot taken. This was using 90 gr pyro btw.

 

[JW1]

I shoot the Hornady XTP. That 44 cal. hollow point ain't let me down yet and they group 3 touching at 100 yards.

 

[smyrnagc]

I shoot the Hornady XTP. That 44 cal. hollow point ain't let me down yet and they group 3 touching at 100 yards.

X2...300 grain

 

[Roost 1]

Barnes is the absolute best mzl bullet for deer......
You won't ever be sorry you tried them..
Check out Arrowhead Sporting Goods and get some harvester black crush rib sabots to shoot them in....,

 

[timberjack86]

240 grain xtp.

 

[Big Ben]

Just picked up 60 250 grain Barnes Expanders for $60 with sabots on another forum for Muzzleloader enthusiast....Think I saved a few $$. Next check is to see if my old gal likes them or not. Just checked local and the 25 packs are $40, I gave $25 so he seems to have decent prices on what he has for sale and that's all brands and sizes.

If you guys need ML bullets this is the site I found those for sale on. He no longer has the 25 packs of the Barnes expanders in 250 grain available, had two packs left and I bought both and a pack of 10 Knight redhot's loaded with the same bullets in order to get his buy 3 packs free shipping deal.

http://www.modernmuzzleloader.com/forum/index.php

 

[Roost 1]

$1/bullet not bad for Barnes.... Not sure what Luke sells them for.. No more that tho.... Arrowhead Sporting Goods.

 

[bigfoot318]

Hornady FTX 325 grain .458 diameter. Orange MMP sabots. Every deer I have shot has run less than 50 yards and they leave an absolutely massive blood trail. Trust me when I say I have tried almost every bullet/sabot combination and was never satisfied with any of them until I got the Hornady's. Extremely accurate too. I shoot my Savage 10-ML II regularly at 200 yards and get tight groups even at that distance. I won't use anything else now that I have found what works. I have two of these guns and I get the same results from each gun.

bigfoot318