How accurate is Triple 7 at 100 yards? Testing 5 popular muzzleloading bullets

Today we’ll be comparing the accuracy of 5 popular muzzleloading bullets at 100 yards with Triple 7.

I’m asked quite often to test muzzleloading products and I do my best to make time for every test because I think it’s important we see some real world ‘testing’ outside perfect product development conditions.

That being said, these are backyard tests and not perfect. I’m not a machine, there are variables and there are ways I can do better, and I hope to continue to improve.

The goal of this test was to compare the accuracy of 5 muzzleloading bullets shot in 3 shot groups at 100 yards using Triple 7 to emulate a situation where you could take 3 shots and not clean between shots.

The final target shows each group in order of shots taken.

Test Results

Hornady Bore Driver FTX 1 1/4” Group

1846, 1772, 1719 FPS

Thor Hammer 2” Group

1684, 1775 FPS

Federal B.O.R Lock 2 1/4” GRoup

1863, 1900, 1792 FPS

Powerbelt ELR 2 7/8”

1710, 1637, 1721 FPS

Smackdown Carnivore 3 3/8”

1069, 1052, 1025 FPS (I believe the Chronograph was reading the sabot for these shots, not the bullet. The Smackdown Carnivore traditionally shoots around 2000 FPS out of this rifle.

Overall, all of the bullets shot inside the bull, which is roughly the size of the kill zone on a whitetail deer. With some fine tuning and load development, I’m certain all of these bullets would shoot within a 1” group at 100 yards. The groups in this test were slightly larger than the same test done with Blackhorn 209. This was expected and I don’t believe it to be detrimental to the function of the rifle, powder, or bullets.

I will say the Triple 7 powder performed well, but I did experience the infamous “Crud Ring” just forward of my breech. This made loading difficult for shots 2 and 3 and I believe shots taken after 3 should would be very hard to load depending on the projectile being used. Cleaning was more difficult than with Blackhorn 209. I had to use a wire brush to clean the breech of my rifle, and the breech plug began to exhibit a white build up shortly after shooting. Again, accuracy performance was good as expected, but the contrast between Blackhorn 209 and Triple 7 was remarkable. It is clear why Hodgdon purchased Blackhornn 209.

As always, I recommend you do your own load development and test the conditions for your muzzleloader. You should not watch my video and read my report and use these combinations without testing on your own. We all need to do our due diligence to take ethical, accurate shots on any game we are hunting.