Going to CO

[mnbearbaiter]

Drew our ML either sex elk tags this year and burned up 3pts in the process. Gonna hunt the 54 TVM Leman Perc. She is fond of 95gr of ffg T7, op felt wad, and a .530 ball with a TOTW mink oil tallow heavily lubed .015 cotton patch. 36" brrl on rifle and I have no idea of velocity it puts out? She's taken deer and bear but never elk. What loading do a lot of you use powder wise in 54's? I see a lot of 110-120gr of BP when I search but there's also a conversion factor of 15% when using T7? Any help would be appreciated. I think she is stout enough with my max of 100yds???

 

[Vaino]

Congrats on drawing a MLing elk tag. My son and his 2 buddies drew either sex tags for the CO elk MLing. Like you said...it took 3 Pref.Points.

He uses my .54 Pecatonica Hawken and uses the same load as I did when killing the last 2 elk.

A .535 RB, .020 patch lubed w/ Oxyoke 1000 Plus and 120 grs 3f Goex. Might seem a "big" load and an elk really doesn't need that big a load to die w/ a good hit, but the 100 yd or so trajectory has only a couple of inches mid-range height. The last elk I shot was a lead cow at 107 paced off yds and she went 40 yds after the shot and was dead. My son has shot several whitetails w/ this load and some were over 100 yds. He also shot one elk w/ this load.

The accuracy of the above load is such that squirrels could be hunted ....of course w/ only head shots.

Good luck on your hunt......Fred

 

[BrownBear]

Never got around to dinking one with a ML on our place in CO, but family and friends stay with us and do it. So this is all second hand.

The three regulars started out with two 50 cals firing conicals and one a 54 shooting RBs over 90 grains of 2f between them. Both 50's tried long shots and made the rest of us work extra hard afterward to finally get the elk hanging.

Next visit they all showed up with 54's and all held their shots under 100. Three for three that year and again on their next visit, all one-shot kills. Best I recollect one guy is shooting 80 grains of 3f, the second 80 grains of 2f and the orginal still limping along with 90 grains of 2f.

That's what the rifles like, so that's what the guys shoot. They might work a little harder to get within 100 yards, but they've sure hauled home a pile of elk meat.

Your load should kill elk just dandy. It would probably reach past 100 if you're shooter enough to do it. These guys figure they're not, so the extra powder is just extra white smoke.

 

[mnbearbaiter]

I see a lot of guys shooting fffg black powder and kinda makes me wonder if ffg T7 being hotter likes it is makes its velocity somewhat closer to an fffg over an ffg :hmm: either way I'll be playing around with up around 100-110gr to see what she tells me.

 

[FrontierMuzzleloading]

Sad how many points it takes to draw elk these days. I now have 3 pref points :cursing:

My first ML elk I shot back in 2008 I used a .54cal .530" ball and only 80gr pyrodex RS. This shot was a double lung shot from 140 yards and she went 60 yards with a nice solid blood trail before rolling over into a tree and her legs becoming tangled up Funny how they always seem to die with their legs tangled in something.

I'd shoot what ever load is most accurate.

Shot placement is everything no matter what you are shooting.

With round balls on elk, I stick to double lung or heart shots if the distance is 100 yards or more. :hatsoff:

Where you hunting anyway?

 

[Spikebuck]

makes me wonder if ffg T7 being hotter likes it is makes its velocity somewhat closer to an fffg over an ffg

Can't comment on elk, but a 90 gr load of T7 in my .54 Pedersoli Rocky Mtn Hawken (34" bbl) with a .530 ball chrono'd at an average of 1933 fps.

While I have not chronographed it with my same load of 2F KiK, I can say that I didn't have to change my sights one single bit out to 100 yards, so it has to be very close in velocity.

 

[mnbearbaiter]

8mi deep in 751. Yeah I'd say pretty close to what your getting. Think the extra 5gr of powder in the 2" longer barrel does much for it velocity wise?

 

[hoochiepapa]

90 grs. 2F GOEX does the job.

 

[Tallswife]

Missed ML season and drew rifle instead. Maybe closer to cooler weather and the rut will give us a chance for an elk.

Best of luck to you!