frontier gander

I finally found a few 360 grain minnies that ive been shooting for the past 2 days and im not happy with what i found. I think it will be another hunting trip with the 385 great plains this year. I dont like the aftermath of the minnie bullets.

cayugad

I never had a lot of luck with minnies and accuracy. Although with the large chunk of lead you're throwing, the should make a good deer projectile if accurate enough. Although after seeing how well your rifle shoots the Great Plains, it would not be a tuff decision for me. I'd be loaded with the Great Plains.

Semisane

I'm with you gander. Those slivers of lead don't impress me at all.

EveryGreat Plains I've shot at deer went all the way through and left a bleeding exit wound that made the 20-yard trackingjob pretty easy.

Those that I've recovered from the mud behind my targets were always near original weight.

frontier gander

I'll more than likely use the great plains again this year. I'd love to try more of the 385 BS conicals but im running low on time. I'd like to have this rifle along with us because my father is going after an elk and he may need a little more grunt. Im setting up my 100 yard target now. Got it sighted in perfect @ 50 yards, so now its time to move back. Think i will also make some sand bags. My rest just isnt cutting it.

Found a couple more minnies a few minutes ago and again, just exploded. Then again they are hitting a big rock . I'll take a pic of the rock and what the great plains and minnies have been doing to the thing.

frontier gander

100 yards, first 2 shots missed the target so i pulled into 75 and found that i was shooting 8" to the left. Adjusted and hit a couple inchs in, so i adjusted again and got it closer so i took 2 shots just to make sure and they were both in the same hole. Thats a good sign so far. I made a final adjustment and got it perfectly center on my last shot and about 2" high @ 75. That should hopefully leave me an inch to an inch and a half high @ 100. Im done for the day. 5 hours of shooting was more than enough for this youngster. Tomorrow i should be finished sighting it in. I think i may give these a try this season if they group good @ 100. They've proven to be good @ 75, so im keeping my fingers crossed that they do good @ 100 in the AM.

frontier gander

4 shots today @ 100. Dead center but about 1 1/2" high. 4 shots grouped 1 1/2" so they dont shoot bad @ 100. Im just done fighting them down the barrel , so i'll be resighting with the great plains. Still have 11 of the minnies left over, so maybe i'll give them a try in my fathers hawken and see how that goes.

whitetaildreamer

I shoot minnies out of my inline traditions and as long as I keep the powder down between 85-90 grains they group great at 100 yards. I did try them at 100 grains and I must admit they started to drift. They are 360 gr. out of a Lee mold. I've been using them for about 20 years, first in my sidelock and now as I said in an inline. Most of my ML hunting is in thick bush so I rarely have shots over 60-70 yards so keeping the powder charge down is not an issue. I couldn't count how many deer I have taken with the combination of the minnie and the sidelock (Deerhunter carbine) so I think they should work real well in the Hawkins (keep the charge down, just a suggestion based on the experience with my sidelock, 85 gr. pyrodex)

eldeguello

Minie balls will not shoot well with heavy powder charges unless they are made with very thick skirts. With a thin skirt, the heavy powder charge expands the skirt to way over bore diameter as soon as it leaves the muzzle, and accuracy as well as ballistics are ruined. That's why the Army service charge with the 535-grain Minie during the Civil War was 60 grains - MV around 900 FPS. They still smashed the hell out of any living thing they hit -people and horses equally! To work well with heavier charges, the skirt has to be about as thick as those on the hollow-based version of the Buffalo Bullets.

frontier gander

Great, now you got me into the shooting mood and here i sit loading up speed loaders Thanks a lot!

frontier gander

[&:] 60 grains was bad. 3" group with 3 shots and the 4th shot was 8" low. I'll use 80 grains and keep the tighter groups. But i must say, recoil with 60grains was like shooting a 22!