I’ve been on a slow motion quest for several years to find a non lead bullet to shoot in my traditional Muzzleloader. Living in CA, non lead is required and I can see the writing on the wall for other states as well. Facilitating our sudden rush is my sons and I have accrued enough points to draw a good ML hunt in CA (M8). I’ve had my TC Renegade .54 cal 1-48” twist for years and it shoots round balls well, but absolutely loves Power Belt bullets, making shots to 200 yards possible. Unfortunately those are lead. A custom barrel or new gun with a fast twist would be an option but I still love my TC.
A couple years ago after trying some Tungsten shot in my shotguns I hit upon the idea of tungsten round balls in the muzzleloader. Of course the hard tungsten contacting the barrel would ruin it but with a sabot, I thought, it might work. I was a little taken aback when I discovered what tungsten ball bearings cost but thought a special hunt might warrant them. After shopping for the best deal I bought three off ebay for only $50 each. I also bought steel, copper, brass to try.
At the extreme cost it was clear I’d need to capture the balls for reuse. It’s taken two years but I finally found the courage to shoot them. Filling a box with damp sand that looked thick enough to stop them I fired at 100 yards. The group was a satisfying 3” spread but unfortunately they blew through the box of sand. The railroad tie behind it for insurance had nice little dents where they bounced off, gone forever. The other materials in round balls shot well too but aren’t really heavy enough to suit me. At least this experiment taught me that ½” balls would work in a pinch- with sabots.
Recently I’ve been finding ½” tungsten balls for around only $5.00, so they are an option if I couldn’t find a proper bullet to use.
I’ve also been trying different bullets with sabots to find one that will stabilize in the 48” twist. I tried bullets from Cutting Edge, Lehigh & Barnes It’s been frustrating but finally found one that works. Barnes .500” 275gr XPB with Purple sabots from MMP with 110 -120 grs Pyrodex P. All the other copper bullets tried keyholed on me. They group as well as the tungsten balls but have a higher BC so now there is no need to bother with the balls. By the way for some reason they are very tight in the bore and I’ve tried every brand of sabot on the market and found the purple to be .002” thinner and slightly easier to load but the barrel needs to be kept clean and you still need a stout range rod with large handle to seat them. For hunting, with effort, you would be able to load a 2nd round with a standard rod before needing to swab.
As luck would have it I happened to have two more 54 cal Renegades in the shop collecting dust so now the boys own them and we are ready to hunt. Hopefully we’ll draw this fall and try to collect up some bucks.
I talk to plenty of guys wondering what Non Lead to shoot in their muzzleloaders so I can now say that some sabot loads will work in 48” twist barrels. Look for the shortest bullet to get them to stabilize with a sabot.

Good to know, thanks for sharing.

God Bless, Louis

Thanks for posting such an innovative write up! I have to confess I was hoping you'd have to use the tungsten balls so you'd have to hunt how the appalachian mountain people did when lead was expensive for them and wait until the animal walked in front of a tree so you could recover the ball from the tree trunk.

Marshall, before I left Cali I bought a bunch of sabots for my left handed .54 Cal Renegade for use with .44, .45, and .50 caliber copper pistol bullets.

I never got to try them though. Since I live in Kentucky now, I doubt that I ever will. If I can find the sabots, would you like them?

I am very interested in how the Cutting Edge bullet worked out. Thanks, Brian

They gave me a very nice keyhole. The Barnes 275 pistol bullet was the only bullet that didn't tumble on me and it was the shortest bullet I tried. The Barnes 275 muzzleloader bullet even keyholed, but it is slightly longer than the pistol bullet of the same weight. Recently I tried out a Magspark 209 adapter and Blackhorn 209 powder and it shot just as accurate with a blistering 1900 FPS. I'm done experimenting and ready to take it hunting, assuming we draw this year.

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Originally posted by Brian Canada:
I am very interested in how the Cutting Edge bullet worked out. Thanks, Brian