Good starting load for a Remington 700 muzzle loader

DANCESWITHEMPTIES

DANCESWITHEMPTIES

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So I got a Remington 700 muzzle loader headed my way. It's a .50 cal with a 24 inch barrel & 209 primer ignition. Looking for a good starting load. Any suggestions? Might use it for deer hunting this year if I can get out?
 
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If you are not going to use loose powder then start and finish with two 50 gr Pyrodex or similar pellets and some 300+ gr sabot. Try different bullets to see what works best. Round balls might not work with the rifling but reduce the charge and try and see. I assume the rifle is not coming with instructions!
 
billbmcleod said:
If you are not going to use loose powder then start and finish with two 50 gr Pyrodex or similar pellets and some 300+ gr sabot. Try different bullets to see what works best. Round balls might not work with the rifling but reduce the charge and try and see. I assume the rifle is not coming with instructions!
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You got it! The interwebs will give me an instruction manual on what kind of powders it will burn, I imagine anything 3f or substitutes? Looking for the secret recipe for one of these rifles specifically. Or at least a starting point. If these guns work better on pellets & a 300 gr sabot that's what I'm looking for. Got any recommendations on bullet manufactures?
 
I had one of those Remington 700-based muzzle loaders, some time ago. Nice rifle. If memory serves, rifling pitch is 1:24"....so well suited to saboted bullet use. I used both jacketed and cast lead bullets. Jacketed: .44/240gr. and 300 gr. Hornady XTP. Also, .44/265 gr. Hornady JSP. This one became my preferred bullet, for deer hunting. For cast bullets, I used either 240 gr. or 310 gr. swcfp bullets. Both, cast from Lee mold. Also worked well. I used other brands of jacketed bullets too, depending on availability. The rifle showed no real preference for one versus another.

For powder, I mainly used Pyrodex RS. Followed by Goex Ffg. Occasionally also Hornady pellets....but preferred loose powder overall, as it gave me more latitude in powder charge adjustment. You can use 3-F (or equiv.), if you prefer. I didn't find any real performance advantage to the faster powder, so stuck to either RS or Ffg.

A good starting powder charge for any of the bullets mentioned, is 90 gr. (by volume), of either Pyrodex RS, or Goex Ffg. Or one of the equivalents: Swiss, etc. This is also a good all-around deer hunting load, particularly with 240 grain bullets. Upping the powder charge to 100 grains, worked well with all bullet weights. Also showed good accuracy and performance on deer-sized game, out to 200 metres.

I don't recall offhand what the maximum charge was for these rifles. You may need to contact Remington for that information. But anything around 90-100 grains should work very well for you, at least to start.

Al
 
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Can not really assist regarding a Rem 700 ML, but from my fighting with a Thompson Center Omega, can get into a fuss regarding thickness of the plastic sabots. Turns out T/C has reputation for a "tight" 50 cal bore, and after about 3 shots, needed another one to shoot the damn fourth sabot down the barrel - got very, very tight until that bore was thoroughly scrubbed out again. I do not know what you will find with that Remington. Turns out there is no actual "standard" size for 50 cal muzzle loader among North American makers - as if each maker of stuff picks a number. Found out that Lawry Shooting Sports sold about thinnest sabots that were made - brand was "CrushRib" - sure made a difference on my T/C. I also bought 260 grain CrushRib bullets to go with it. Worked just fine, until I sold the thing.
 
As far as something to start with - 2 x 50 grain pellets of Triple Seven - sabots and 240 to 300 grain bullets of choice. Shoot several dozen at 100 yard targets - then take a deer or two. Then play with changes - a friend who takes his deer every fall in basically tee-shirt and jeans, sitting in a lawn chair, uses 1 x 50 plus 1 x 30 pellet under a saboted 240 grain Hornady XTP bullet.
 
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DANCESWITHEMPTIES: Potashminer makes some good points about fouling buildup in muzzle loaders. One of the best...at least in my opinion...and likely cheapest methods I ever found for scrubbing the bore clean while in the field, is ordinary isopropyl alcohol(rubbing alcohol). Cheap and easy to source at your local pharmacy.
I carry a small squirt bottle,plus cleaning patches, with me all the time while out shooting. Simply squirt a little alcohol onto a patch and run it down bore . Followed by one or two dry patches... and the fouling disappears. Been using alcohol as a bore cleaner for at least 40 years, now. It works. By the way, flannel makes very good cleaning patches. Old flannel shirts, nighties, etc., work just fine.
Hope this helps. Al

ps: I use alcohol for quick field clean-ups, only. Once home, my guns' bores get a thorough cleaning using hot soapy water. Then rinsed clean, dried and oiled until next use. Before shooting, I always run an alcohol patch or two downbore, to clean out any residual oil in the bore. A couple of dry patches to soak up any residual alcohol/oil, and then the rifle is ready to load.
 
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you could also try the Thompson centre maxi all lead conical with bore butter, very easy to load and like the others said clean with alcohol between shots if you wish.
You might be surprised with the conical.
 
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