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Lee cast improved Minnie bullet

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rawhide

45 Cal.
Joined
Jun 5, 2010
Messages
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Just got a new rifle it's a tradition St. Lous hawken 50 cal. The twist is 1:48. A buddy of mine let me borrow his Lee improved Minnie mold. It's 360 grain. Found the load my gun likes is 80 grains of schuetzen ffg and the minie. It's a tack driver! Would this load work for elk say out to at the most 80 yards? I used to hunt elk with a 54. But I gave the gun to my nefew years ago when he wanted to start muzzle loading. The gun loved 90 grains of RS and a 456 buffalo ballet. But it kicked horrible! The new 50 with the Minnie i s stout but reasonable. Thanks for any info rawhide
 
I bought a Lee Improved Minie mould to try in a Gallagher breechloading carbine & It didn't have sufficient powder capacity to drive it fast enough for range past about 50 yards.

Fast forward to just a few years ago & I found the mould and also a jar of still shiney 40 year old minies. They loaded easily in all my .54 cal rifles, and out to around 50 yards, POI was same as a PRB. 75 yards and further & they lost energy faster than a PRB. At 100 yards they dropped around 12+".

My verdict was to continue using the lighter, faster and flatter shooting PRB, which packs plenty of punch. With the last heart/lung shot, the PRB was lodged under the far side skin & had flattened out to larger diameter, all intact.

Conclusion: Elk can't tell PRB dead from Minie dead. I favor the PRB as more effective; the Minie mould is still in the 40 year old original (like new) box & the jar of ancient minies will see some range time PRN.
 
I have a little "first hand" experience with the question, though my hands were occupied with the follow-up tracking rather than the shooting.

Had a relative and two young friends hunt our place for elk a few years back, him shooting 54 RB and they shooting 50 cal conicals of some sort. He dinked his elk with a single shot, but I had to put my tracking hat on when both the youngsters with 50 conicals wounded their animals. The issue wasn't any "power" question for the 50's, rather it was the youngsters' enthusiasm for range- well over 100 yards each time. They just made flat bum shots by trying to shoot too far. The 54 RB was launched for a perfect hit at around 60 yards. A few years later the threesome came back, all shooting 54 RB. And they all took their animals with single shots inside 75 yards. Funny how even a couple of years make young guys smarter. :p

Bottom line for me, if you get within range for good hits with that 50 conical, there's no reason under the sun it won't kill well on top of 80 grains. Just dunno enough about 50 RB and elk, but a whole lotta guys use 80 grains under RB for all their hunting. I can't see why the same wouldn't work at the same 75 yard range limit I'd put on 50 conicals. But I have to confess I lean more toward larger balls for larger animals. If faced with using only a 50 for elk, I'd probably go like you with the conical while keeping my shots inside 75 yards.
 
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