Hunting bullet

[rdnck]

What is your favorite bullet design, lead mix, meplat, tapered bullet, etc for hunting?I know from talking to several guys that have hunted for a hell of a lot longer then me with bp guns there is definitely different views on the subject! I've killed antelope and deer with the 50 2 1/2, 45 2 4/10, 45 2 1/10, 44-40, 45-70 trapdoor, and 44 cal muzzleloader! They all died equally well with these guns! What I don't have experience with is shooting bigger animals with these guns!

Stephen

Stephen--I've had my best success with a 45 caliber rifle shooting a 480 to 510 grain bullet. I have used both flat nosed and round nosed bullets such as the 457125 to good effect. The key seems to lie in getting complete pass through penetration which usually collapses the lungs and results in a quick kill.

I have had good luck with 30-1 alloy with both the round nose and the flat nose bullets. I find that the larger animals such as our buffalo and elk go down with these bullets with no problems. I was expecting the African plains game to be harder to put down, but discovered the Sharps 45-110 and the 45-70 worked as well over there as here. Shoot straight, rdnck.