i made it to the range finally after scoping and am happy with my shooting. 1" groups. ready for pigs and deer.
Good luck, 30.06! I need to get a scope on my m/l and then get to the range!
I got relative over your way in Dover. You live downtown or in the suburbs? 
Been shooting scoped muzzle loaders for years, beginning with an old Lyman Plains side lock 30 some years ago. Have progressed up to several in-line guns and have found that for me a scope is a thing I don't want to do without. I'm not a purist when it comes to ML hunting, I'm a meat hunter. These posts concerning scoped muzzle loaders also addressed the important subject of projectiles. A year or so ago Wally world had an after season hunting supply sale and the Powerbelts were affordable to the point that I bought several cards of them. Was not real happy with their grouping as I am with TC 240 gr. XTPs and sabots. But sad to say I was satisfied enough to hunt with them during the early part of NW FL.'s ML season last year. Never again! 6 or 7 deer came into a patch of oats and there was a couple of bucks in the bunch on opening morning. Sitting in a shooting house with plenty of time, a proper rest for my Knight 50 cal. rifle, all I had to do was wait. Finally the biggest of the bucks moved around from behind a couple of trees in the plot and moved out broad side at about 40 yds. At the shot, all the deer left the field except the buck that I shot at. He was down and did a kick or 2 and then lay still. I sat and watched him for several minutes, no movement. I got down from the stand and had to walk a few yards to enter the food plot and as I got to the road where it entered the field I saw the buck stand up a wobble his way to a myrtle thicket. Lesson number 1- Always reload after you have taken a shot! I hadn't and it was a bad feeling to see him melt into the bushes and me holding an empty rifle. I stepped over to where he had fell and there was a large amount of blood that indicated a good hit. Now this is where I decided to not use any more Powerbelt bullets. I had killed quite a few with muzzle loaders and they had all been clean one shot kills. Most were further than the 40 yds. that seperated me and this deer. What happened? I know there are many things that could be questioned about the unfortunate incident. I could have made a bad shot, but if that had happened I don't think the deer would have dropped in his tracks as he did. I didn't have buck fever as this was one was just a regular 6 or 8 pt nothing to get excited over but something to be thankful for. My opinion is the bullet did not do what it should have. I was able to blood trail the deer for several hundred yds. and then lost the trail in the edge of a dry canal. We then put a dog on the last blood and the dog was unable to find the deer. The area where the deer had ended up in was planted pines that had been thinned, so I got a tractor and travelled up and down between tree rows over about 40 acres and was unable to locate him. Hate to loose one, it happens now and then but next time I will reload my ML rifle and be ready for a follow up shot, looking thru a scope and loaded with a TC 50 cal,240 gr. XTP bullet and sabot.
I live in the suburbs GoodOyster lol, on property my grandfather bought in 1970. 1 mile east of mcintosh on hwy92. got a few acres and some cows, help my parents tend my grampas business and take care of him and such. Treefarmer, thee only LA i know is lower alabama! whereabouts in la, have freinds and family in the Enterprise area, and were you using hollow point powerbelt, or the aerotips? all i plan on shooting is the hollow point.
30.06, I was using the 295 gr. copper series hollow point Powerbelts with 100 grs. of American Pioneer powder. May have been just on of those things that happened,(human error, a bad bullet, bad shot placement, etc.), but I ain't going to use 'em again. Back to the XTP 240gr.hp bullet. Washington County is located in LA. Been calling this farm home for 38 years. 38 years ago it was unusual to see a deer track on this place and now they are just a click away from being called a pest! Since last Sunday night they have cleaned out a pea patch that was ready for picking. The only consolation is that they will be here when the season finally opens and then we will complete the transaction-the trade of zipper cream peas for venison.
