Looking for some experience

[Indiana shooter]

My first chance at a kill with a CB may very well come this October with a smoke poll. With that said I have sighted in my T/C Omega in with my 265 gr RF RD mold using a 20-1 alloy. This boolit is setting over 105 gr (by volume) of blackhorn 209 powder and produces a respectable 1720 fps muzzle velocity and 1.5-2 inch groups at 100 yards.

Wile I'm sure I'll get expansion at any reasonable range my question is will this alloy hold together well enough for white tails? Let's assume worst case scenario will be a 25 yard shot quartering to through the lead shoulder.

P.S. please bear with my ignorance as my experience with Pb bullets on game has been.... well, explosive with little penetration. I've been brought up on the mindset that Pb is for paper and J-words for game. I just want to have confidence in my choice of boolit and alloy.

[leftiye]

What caliber is a T/C Omega?

[Indiana shooter]

What caliber is a T/C Omega?

It's a .50 cal. Muzzle loader, I'm using a Harvester crush rib sabot.

[white eagle]

yes without a doubt the boolit and alloy will do just fine
just think of all the buffalo hunters that used straight lead and look what they did to the buffalo

[OnHoPr]

P.S. please bear with my ignorance as my experience with Pb bullets on game has been.... well, explosive with little penetration. I've been brought up on the mindset that Pb is for paper and J-words for game. I just want to have confidence in my choice of boolit and alloy.

Can you give an instance on this experience and details of caliber, speed, weight?

The load that you mentioned should be found in the guts, opposite ham, or exited depending on the angle. That alloy is pretty soft and malleable, but I don't think it should disintegrate with shallowness. A PRB will go through the front shoulder on a forward angle. I cast a Lee 240 RN at 66/33 Pb/WW with a 120 of Pdex select and have had pass through on an angle shot. So, that is close to similar of your loading, maybe just a little lighter and just a touch faster. I think that will definitely put a whompum on a deer from any angle except the texas heart shot, but why would you want to ruin roast unless it has a RACK and running away. Then it should still put a whompum on it unless maybe it is in the 300 lb class deer.

[quilbilly]

That particular boolit is similar to the 265 gr SWC I used for many years in one of my muzzleloaders for elk and longer range hunting for desert mule deer. For deer it only needs about 850 fps at point of impact to completely pass through the deer then sail off over the horizon. At 1300 fps at point of impact it will lift a 500# Roosevelt cow elk completely off the ground if it hits a major bone (it did that for me - an amazing sight!). Given that you are in Indiana and probably hunting large white tails at under 125 yards, you may not even need that much powder or take that much recoil to do the job. I would use pure lead by the way. The reason I said "used" above is that I have recently switched boolits to a 45 cal 215 gr RNFP for deer which dramatically reduced felt recoil (plus I have bags of the black 50/45 sabots that I want to use up). My load is 78 gr of FFF Goex black powder for both deer and elk.

[Indiana shooter]

Can you give an instance on this experience and details of caliber, speed, weight?

After being extremely disappointed with the results of the 250 gr shockwave I began looking for another bullet to use. I found a company that produces a pure lead saboted bullet. I purchased several packs in various weights from 245 gr to 300 gr. I settled on the 260 gr weight for accuracy. My velocity was unknown as I didn't have a chrony yet, but it was loaded over 100 gr of FF 777.

Nearly every deer I shot with that load was DRT but I never had an exit. I always found a quarter sized pancake of lead just under the hide weighing around 100 gr.

I quit using them when I had a 180 lb buck come up in a green briar thicket. I had watched this deer for probably close to an hour before he gave me a clear shot at 40 yards. He was quartering to me so I broke the shoulder. To my amazement he ran. I began tracking him an hour later. I found the deer several hours later after a very long and tedious tracking job. When I field dressed the deer I found that the bullet "shattered" the largest portion (the base I presume) stopped just inside the heart and was about the size of a mangled pea.

[rking22]

As with many things in life, velocity is good in moderation. Push a bullet faster than it was designed for and it comes apart sooner than intended. When I loaded a Rem300 gr bullet to Ruger 45-70 velocities it exploded inside the chest cavity and did not exit. Slow it down to the design paameters and it functions perfectly. The only time I have recovered a 50 PRB from a deer(in 35 years of using them) was with a load of 90gr FFF ,I normally shoot 60 to 75 gr loads but the rifle shot very well at the 90 gr load. Thought , what the heck shoots a little flatter. Well it stopped on the off side shoulder "ball" ,looking like a 50 cent piece. Deer only wenr 50 yards so no biggie there but sometimes 50 yards can be a day long search in some of my hunting areas. I want an exit "leak" so back to the 75 gr load I knew worked. Short answer is be sure the alloy is adequate for the velocity. In my opinion your 20:1 should be fine, but I sure wouldn't burn all that powder for short range deer. Most all my deer are also shot on the short side of 60Yards, most inside 40. you should be golden!

[OnHoPr]

Are you a point of the shoulder shooter or in the V behind the shoulder shooter? Because most or all of the loads that you mentioned would have easily passed through with in the V shots from any slight broadside angle. In that case you may want to go with a 50/50 alloy. Or big metplat and WQed. These are deer to be eaten, not cape buffalo or lions in Africa from as I noticed was the shot placement styles of cable tv and still seen antelope run after being hit with a 375 H&H. If that is the only shot I would take it though. Darn upwards close to 250 grs range of near Pb in the 1600 to 2000 fps range should be getting passthroughs. Though I know Rem 240 gr pistol bullets flatten out like a pancake at 1450, even at a 100 yds on sand berms, but they will still go through green ribs.

[Indiana shooter]

Are you a point of the shoulder shooter or in the V behind the shoulder shooter?

Most areas that I hunt I don't get to wait for a shot as most are within 50 yards through a small window. I do hunt in a couple of fields where the shots are alot further and I can pick a shot. To answer your question as direct as I can I prefer to hit the V if at all possible, if my only shot is going to be a quartering to shot I break the lead shoulder, quartering away I aim for the off shoulder.

To be fair most of my shots are not true broadside shots but have a slight quartering one way or the other and most of my deer are 120+ lbs.

[Motor]

I started hunting with muzzleloader in 1975. At first all we were allowed to use were PRB. We would typically feild anywhere from 5 to 25 hunters per hunt and still do on occasion. I can tell you without any doubt that more often than not a .490" PRB WILL NOT penetrate the shoulder joint of a whitetail deer. I personally lost 2 at both at 30 to 40 yards broad side. A baseball size wound on the entrance side is not a good sign.

Our loss per hit rate got so bad some guys refused to use the PRB. Finally the Game Commission got wise and allowed the use of conical bullets.

Motor

[OnHoPr]

To be fair most of my shots are not true broadside shots but have a slight quartering one way or the other and most of my deer are 120+ lbs.

Sounds like a woods hunter that will take the raking shots if that is the only thing that is presented, as the video people would say "didn't get a lot of footage time on that one". I do basically the same thing. Check the head and find a spot, sometimes with both buck & doe tags it is not necessary to check the head.