I heard they will shoot 400 yards with a good scope?
They'll "shoot" further than that, just like a .22lr will shoot a mile.
Accuracy and enough retained energy is a different matter. Bullet drift in the wind is more of a concern than bullet drop.
I played around with my .50 cal Savage and got accuracy at 100 yds that was 3/8" x 5/8" for 3 shots. But, typical accuracy is about what CJ is seeing.
I made a bad shot on a doe, and she bedded down at 168 yds, with her body behind a large Oak tree. She'd peek around the tree once in a while at where the shot came from (I was in a tree stand, and the woods were VERY crunchy dry. If I got down, she'd have run off for sure, as I had pulled the first shot and broke her leg.) I reloaded, rested the gun on the treestand "arm" and put the bullet in the white patch on her neck when she peeked around the tree again. Laser rangefinder to get the distance.
With the .50 cal, I've taken deer over 200 yds away.
I ordered a .45 cal barrel from Pac-Nor for my other Savage. It's most accurate with 70.0 grains of H-4198 behind a Harvestor blue sabot holding a 195g Barnes .40 cal flat based bullet. 2" high at 100 yds, dead on at 200, 6" low at 300. I know guys who are using the same combo on deer depredation hunts that shoot deer out to 400 yds with it.
Muzzleloader bullets are like bricks flying thru the air - they quickly lose energy and velocity due to low bc numbers.
I chronographed my .50 at 2300 fps with a .45 cal 250g Hornady SST. I was told to expect the chrono to show somewhere between 2700 and 2900 fps on the .45 cal with the Barnes 195g bullet H-4198 combo.
Just to give you an idea how much wind will deflect a bullet, take the .45 cal 250g Hornady SST. MV 2300 fps. 10 mph full value wind (90° from the shooter), sighted in at 100 yds. Bullet drop at 300 yds is 32.6", it only has 837 ft. lbs of energy, fps is 1228, and bullet drift is 27.0". Bullet drop is easy to calculate and tape a drop chart on the stock. Wind drift is a different matter altogether......
I shoot it before season starts to make sure it's hitting where it's supposed to, and I don't clean it again until season is done, which is usually around 50 days later.
