I think you will find that 80 grains under a .50 cal. conical is more than adequate, and may save your shoulder a bit. Remember, that Buffalo Bill killed an extraordinary number of buffalo with a .50-70 Springfield Rifle. That is .50 caliber, and 70 grains of FFg under a 550 grain bullet. The slug was known to travel through two buffalo on occasion. There is one report from the military where a soldier fired at a mounted Indian who was attacking his position, and the bullet not only killed the Indian he targeted, but two other Indians riding horses behind the first, that the soldier did not see. The officer who wrote the report to the army Ordinance department said that when this soldier fired his gun, no one else fired or was prepared to fire, either reloading their own gun, or ducking incoming rounds from the attacking Indians. A number of witnesses confirmed the three dead Indians, and their horses milled around the bodies for some time, before being driven off by other Indians withdrawing from the fight.
Now, your slug doesn't weight 550 grains. But it does weigh over 300 grains, and with 437.5 grains to the ounce, that is a HUGE CHUNK of lead. You are going to kill deer and elk as far away as you can hit them. You don't need 100 grains of powder, although there was a .50-100, and a .50-120,and a .50-140 Sharps cartridge made in the 1880s. A .50-90 was used at the second battle of Adobe Wells, in the Texas Panhandle to kill and Indian who with a group of about 20 Indians, were horseback overlooking the battle scene from a knollrecently measured at nearly 7/8 of a mile! The Chiefs thought they were safe that far from the battle, but a scout Named Billy Dixon took offense at their arrogance, borrowed a " Big 50", from the store keeper, and fired the shot. Billy had been a Buffalo hunter, and his own gun was in being repair, or he would have used it. He was not aiming at an individual Indian, nor at just one Indian on a horse, as the story is sometimes mistold. He was aiming at a group of Indians from below them, and hoping that he could " worry them " a bit with a well placed shot. He not only worried them, but the Chief considered the mortally wounded Indian in his group by that shot to be a bad omen, and he withdrew his men from the attack.
I tell the story only because it is a true one, and indicates the powder of these heavy caliber bullets. With 70 grains of powder, that bullet you are using will go through any Elk that walks this Earth. :hmm: :hatsoff:
