I am going to be elk hunting this year with my .54 cal Renagade (1:48 twist). It's been about 12 years since I have shot the rifle or used it for hunting. (I quit using it after having a mis-fire on elk) But now there are some pretty good seasons during the rut, so I am ready to try black powder hunting again.

I used to use Maxi-balls but since that was twelve years ago, I am wondering if there are some "new" products out there are better than what I used to hunt with.

I have a .54 New Englander. I would use the Buffalo Bullets products. There is Pyrodex data, for the various bullets which you can get at Cabelas. But of course there ARE other choices and they are shown as well. The round ball will do it, but like me, you seem to lean towards the conical. Good shooting!

Try getting onto Cabela's web site and checking out some of the different projectiles offered. There are a lot of different conical type bullets. Try a couple of different types to see which your particular rifle likes.
I've been hunting with muzzle loaders for a lot of years now and know how frustrating it can be when it doesn't fire like it's supposed to. What I do now is prior to the day I'm going hunting I take the rifle out and fire a few shots to verify the zero. Remove the barrel and the nipple and clean it throughly then very lightly oil in the bore. Next I make sure the nipple is clear. ( I use a nipple that is 1/4x28 thread but mine is one that I ordered from Dixie Gun Works that takes a musket cap. On the day of the hunt I pop 7 or 8 caps through it just to make sure, load it. I then cap it and cover the cap with an empty pistol cartridge and let the hammer down on that. When the target is seen I just pull the hammer back and flip the empty pistol shell off.

Thanks for the replies. I guess I will try the following bullets: Maxi-ball, Buffalo bullet, and Hornady Great Plains.

I see that there are some new powders out now; Triple Seven and Clean Shot. How well do they work?

Wish that I could give you an honest assesment of the new powders but I pretty much just stuck with black powder as it seems to have a lower ignition point than the others. I don't know that for a fact but I know that it lights off easier than Pyrodex.

I will probably go back to using Black Powder unless I hear some really good arguements for using triple 7 or Clean Shot. The mis-fire I mentioned was using Pyrodex. Previously to the misfire I had success with Black Powder (even in heavy rains) and no mis-fires. Then WA state changed the rules and allowed Pyrodex to be legal, so I switched to it. When elk hunting with it snowing I had the mis-fire on a big cow elk at about 10 yards.

Muzzle, your empty pistol cartridge idea covering the cap sounds like a possibility for me. (It may not be technically legal here though, since the rules say that the cap must be exposed) I do think that BP may be more reliable for igniting even if a little moisture gets to the powder.

Another bullet I just found on the internet that I think I will try is made by Precision Bullets and they call it the UL1 solid nose. I think I will try the 400 gr bullet. They have a bunch of other really good looking bullets on their website - www.prbullet.com but the UL1 solid I think is the best for elk that would be legal in Washington. Washington's laws for ML bullets says that for elk the min dia is .50 cal and the bullet has to be all lead. That leaves out any of the sabots since the largest dia bullet would be .45 cal that I could shoot with a sabot.

I do use Pyrodex and GOEX (it's what we can get here) as both will provide extremely similar ballistics. However, I've heard of temperature sensitivity with 777 and sub par performance with other substitutes. I'm not eager to waste my time chasing after some false promise of easier cleaning when what I have works just fine.

Curly--I have had excellent sucess with maxi-balls on elk. They can't get any deader! I am surprised that they stabilize in a 1/48 twist barrel. My buddy can't stabilize any conical in his TC Renegade .54 with the same twist---No problem though--he always gets his with 70 gr. fffg and a roundball! Pyrodex is harder to ignite than black powder--I would go to the real stuff. I use RWS caps--pretty hot caps, and an "Uncle Mikes Hotshot" nipple. I don't ever get misfires, and as a muzzleloading coach, really shoot up a lot of black powder.Also, until tonite, I thought I had invented the cartrige case cap cover--oh well.....Chuck

A better percussion cap protector that I have been recently useing during foul weather hunts has bee the pencil erasers that fit over the end of a pencil. I cut down the top a bit to get the right height. It seals beautifuly around the base of the nipple to keep it absolutely dry.

Hutt-Never heard of that one--I'll give it a try..Chuck

Black Powder is still probably the easiest to ignite. However, Pyrodex is a little more resistent to moisture than BP. Two years ago, I used Clean Shot for a week of hunting in the Adirondacks. I used a primer adapter which allowed me to use Small Rifle primers instead of No. 11 caps. It rained every day I was there, so I wrapped plastic wrap around my breech/lock section of the rifle, and a srip of it around the muzzle after loading it. At night, I left the rifle, loaded but de-capped, outside the camp building in an unheated woodshed which had rifle racks in it for this purpose. I didn't get a shot that week, so at the end of the hunt my hunting buddy and I put up a target and fired our rifles to unload them, and to see how well the powder had stood up to the humidity. Both guns fired, and the bullets hit where they were supposed to. Clean Shot is OK. I tried Triple 7 last year, and it fouled my guns at least as badly as BP, making it necessary to clean between shots, which is a no-no when hunting. I had no such problem with Clean Shot or Pyrodex when hunting. The bigger your powder charge, the worse the "burn-on" in the breech area, making it difficult to seat the bullet all the way down.

[ 05-09-2003, 18:10: Message edited by: eldeguello ]

A round ball cast from wheel weights gives good penetration, without over expansion.
I would never shoot one of those other things out of a good rifle.

777 leaves a dry residue that must be patched between rounds or you will have a very difficult time seating the next shot.
A little vaseline around the the cap after it is put on the nipple and then use a piece of rubber hose (small dia. automotive vacuum hose) over the cap and lower the hammer. Never had a mis-fire or even a hang fire using this method, have left the gun loaded overnight(cap off) for up to 3 weeks and all kinds of rain, snow and other interesting weather. Cut a b unch of pieces about 1/2 inch long and stick them in your pocket, that way you can just flip it off when you need to shoot.

[ 06-19-2003, 19:15: Message edited by: Bud H ]