Bullets Penetration Tests for Muzzleloaders, 100g Am Pioneer Powder
Rifles Knight Disc, Thompson Center Omega
The Bucket 13" deep of packed top soil I shot into.
The Bullets pulled from the boards behind the Bucket of Top Soil
0. Method of Shooting cleaning
1. Best Group TC ShockWave 300g
2. Next Best Group Nosler Partition 300g
3. Next Best Group Hornady XPT 300g
4. Next Best Group Hornady SST 300g
5. Next Best Group DeadCenter 340g
6. Update 5/8/05, 300g Nosler Partition 45/70 Rifle Bullet
Top view of .45/70 rifle bullets vs the Nosler Pistol Bullet
Side View of .45/70 rifle bullets vs the Nosler Pistol Bullet
See the threads on the Muzzleloading Forum
Original Topic Introduced "Bullet Performance" if the link doesn't work, this is a Word file:
Reported Results of "this testing" if this link doesn't work, here is the Word File.
Here are some excellent articles on Bullet Performance I have read:
1. Sectional Density, bullet performance, penetration, great charts, by Al Marion ,
See this chart for Muzzleloader Bullet Penetration into Clay
For those that don't have Excel installed I turned the chart into Gif so you can see it
2. Long Range Hunting by Hank Strong
3. High Performance Muzzleloading, by Toby Bridges
4. Randy Wakeman's info on Muzzleloader bullet Performance and also all the great info on Chuck Hawks web site on Muzzleloading: http://www.chuckhawks.com/index2h.muzzleloader.htm
5. Jim Shockey on Nosler Partitions
6. I also bought a copy of "Modern Muzzleloading for Today's Whitetails" by Ian McMurchy Chapter 9 on Deadly Bullets has a lot of good info, especially on the Hornardy XPT.
Bottom Line for Me
"Out of my rifles, the Nosler Partition-HG 300g performed the best". It was 2nd most accurate, mushroomed perfectly in the penetration testing and lost no weight. I also believe based on what others has said, Jim Shockey and Sabotshooter on the Muzzleloder Forum and several others, that the Nosler Partition bullet performs well on game (deer and elk), especially on "less than ideal shots". I declare my personal quest to find a good performing Muzzleloader bullet complete. Chap Gleason, 4/23/2005
Caygads BP Cleaning recipes should be made into a sticky.