I know .45 cal rifles work fine for deer, and I'm sure they would work fine for elk IF shots would be kept within reasonable ranges. The opposite of which is glorified on TV.

My first black powder rifle was a .45 cal Kentucky that I built from a CVA kit back when Colorado first opened a black powder season. I killed my best mule deer ever, a 31" non-typical, with a patched round ball from that rifle.

A year or two later, Colorado changed the rules and made .50 cal the minimum for elk, so I built a .54 cal Hawken from a Green River kit. Shortly after I built that rifle, I moved to Montana and since Montana doesn't have a special muzzle loader season (other than some special Weapons Restriction Areas during the general rifle season), I haven't done a lot of BP hunting. The only animal that I've shot with my .54 Hawken was an American buffalo that died from one TC Maxi-Hunter lead bullet.

I also have a .50 cal scoped, in-line BP rifle, but I haven't hunted with it.

Montana only puts restrictions on black powder rifles in the Weapons Restriction Areas: Minimum .45 cal, and only lead bullets, no sabots. Outside of the Weapons Restriction Areas, there are no caliber or bullet restrictions for any big game hunting. So you can hunt elk with your .22 LR, your .50 cal Browning, or your .45 cal muzzle loader with sabot-ed bullets.

I just ordered a Stainless steel 45 barrel for a TC with a 15/16 barrel with a 1-28 twist for $110.00 that will be my project for this winter. Ron

quote:

just ordered a Stainless steel 45 barrel for a TC with a 15/16 barrel with a 1-28 twist for $110.00 that will be my project for this winter. Ron

Ron, will the winter project be trying to get it to shoot?
Just funin ya.

Ron, my suggestion for 1:28 or 1:30 twist .45 barrels:



Those bullets were cast from a Lee 457-340-F mold and sized to .451 using a Lee sizing die with a mallet and a dowel to push them through.

Well to be honest I need to find a donor rifle that I can give a face lift. It need to have a 15/16 barrel channel. Right now all I have is 1" guns.
Underclocked, how hard is it to start the bullets? I tried to slip a bullet sized .451 into the crown and it is so tight I don't know if it will start down the tube. Ron

sorry for the delay in responding. No problem at all with the fit in the Elite. Might require a double sizing for some rifles. I find that a second pass through my sizer often yields about a .0005 reduction.



Cheated on the one and used a Speer bullet in a Harvester crushed rib.

From the things I been reading,the 50 is the caliber to have now, because back in the day ,the round ball was the most popular projectile used.The 45 ball weighs,IIRC,around 125 gr,while a 50 weighs 175..
These days however,the most popular projectile isntr a RB ,but a conical or saboted pistol bullet.
The higher velocity that can be had with the 45 cal ,would now seem to make the 45 a much better choice for the modern muzzleloader, who is looking to add a little range to his BP season.Velocities of over 2000 fps seem to be pretty easy to come by with the 45,whereas that is pretty lofty for a 50.
The next MZ I get will be a break action 45.