lightest load possible:

[pointing_dogs_rule]

Hey guys and gals:

I have hunted with a muzzleloader for years - 90 grains and 250 bullet.

Question: I am taking a "small" 12 year old hunting for the Iowa youth season and I may want to try a muzzleloader with him. It will be a 50 caliber. What is the lightest powder load that you experienced people think will be effective. I can not see him shooting over 75 yards with open sights and this being his first hunt.

thank guys and gals

good luck to all

the dog

[wtnhunt]

The load you are using depending on the gun may produce very little felt recoil. My oldest daughter was shooting my black diamond at age 8 with a 80 grain load of pyrodex and a 240 grain sabot during practice sessions. She was kind of small for her age at that time. Would think at the yardage you intend to keep within dropping down to 80 grains would be fine, but probably best to shoot the gun with that charge to see how it performs.

[fly]

My daughter (turned 8 in June) has been practicing with my Remington Genesis 50 cal since last April. I set her up with 70 grains of powder and 250 grain shockwaves. She practices at 30-50 yards on a tri-pod and a Leupold Ultimate slam scope. Last night we practiced at 40 yards and all three shots were within a paper plate and one was dead center. I charged it up to 100 grains and at 50 yards the scope did not need to be adjusted when a friend of mine shot.

When my daughter and I go out hunting in a few weeks I'm going to up the charge to 80 grains (she will not know this) just in case a deer will not come within 50 yards. I'd let her take the shot out to 60 maybe 70 yards.

[pointing_dogs_rule]

Thanks guys. I took him out today (remington - Genesis) and we shot 75 grains with a 250 and he handled it quite very well. We shot from 40 yards and he stated it had very little recoil.

Will practice once more Sunday with 80-85 grains just incasr we have that 75 yard shot.

Thanks once more for the input

good luck to all

the dog

[dbHunterNY]

Check out last seasons videos for midwestwhitetail.com if you can. I remember Bill Winke's son shooting 50 grains of powder with a range of 50 yards, but I can't remember the weight of the projectile.

[dbHunterNY]

Check out last seasons videos for midwestwhitetail.com if you can. I remember Bill Winke's son shooting 50 grains of powder with a range of 50 yards, but I can't remember the weight of the projectile.

...I just checked it out, because I had time. Bill Winke talks about it at the end of episode 7 of the 2008 videos. They're using a single 50gr pellet of 777 powder, a 250gr shockwave sabot, and their range is 75 yards or so. He pulled the mushroomed bullet right from the deer and it looked good. He also mentioned how they had a Nikon Omega scope with BDC reticle on it, which has a 5" eye relief. This would help with the length of pull being too much and keep their face away, thus preventing them from getting wacked with the scope.

Hope that helps,

Dan

[pointing_dogs_rule]

Thanks Dan. That info helps.

Good luck to all

the dog

[Tony Smotherman]

My 10 year old son shot his first buck last season and he was using a .50 caliber with 60 grains of loose Triple 7 FFg and a 250 grain Barnes Red Hot bullet and was really comfortable with the felt recoil.

The accuracy was really good out to 75 yards. This was all we practiced as the food plot he was hunting in was only 60 yards wide. He ended up shooting his buck at that distance with a full pass thru.

This is the great thing about the muzzleloading sport. The loads can be tweaked for them when they are younger and the loads can grow with them!

Tony Smotherman