The Ballistic Efficiency of 4 Popular Lead Bullets for Hawken Muzzleloaders
Today we’re back at the Yazel Shooting Complex, a safe and remote location, for some traditional muzzleloader projectile/bullet testing. This test will be conducted at 50 yards with my Traditions St. Louis Hawken. The Traditions St. Louis Hawken has a 50 caliber 1:48 twist barrel and operates using a percussion lock and a no. 11 percussion cap. I’m using this rifle in this test because 50 caliber muzzleloaders are the most common muzzleloader on the market, and there are a wide variety of off the shelf, non custom, projectiles available for them.
We’ll be testing 4 projectiles in this test
.495 roundball, 184 grains
Hornady PA Conical, 250 grains
T/C Maxi Hunter, 275 grains
Hornady Great Plains Bullet, 385
Each of these projectiles is consdered a “Traditional” projectile by many state hunting rules. They are all lead projectiles with no sabot, plastic, or jacket and their designs date back to the mid to late 19th century at the latest.
For powder in this test, I’m shooting each shot with 80 grains of Swiss 3F blackpowder measured by volume. Volume is the standard means to measure traditional “real” blackpowder in the field. Many shooters will use 2F blackpowder in their 50 caliber muzzleloaders, but by using this 3F Swiss brand blackpowder, we should be able to get optimum speed out of this rifle.
The target for this test will be a line of water filled 1 gallon milk jugs. These jugs do not approximate the flesh of a deer or elk in a consistent 1:1 fashion but they do give us an idea of how these bullets will expand under pressure, and just how much each bullet can push through before being stopped.
Special thanks to Muzzle-Loaders.com for sending these conical bullets for me to test on the range. I’m not being compensated for this video, but I do appreciate the help from Muzzle-Loaders.com because the costs of these bullets certainly add up over time.
The results of the test were as follows:
.495 Roundball 184 Gr , 176 Gr recovered 5 Jugs Penetrated 1912 FPS
The .495 Roundball Targets in line
Hornady PA Conical 250 Gr , 242.5 Gr recovered 3 Jugs Penetrated 1801 FPS
The Hornady PA Conical Targets in line
T/C Maxi Hunter 275Gr , 271.6 Gr recovered 4 Jugs Penetrated 1770 FPS
The Thompson/Center Maxi Hunter Targets in line
Hornady Great Plains 385 Gr, 285.6 Gr recovered 4 Jugs Penetrated 1604 FPS
Hornady Great Plains Targets in line
The Recovered Muzzleloading Projectiles
I’m not a master hunter, so I will leave much of the interpretation of the data to you at home, but I hope this gives you some insight into how these projectiles will perform at 50 yards out of a traditional sidelock muzzleloader. In my opinion, the PA Conical from Hornady, while only penetrating 3 water jugs, had the best expansion of any of the bullets. It flattened out perfectly and would be a great option for a hunter seeking expansion from their projectile.
Like many of the modern made projectiles used in muzzleloaders, just about all of them will work well if your shot is placed accurately. I encourage everyone to get to the range and do their own testing with their muzzleloaders to ensure you have the best chance on the game you are hunting this year. These tests and their presentation are not a substitute for practice and training with your muzzleloader.
Let me know what you’d like to see differently from another test, or what you think I could do to improve the results and make it more applicable for you in the future. Thanks so much for reading, happy hunting!