I must use a conical no sabots and loose powder no pellets.

I bought some 295 gr. Power Belts to try.

What else is out there??

Also, how many grs. of powder should I try?

I can shoot up to 150 grs. in my rifle but for the local whitetails I use a light load of 80 grs.

Thanks.

I have a Knight Big Horn muzzlelaoder

Start at your 80 grain load and move up 10 at a time till accuracy is lost , and unburned powder fall on ground at muzzle I use Hodgton 3F trip 7 and My twist is 1in28" same bullets your testing 90 grains worked in mine best! 3 shots in one hole at 100 yards off sand bags .

Try the 348s or the 405s for elk, the 295 may be a bit explosive. Remember penetration, not expansion is what you need.

My 1in30 twist shoots Hornady 410s with a card wad quite well. My best group is an enlarged maxi with 115FF. Not a big fan of hollow points, or plastic tips. Simple is good! + a wad

http://muzzleloading-bullets.com/

The 460 grainers should be Colorado legal.

Here are some bullets that worked well out of my Bighorn.

http://www.prbullet.com/colcon.htm

Don't overlook the tried and true Buffalo Bullets, Great Plains, REALs, Maxi Balls, and Maxi Hunters. Every rifle is different. Get as many different bullets of varying weights as you can find that will be legal for you to hunt with and try them all starting with 70gr (by volume) of Pyrodex, 777, or FFg, and work up from there. Choose the heaviest one that you can shoot accurately. The bullet and charge that my (or anyone else's) rifle likes can only give you a rough indication at best, even if we both had the same model, caliber, and twist rate. Front stuffers are just as picky about what they'll shoot best as any other gun. Trial and error is the only way to find out, there are no short cuts unless you happen to luck out with one of your first choices.
Every so often you'll come across one that seems to shoot everything well, but this is the exception rather than the rule, and if you find such a rifle, hang onto it, or if you must, sell it to someone like me who will appreciate it, too.

The Noexcuses 460 IS Colorado legal and it is an excellent elk bullet.

In my old T/C Hawken, it is very accurate with 80 grains of 777, and it loads easily..It should shoot well in your 1/28 twist...

I used it to kill a 6x6 on my last elk hunt and it performed superbly..The bullet was under the hide on the offside ribcage and it was a perfect mushroom..

I think it is a better choice as an elk bullet than the Powerbelts, performance wise...Less expensive, also...

Thanks for all the good tips guys.

I ordered some of the 460 gr. "No Excuse" bullets as well as some 405 gr. Power belts.

I plan to get some of the Precision rifle bullets in 390 gr. too.

I think with these 3 types of bullets I will find some thing that will shoot "minute of elk" from my Knight.

I have another question, how do you guys that travel to the West from the East via the airlines transport your powder?

I was told you can not put your powder in your checked luggage????

Thanks.

I don't think you can take powder with you...You'll need to arrange to purchase some when you get to Colorado.

What we did was make arrnagements with a local gunshop to have a can of powder waiting for us to pick up when we got to CO...The guy even said he'd leave it in his mailbox if we happened to stop while the shop was closed..We could just take the powder and leave the money...The three of us worked up loads for the same powder, so we only had to buy one can..We left the excess with the owner of the ranch where we stayed, to give to one of his muzzleloading clients or friends..

Glad you decided to try the NE bullets..I think you'll like them...

What about "UPS'ing" your powder ahead of you?

Also, did you have to try out the powder when you arrived to ensure there was not that much variance from lot to lot of the powder?

Thanks.

We didn't look into UPS or other carriers..

As far as large variations in one can of powder to the next, that's never been an issue with my muzzleloader, as far as I know..

Granted, I've never really wrung my rifle out real throughly in a technical sense..It's always given good hunting accuracy with a wide variety of loads..Within a certain range, even powder charge variations of as much as 10 grains don't seem to change things much, so I haven't worried much about such things as powder lot variations...That might be an issue with maximum loads in centerfire cartridges, but not so likely with front loaders.. I wouldn't be too concerned about it..

What we did do, and this is something I ALWAYS do on hunting trips, regardless of what firearm I'm using, was to find a place on public land where we could set up a target and take a couple of shots to check our sights before the hunt..

Over several years, my hunting party shot about 20 elk all with T/C 370 gr. maxi balls. They have performed well. They are relatively easy to load in the heat of battle. They penetrate well. They usually shoot well with 100 grains of 777. They have shot well in both inlines and sidelocks.

I've taken several ML elk in CO and used the 348gr PBs, with 90grains of Clean Shot. Never found a bullet, but did find the green gas seal in one bulls lungs. The shot was from 8 yards! I would use heavier bullets, but my gun likes the PBs.

As far as shipping powder or carrying on airplane it is not legal and the airlines will shut you down. You can however carry loaded ammunition. I suppose it might be possible to load some 45-70 cartridges with black powder or the synthetics and pull them when you got to where you were headed. Not an easy thing but it might be legal. Just a thought from a guy that is used to jumping through hoops as they come up.

Get some 45-70 cases and load powder in them. Do not resize the empty cases, the bullets will slide in and out of the cartridge easily. Load about 40 cases and you will have about 1400 gr. of powder. If all three of you do the same thing you will have 4200 gr's of powder, a little over a half pound. I shoot black powder cartridges in my Shiloh Sharps and use fire formed cases with paper patch bullets. My bullets are hand seated. If you want a little tension on the bullet you can put a slight crimp just to hold the bullet secure, but still be easy to remove to get the powder.

Good luck on your hunt.

In the .50s, his 500 grainer down should be Colorado legal. I've measured the N373 500 grainer's length at just under an inch. He can also size to .500 and .501 as well as the .504 diameter. His pricing is fantastic and quality is high. They will come lubed with either his #2 lube (black powder or subs) or his Speed Green lube (suitable for subs). http://bullshop.gunloads.com/

When I called the Bull shop they were not making muzzleloader bullets yet. Have they started to?

Yep, he's making that lineup pictured above. Prolly has some other moulds that would work as well but those are the main ones.

500 of his 420 grain .451 cost me $105 delivered from Alaska and they shoot great!

quote:

Originally posted by MoreBS:
Try the 348s or the 405s for elk, the 295 may be a bit explosive. Remember penetration, not expansion is what you need.

My 1in30 twist shoots Hornady 410s with a card wad quite well. My best group is an enlarged maxi with 115FF. Not a big fan of hollow points, or plastic tips. Simple is good! + a wad

What does the card wad do?...thanks...jim

Here is what my rifle will do with 410 gr hornady at 100 yards open sights. This is a 3 shot group. This gun has showed me that it will produce 1.5 " groups at any time with open sights at 100 yards