Have you ever used pistol bullets in a muzzle loader?

It is likely that your rifle has a very slow twist of around 1:66. If so it will not stabilize saboted pistol bullets well. You will need a bullet that is short and fat.

I have never heard of using jacketed pistol bullets. I doubt that it would work well. The copper jacket is too hard to engrave the rifling during loading. Lead balls for muzzleloaders are typically cast from pure, soft lead.

Powerbelt claims that their bullets will stabilize in a 1:66 barrel.

Minie bullets, Maxi-bullets, or Lee REAL bullets will likely work for you.

if you know your load data well, yes you can try some pistol or rifle bullets, .45 caliber.

in fact, isn't 45-70 a BP round? if you buy .45-70 bullets (typ 350-500 grains) they should work.

if you're gonna use reloading bullets, don't forget to lube the bullet beforehand!.

also jacketed bullets might not work as well or give higher pressure in the bore than a lead bullet, you can A- try a light load first or B- buy a slightly smaller caliber (instead of .45 try .44)

normally reloading bullets are sold in boxes of 500. unless you know exactly what you want, perhaps buy those smaller boxes of specialty bullets instead. specialty bullets cost more but at least you wouldn't be wasting much if you picked the wrong bullet.

they would be pretty hard to load since most modern 45 pistol bullets are .451-.452 diameter & traditional 45 muzzle loading rifles usually have a .448-451 bore .designed to shoot .440-445 patched round balls.

if your rifle has a ball twist ( 1 turn in 60 or 66 inches) it should shoot 200 grain Lee R.E.A.L. conical bullets pretty well. at least the one I had shot them about as accurately as rb's but it didn't do as well with the heavier 240 gr real bullets.

the round balls might do A better job than you think on deer. as long as their pure lead (as they should be) they expand & penetrate very well.

I recovered one 440 round ball loaded over 75 gr. of fff that had expanded to around 62 caliber after penetrating both shoulders of a small deer.

it had lost about half its weight & was flattened out like a quarter but it put the deer down just fine.

Muzzleloader Conical Bullets

I hunt deer, pigs, squirrels and rabbits with a .40 cal. patched round ball flintlock rifle of my own making. Slow twist; patched round ball. Fast twist; conical type bullets. Pure lead, the proper patching and good grease, a winning combination. Spend the time and learn the gun, not the bullet. Oh yea, use black powder, not the artifical stuff.

Del Gue

I haven't but my brother has. You'll want to use a sabot if you intend to do this. You can either buy the bullet you want to use and then the sabot that matches that bullet to your muzzle loader caliber or you can simply buy bullets already in a sabot. The second way you'll be stuck using what bullet they come with, but Hornady is a good place to start.

yes a sabot,,i am assume your gun is 45 cal you may be can find powerbelts in 45.just about sure of this if you want try a 44 in a sabot,,,, try backing down on the powder charge,, to many variables here,,,twist rates will affect pattern also ok good luck there

I know they can be used in a modern inline muzzle loader.I use the hornady xtp 250gr. with the M M P sabots in my omaga I don't know if it can be used in a Traditional muzzle loader or not. But my Dad never did. He always used lead round balls.And people have been using lead slugs for deer hunting for a real long time. There is nothing wrong with it.

i don't shoot BP enough to have ever tried it myself....but my uncle used to use copper jacket FMJ .45 ammo in one of his .50 cal BP.....really thick patch.....

was "hunting" accurate......within 6 inches @ 100 yards...even took a few deer this way over the years....

since this was years ago and i was a lot younger i'm not sure how well the bullet stabilized or what it did to the rifling ....

** my uncle has been dead over 10 years now ....so i'm relying on memory only....

A military friend of mine says:

No you can't use pistol bullets (which need a firing hammer) in a muzzle loader.... No, I haven't tried this . and no it wouldn't be remotely successful. Even if you packed bullets in gunpowder to load the impact would cause the bullets to detonate which would cause the gun to explode.